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Embarking on a living ethics approach may involve different forms of methodological commitments. The commitments that are compatible with living ethics are the subject of ongoing discussion and continued exploration. At present, the following six methodological commitments have been identified as essential to a living ethics exercise (Racine et al., under review):
Experientially grounded and embodying
Living ethics starts from the moral experiences of individuals – how they themselves interpret these events, the meaning they attribute to them, and their emotions.
Fostering flourishing
Living ethics aims to help individuals and groups achieve human flourishing, which includes what gives value to human existence and experiences. Human flourishing comprises both physical and mental dimensions and can be interpreted in a plurality of ways.
Supporting practices of co-learning
To discover what matters for human flourishing, individuals and groups must be capable of creating relationships in which discovering what is to be valued is a process of collective learning (and not a process of teaching).
Promoting dialogue and epistemic justice
Collective learning requires an attitude and an environment that is conducive to fair, open, and respectful dialogue. These dialogues require time and spaces and can take many forms.
Empowering and action-orientating
Living ethics seeks to give individuals and groups the means to reflect on and discuss ethics, and to take control of their lives. Through its actions, it strives to bring about concrete and positive changes.
Co-imagining futures
Ethics should bring people together in an inclusive and participatory exercise to co-imagine the lives, systems, teams, and institutions which are believed to have the greatest potential to foster human flourishing.