Ethicists and Activists

In some sense, argues Christopher Meyers in the lead article in this, the July-August 2021, issue of the Hastings Center Report, to be a good ethicist is to be an activist. The question for the ethicist, and for Meyers, is about how hard and far to push: how much personal risk to shoulder, how much to tick off colleagues, how much institutional disruption to create, how much to look like an angry protester. Meyers argues for aiming at the middle, in two senses. In a time of anger and activism about relentless, pervasive, overwhelming wrongs, the question of balance is increasingly front of mind. A set of commentaries we solicited both welcome Meyers's call for activism and push for more.