Imperfection, practice and humility in clinical ethics

Summary In this essay, I provide a description of the discipline of ethics using the philosophies of Aristotle and the American pragmatist John Dewey. Specifically, I argue that ethics is an active undertaking that is ambiguous and pluralistic. I then normatively prescribe the way in which clinical ethicists ought to approach their work in medicine. Rather than endeavouring to become, or behaving as if they are, experts, clinical ethicists must be humble. They must practise ethics. That is, they must admit ethics is the study and pursuit of the good life but that this study and pursuit occurs imperfectly in the face of problematic situations.