Applied Ethics Anecdotes lies at the core of Ethical Adjudication methods. "Moral philosophers have traditionally aspired to normative theories of what is right or wrong that are stated in the most general terms. But a practical price is paid for generality in ethical theory: it is often unclear whether and if theories are to be applied in specific cases and contexts. Philosophers interested in applying their training to such problems share with persons from numerous other fields a conviction that decision making in these areas is fundamentally moral and of the highest social importance. [These] philosophers' work in applied ethics involve actual applications." This means taking real or hypothetical cases and analyzing them to decide which course of action is the moral highroad based on formal theories of morality. This method is called Ethical Adjudication. In this we illustrate Ethical Adjudication through examples called Episodes.
About the Author: Ömer Akın, Ph.D., has been a registered, practicing architect in the state of Pennsylvania, USA, since 1968; and has been teaching at the School of Architecture at Carnegie Mellon University since 1977. He has offered a required course on Ethical Decision Making in Architecture for over three decades. He has authored six technical/textbooks and encyclopedia entries that Amazon still offers: Representation and Architecture; Psychology of Architectural Design; A Cartesian Approach to Design Rationality; several entries in the Encyclopedia of Creativity, Invention, Innovation and Entrepreneurship; Generative CAD; and Embedded Commissioning of Building Systems. The Psychology of Architectural Design has been a seminal title in the area of "design thinking" for over three decades. A former colleague, Bharat Dave, wrote about the Cartesian Approach to Design Rationality "Anyone who thinks architectural design is a subjective and irrational activity undertaken by creative and self-absorbed architects in moody offices in sublime isolation should take note... This book brings together support from fields as diverse as sciences, philosophy, cognitive psychology, design computation, and others to argue that architectural design is (and ought to be) an objective and rational process... As acknowledged by Akin, architectural history is replete with arguments for and against architecture as art or science, or both." The sellers of Embedded Commissioning of Building Systems write "[This book] provides an understanding of the underpinnings of embedded commissioning as the overarching building evaluation approach. [It] includes details on research findings in the areas of sensor networks, value based design, fields tools and AR/AV methods, just-in-time technologies, and wearable computers." Ömer Akın's literary interests run long and deep coming to fruition only recently through blogs (Coffee-Kahve Chronicles, 2013), and books. Hermit Crab (2016), a full length novel; Musings of a Male Menopausal Mutt (2017), a collection of poetry; and Discovered in Retrospect (2018), a collection of startling recollections; all available at Amazon Books. The sources of his work are both real and fictitious inspired by masters of Western and Eastern Philosophy: "When virtue is lost, benevolence appears; when benevolence is lost right conduct appears, when right conduct is lost, expedience appears. Expediency is the mere shadow of right and truth; it is the beginning of disorder."