The Price of Precaution and the Ethics of Risk

1 Introduction.-
1.1 Background.-
1.1.1 Diversity and Unclarity.-
1.1.2 The Price of Precaution.-
1.1.3 Precaution, Risk Analysis and Models of Rationality.-
1.1.4 The Ideal of the Desirability of Precaution.-
1.2 Aim,Plan and Basis.-
1.2.1 Plan of the Book.-
1.2.2 The Requirement of Precaution.-
1.2.3 Degrees of Precaution.-
References.-
2 Dimensions of Precaution.-
2.1 Values, Levels and Time-Horizons.-
2.1.1 Values.-
2.1.2 Levels and Time-Horizons.-
2.2 May Bring Great Harm.-
2.2.1 De MinimisRisk and the Need for a Limit.-
2.2.2 The Argument from Decision Costs.-
2.3 Show.-
2.3.1 Proof-Standards.-
2.3.2 Decisional Paralysis.-
2.3.3 The Holistic Nature of Precaution.-
2.3.4 Conservatism and Arbitrariness.-
2.4 Risk.-
2.4.1 Likelihoods, Values or Combinations?.-
2.4.2 Quantities, Qualities and Levels of Precision.-
2.4.3 Objective or Subjective?.-
2.5 Too Serious.-
2.6 SummingUp.-
References.-
Contents.-
3 Precaution and Rationality.-
3.1 Rational Action - the Standard View.-
3.1.1 Efficiency, Value Neutrality and Calculated
Risk Taking.-
3.1.2 Enlightment Critique and the Charge of
Instrumental Rationality.-
3.2 Rational Precaution.-
3.2.1 Ignorance, Precaution and the Maximin Rule.-
3.2.2 Limitations of Plausibility, Applicability and Status.-
3.3 From Rationality to Morality.-
3.3.1 Rawls' Appeal to Responsibility.-
3.3.2 Moral Opinions About Risk Impositions.-
3.3.3 Moral Dilemmas of Precaution.-
References.-
4 Ethics and Risks.-
4.1 Traditional Criteria of Rightness.-
4.1.1 TheDiversity ofNormativeEthic.-
4.1.2 Factualism and the Silence on Risks.-
4.1.3 Autonomy and Justice.-
4.1.4 The Two Level Approach.-
4.2 The Virtue of Precaution.-
4.3 AbandoningFactualism.-
4.3.1 The Forbidden Risks Approach.-
4.3.2 Trading Off Risks and Harms 1: Apples and Oranges.-
4.3.3 Trading Off Risks and Harms 2: Improving
Practical Guidance.-
4.3.4 Trading Off Risks and Harms 3: The Knowability Argument.-
4.3.5 Trading Off Risks and Harms 4: Back to Square One
References.-
5 The Morality of Imposing Risks.-
5.1 Basic Structure.-
5.2 The Problem of Guidance.-
5.3 Basic Intuitions About Responsibility.-
5.3.1 Absolutes or Degrees?.-
5.3.2 What About Intentions?.-
5.3.3 Assessing and Comparing Degrees of Responsibility.-
5.3.4 Avoiding Indeterminacy - Possibility and Desirability.-
5.4 Areas of Precaution.-
5.4.1 Beyond Risk Neutrality.-
5.4.2 The Quality of Available Evidence.-
5.5 The Weight of Evil.-
5.5.1 Conceptual Preliminaries.-
5.5.2 Five Approaches.-
5.5.3 The Case Against Rigidity.-
5.5.4 Rigidity of Aggregation and the Notion of Rights.-
5.5.5 Simple Progressiveness.-
5.5.6 The Case for Relative Progressiveness.-
5.6 Problems with Relative Progressiveness.-
5.6.1 What Implications for other Normative Issues?.-
5.6.2 The Lack of Numerical Exactness.-
5.6.3 What Size of the Weight?.-
5.6.4 Pure or Mixed Relative Progressiveness?.-
5.6.5 What Makes for an Acceptable Mix of Risks
and Chances?.-
5.7 SummingUp.-
References.-
6 Practical Applications.-
6.1 General Cases.-
6.1.1 Consumerism.-
6.1.2 Why Individual Motivation Should Not Be the Target.-
6.1.3 Precaution as a Collective Good and the Need
for a Politics of Power.-
6.2 Hard Cases.-
6.2.1 Climate Change and Pollution.-
6.2.2 Nuclear Power and Energy Production.-
6.2.3 Biotechnology.-
6.3 Policy.-
6.3.1 Do We Really Need a PP?.-
6.3.2 Principlism vs. Proceduralism.-
6.3.3 De Minimis Revisited.- 6.3.4Justifying the Proof Requirement of Justifiable
Policy Claim.-
6.3.5 Justifying the Burden of Proof Requirement.-
6.3.6 Conservatism Revisited.-
6.4 Big Questions.-
6.4.1 The Enlightment Ideals Revisited.-
6.4.2 The Remaining Challenge of Values.-
6.4.3 The Case for Cosmopolitan Precaution.-
6.4.4 Unrealistic and Dangerous?.-
6.4.5 A Challenge for Liberal Democracy?.-
References.