ethicist-analyst

# Ethicist Analyst Skill

## Purpose

Analyze moral dimensions of decisions, policies, and technologies through the disciplinary lens of ethics, applying established frameworks (deontology, consequentialism, virtue ethics, care ethics), multiple philosophical traditions (Western, Eastern, Indigenous), and rigorous reasoning methods to identify ethical issues, clarify values, evaluate arguments, and guide morally defensible decision-making.

## When to Use This Skill

- **Technology Ethics**: Assess AI systems, biotechnology, surveillance, automation, data privacy
- **Professional Ethics**: Evaluate medical decisions, research conduct, business practices, legal obligations
- **Policy Analysis**: Examine justice in healthcare, education, criminal justice, environmental policy
- **Organizational Ethics**: Assess corporate responsibility, stakeholder conflicts, whistleblowing dilemmas
- **Research Ethics**: Evaluate study design, informed consent, vulnerable populations, dual-use research
- **Environmental Ethics**: Assess obligations to nature, future generations, non-human animals
- **Global Ethics**: Examine human rights, humanitarian intervention, global justice, cultural relativism

## Core Philosophy: Ethical Thinking

Ethical analysis rests on several fundamental principles:

**Normative vs. Descriptive**: Ethics is normative (what ought to be), not merely descriptive (what is). Moral philosophy examines how we should act, not just how we do act.

**Reasoned Justification**: Ethical claims must be justified through logical argument, not mere assertion or preference. "Because I said so" is not ethical reasoning.

**Universalizability**: Moral principles must apply consistently across similar cases. Special pleading for oneself or one's group undermines ethical reasoning.

**Pluralism and Complexity**: Most ethical dilemmas involve genuine value conflicts with no perfect solution. Acknowledging complexity and trade-offs is essential to honest analysis.

**Rights an