Arne Johan Vetlesen

I del I diskuterer forfatterne yrkesetikkens rammebetingelser. Velferdsstaten er i endring, og en god profesjonsetikk er viktigere enn noensinne. Sentrale temaer i del II er grunnvilkårene for det å være menneske; sårbarhet, avhengighet, skjørhet og dødelighet. Ulike etiske retninger som bl.a. pliktetikk, diskursetikk, nytteetikk, dydsetikk og nærhetsetikk gjennomgås grundig i den tredje delen. Til slutt presenteres KLOK-modellen som kan være til hjelp når man står i etiske dilemmaer og skal vurdere hva som er god og riktig handling. Nærhet og distanse dekker etikkpensum ved helse- og sosialfagutdanningene og er også skrevet for lærer- og førskolelærerutdanningen.

Evil is a poorly understood phenomenon. In this provocative 2005 book, Professor Vetlesen argues that to do evil is to intentionally inflict pain on another human being, against his or her will, and causing serious and foreseeable harm. Vetlesen investigates why and in what sort of circumstances such a desire arises, and how it is channeled, or exploited, into collective evildoing. He argues that such evildoing, pitting whole groups against each other, springs from a combination of character, situation, and social structure. By combining a philosophical approach inspired by Hannah Arendt, a psychological approach inspired by C. Fred Alford and a sociological approach inspired by Zygmunt Bauman, and bringing these to bear on the Holocaust and ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia, Vetlesen shows how closely perpetrators, victims, and bystanders interact, and how aspects of human agency are recognized, denied, and projected by different agents.

Evil is a poorly understood phenomenon. In this provocative 2005 book, Professor Vetlesen argues that to do evil is to intentionally inflict pain on another human being, against his or her will, and causing serious and foreseeable harm. Vetlesen investigates why and in what sort of circumstances such a desire arises, and how it is channeled, or exploited, into collective evildoing. He argues that such evildoing, pitting whole groups against each other, springs from a combination of character, situation, and social structure. By combining a philosophical approach inspired by Hannah Arendt, a psychological approach inspired by C. Fred Alford and a sociological approach inspired by Zygmunt Bauman, and bringing these to bear on the Holocaust and ethnic cleansing in the former Yugoslavia, Vetlesen shows how closely perpetrators, victims, and bystanders interact, and how aspects of human agency are recognized, denied, and projected by different agents.

In Perception, Empathy, and Judgment Arne Johan Vetlesen focuses on the indispensable role of emotion, especially the faculty of empathy, in morality. He contends that moral conduct is severely threatened once empathy is prevented from taking part in an interplay with cognitive faculties (such as abstraction or imagination) in acts of moral perception and judgment. Drawing on developmental psychology, especially British "object relations" theory, to illuminate the nature and functioning of empathy, Vetlesen shows how moral performance is constituted by a sequence involving perception, judgment, and action, with an interplay between the agent's emotional (empathic) and cognitive faculties occurring at each stage. In the powerful tradition from Kant to present-day theorists such as Kohlberg, Rawls, and Habermas, reason is privileged over feeling and judgment over perception, in such a way that basic philosophical questions remain unasked. Vetlesen focuses our attention on these questions and challenges the long-standing assertion that emotions are damaging to moral response. In the final chapter he relates his argument to recent feminist critiques that have also castigated moral theorists in the Kantian tradition for their refusal to recognize a role for emotion in morality. While the book's argument is philosophical, its method and scope are interdisciplinary. In addition to critiques of such philosophers as Arendt, MacIntyre, and Habermas, it contains discussions of specific historical, ideological, and sociological factors that may cause "numbing"—selective or broad-ranging, pathological insensitivity—in humans. The Nazis' mass killing of Jews is studied to illuminate these and other relevant empirical aspects of large-scale immoral action.

Å høre lyden av en ugle, møte blikket til en hegre, oppleve gleden ved å komme tilbake til en skog som alltid har vært der - slike erfaringer blir stadig sjeldnere for oss. Naturen er sårbar og truet, men har det også skjedd noe med oss mennesker og vår måte å forholde oss til naturen på? Er vi i ferd med å miste naturen ikke bare i konkret forstand, men også som noe betydningsfullt i vårt eget indre? Da ugla forsvant er en personlig og filosofisk bok der Arne Johan Vetlesen utforsker det moderne menneskets forhold til naturen. Forfatteren skriver klokt og engasjerende om møter med dyr og mennesker, vandringer i natur og med perspektiver fra filosofi, film og litteratur. I vår tid, antropocen, betraktes naturen først og fremst som noe underlagt oss, ressurser vi kan utnytte, ifølge Vetlesen. Dermed har vi mistet fortroligheten med naturen, den er blitt fremmed og avfortryllet for oss. Dette i kontrast til barnets, urfolks og tidligere tiders naturopplevelse. Boken er en samtidsdiagnose og en innsiktsfull analyse av endringsblindhet og økosorg. Samtidig gir den et håp; forfatteren gir leseren et språk for rike naturerfaringer som kan vise vei til et nytt og forsterket bånd til naturen.