Abstract (english) | Introduction: This doctoral thesis report on original research employed to organize knowledge and provide documentational support in the field of bioethics. More particularly, this doctoral thesis confronts the problem of perspectival ambiguity in bioethics by considering the notion of perspectives as points of access to diverse outlooks on particular phenomena. Knowledge organization as a discipline of library and information sciences has a long research and professional tradition. In the last 25 years a growing number of authors researching interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary knowledge organization are restating and emphasising the problem of the disciplinary foundations of traditional knowledge organisation systems. These foundations is apparent in the very structures of the most accomplished systems like the Universal Decimal Classification. The critique is focused on the monodimensionality and monoperspectivity of traditional systems, and is characterized by a distinct evocation of the concept of perspectives and advocacy for the development of multi-perspective knowledge organization. According to those authors traditional systems can't respond to the needs of interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary researchers. This doctoral thesis deals with viewpoint warrant in interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary knowledge organization in the context of a specific inter- and transdiscipline of integrative bioethics. Theoretical background: The orientation towards perspectival ambiguity in bioethics stemms both from the workplace context of the candidate and the existing developments that aimed to address similar problems in the past. Hence, the thesis is being based specifically in the conceptualization of integrative bioethics (IB) which approaches bioethical topics with intent to integratively preserve the pluralism of perspectives that contribute to a full characterization of different bioethical phenomena i.e. pluriperspectivistically. The task to define a useful way to organize knowledge for such a complex field is supported by the conceptualizations of an interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary knowledge organization (KO) as it was discussed by different authors in the field of KO (Hjørland & Albrechtsen, 1995; Broughton, 2002; Gnoli, 2012; García Gutiérrez, 2014; Albrechtsen, 2015; Lopez-Huertas, 2015; Szostak, Gnoli & Lopez-Huertas, 2016). Finally, the thesis considers the recurring evocation of the concept of perspectives in IB and KO (Gnoli, 2012; García Gutiérrez, 2014; Lopez-Huertas, 2015; Szostak, Gnoli & Lopez-Huertas, 2016) and the viewpoint warrant in KO (Beghtol, 2002a) as the third theoretical foundation. These foundations of the thesis all stem from the critique of the domination of disciplinary perspectives and the idea that we have to address scientific monoperspectivism by representation of how complex our understanding of what we experience can be, which warrants the ability to look at knowledge from a number of different perspectives. However, Szostak, Gnoli & Lopez-Huertas (2016) stipulated that in order to achieve this one first has to determine how much perspectival ambiguity there is in different studied knowledge domains. The outcomes of the thesis are a contribution to understanding this kind of ambiguity with regard to bioethical phenomena and the complex network of perspectives that contribute to their definition. Dissertation methodology: The proposed methodology of the accepted thesis proposal is situated in the methodological paradigm of domain analysis as develped by Hjørland and Albrecthsen (1995) and consists of: • a conceptual analysis of the concept of viewpoint warrant in order to elaborate its definition in the context of transdisciplinary KO, and in order to map the role of relevant concepts in its definition like: transdisciplinary knowledge, perspectives, knowledge integration, pluriperspectivism etc.; • a bibliometrical and content analysis of literature in the field of IB to create a prototype system of relationships between studied bioethical phenomena, explored perspectives and characteristics of documents they are affiliated with. Discussion & Conclusions: The thesis shows why ethical issues have potential to be used as a starting point for investigative methodologies that aim to map the perspectival ambiguity surrounding particular (bioethical) phenomena. It is the nature of what is usually named an ethical issue to be problematic and because of this to be subject to diverse reasoning on how to define, interpret and resolve those issues. In his paper from 2011, Claudio Gnoli, referring to Beghtol, claims that the demand hidden in the viewpoint warrant, constitutes an ethical principle because no single perspective should be given priority over alternative perspectives. The notion of integrative bioethics which aims to integratively preserve the pluralism of perspectives that contribute to a full characterization of different bioethical phenomena (i.e. pluriperspectivistically) treats perspectives in the same way. Here goals of IB match those of transdisciplinary KO, since the dialogic interaction of perspectives on ethical issues can only be achieved if we have knowledge about and appreciation of the ambiguity which surrounds them. The undertaken bibliometrical research has constituted the domain of integrative bioethics as an example of a interdisciplinarly and trandisciplinarily oriented field which formulates a specific request for pluriperspectivistic knowledge organization. Content analysis of articles in the field of integrative bioethics was used to respond to that request and a basis for establishing a knowledge organization system was created in terms of mapping out the relationships between studied bioethical phenomena, explored perspectives and characteristics of documents they are affiliated with. |