Human Dignity and the Fragility of Contemporary Ethics

This review article provides a critical dialogue with Herman De Dijn's Drie vormen van weten: Over ethiek, wetenschap en moraalfilosofie (Kalmthout: Polis 2017) (Three Forms of Knowing: On Ethics, Science, and Moral Philosophy). It highlights the timely character of De Dijn's critique of the so-called revisionism in contemporary bio-ethics and welcomes his revaluation of a robust common sense ethics, based on a genealogical-hermeneutical understanding of the human condition. At the same time, this article poses some critical questions on De Dijn's presentation of contemporary bioethics and the role he gives to a more fundamental way of 'doing moral philosophy'.