Involving Others: Towards an Ethical Concept of Risk
![handle is hein.journals/risk9 and id is 129 raw text is: Involving Others:
Towards an Ethical Concept of Risk*
Christoph Rehmann-Sutter**
Introduction
Which concepts do we have in mind when we are describing the
dangerous side of technology or ecological perils? I want to reflect on
those concepts we have in mind when we use the word risk. These
concepts can be used to describe practical situations involving
technology and are crucial for their moral assessment. The finding that
I present is that there are at least two basic concepts of risk, rather than
one. This paper is an essay combining risk assessment procedures with
the perspective of an ethic of care.
Risk assessment is currently dominated by a basic risk paradigm
adapted from economics, which I call the economic concept of risk.
That concept has dominated the academic discussion of risk assessment
since the work of Chauncey Starr in the sixties.1 I call the alternative
basic concept of risk the juridical concept, from its origin in the
judicial theories of responsibility and liability. Though it has been left
out of the academic discussion of risk assessment, it would be helpful
for an ethical approach: It might connect the ethical discussion with the
experiences of persons who find themselves (or others they are related
to) affected by technico-ecological risk. There is considerable
discrepancy between their perception of risk, which often is an
* A shorter version of this paper was read at the Biennial International Meeting of
the Risk Assessment & Policy Association (RAPA) March 6-7, 1997 in Alexandria,
VA. My work was supported by a grant from the Stiftung Mensch-Gesellschaft-
Umwelt (MGU) at the University of Basel. I thank anonymous referees and my
colleagues Andres Klein, Hansj6rg Seiler and Adrian Vatter for fruitful discussions
and Jackie Leach Scully for improving the clarity of the text.
Dr. Rehmann-Sutter is lecturer of Philosophy of Nature and Bioethics on the
Faculty of Natural Sciences of the University of Basel, Switzerland. He received his
Diploma (Molecular Biology) from the University of Basel, Biocenter, M.S. degrees
(Philosophy and Sociology) from the Universities of Basel and Freiburg i. Brsg., and
his Ph.D. from Technische Hochschule Darmstadt.
1 See e.g., Chauncey Starr, Social Benefits Versus Technological Risk, 156
Science 1237 (1969).
9 Risk: Health, Safety & Environment 119 [Spring 1998]](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/risk9&div=16&collection=journals&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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Involving Others: Towards an Ethical Concept of Risk
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