Of dictators and greengrocers: on the repressive grammar of values-discourse
The present contribution questions the seemingly self-evident idea that morality is, most basically, about values and valuation. Values are indeed pervasive in moral life, but they are not original phenomena; rather, they are repressive responses to a sense of good and evil beyond values. This "...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic/Print Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Drawer...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Peeters
[2015]
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| In: |
Ethical perspectives
Year: 2015, Volume: 22, Issue: 1, Pages: 39-67 |
| Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Ethics
/ Value
/ I-you relationship
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| IxTheo Classification: | NCA Ethics |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (doi) |
| Summary: | The present contribution questions the seemingly self-evident idea that morality is, most basically, about values and valuation. Values are indeed pervasive in moral life, but they are not original phenomena; rather, they are repressive responses to a sense of good and evil beyond values. This "beyond" relates, I argue, to the encounter between individual human beings, and values function to manage and mask the inescapability and difficulty of this encounter, with its unbearable either-or of openness to, or refusal of, the other; of love or destructiveness. Various manifestations of the inherently problematic character of values- thinking are examined, e.g. its inextricable intertwinement with social pressure, moralism, and egocentric concern. I also discuss the relation of shared "moral languages" to moral understanding, and the way in which a Wittgensteinian, strictly descriptive ethics can nonetheless challenge not only theories of morality, but our moral life itself. |
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| ISSN: | 1370-0049 |
| Contains: | Enthalten in: Ethical perspectives
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2143/EP.22.1.3073457 |