Author Archives: Johnathan Flowers

Johnathan Flowers is an assistant professor in the department of philosophy at California State University, Northridge. Flowers specializes in East-Asian Philosophy, American Pragmatism, and the intersection of race, gender, sexuality, and disability.
a red muppet with raised arms surrounded by flames

Bioethics Must First Burn

Bioethics must burn before it can be reimagined to enable the flourishing of all humans, and not just the ones that align with or are presupposed by its ideological orientations. By “burning” bioethics, I mean the intentional disruption or damage of citation processes, including who and what is cited within the field– what Sara Ahmed calls the “bricks” (2017, 16) that form the philosophical edifice of the field of bioethics. While the idea of “burning” bioethics may seem to be hyperbolic, the metaphor is apt given the tendency of the field to label any attempt at advocacy on behalf of marginalized persons, including disabled persons, as advocacy and “not bioethics” (for it challenges the idea of what bioethics should be or do). (read more...)