A Sociological Analysis of Ethical Expertise

This article outlines a theoretical and conceptual account for theanalysis of contemporary ethical or “bioethical” expertise. The substantive focus is onthe academic discipline of bioethics—understood as a “practical” or “applied” ethics—andits relationship to medicine and medical ethics. I draw intellectual inspiration fromthe sociology of science and make use of research into the idea of “expertise” per se.In so doing, I am attempting to move the debate beyond the limitations placed upon it byphilosophical or meta-ethical analysis and develop a perspective than can be used toaddress the sociological reality of (bio)ethical expertise. To do so, I offer the termsethos and eidos to provide a basic conceptual framework for the sociological analysis of“morality” and “ethics.” I then turn to an exegesis of Collins and Evans’s account ofubiquitous, contributory, and interactional expertise and situate these topics inrelation to academic bioethics and medical practice. My account suggests a particularunderstanding of the kinds of relationships that “bioethics” should seek to foster withthe social fields it endeavors to not only comment on but also influence