ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to give an account of the hermeneutical and deliberative nature of applied ethics, in order first of all to help clarify the current notion of 'applied ethics' and then provide a basic philosophical framework – that of a critical hermeneutics – for public exercise of reason through the diverse applied ethics, availing ourselves of the contributions of new casuistic procedures and the novel proposals for developing deliberation in modern social life. Gutmann and Thompson's model of deliberative democracy, whose basic idea is need to justify policies to all those who are bound by them, is ultimately sustained on a principle of reciprocity and appeals to certain public principles. The principle of reciprocity constitutes a guide for living with basic moral disagreements, but without ceasing to practice mutual respect and even develop certain complementary accommodation principles. The paradigmatic case of 'deliberative disagreement' which tends to be referred to is that of legalizing abortion.
