Postmodern Ethics: A Critique on Postmodern Ethics

University of Pennsylvania Law Review, 1985

I am also grateful to Roberto Unger for the intellectual friendship and good will that have allowed us to engage in what has been, for me, an exchange of extraordinary value. Albrecht Wellmer's comments and work in discursive ethics were crucial in helping me to think through more clearly what I meant by dialogism. Lisa Campolo and Adam Thurschwell offered valuable editorial suggestions. JoAnn Burns performed the service of typing and retyping the manuscript with remarkable patience and perseverance. To Greg DeFreitas I owe the emotional support that allowed me to complete this Article. To my friend and mentor Richard Bernstein, I owe more than thanks. In the last year and a half, he has read and commented on innumerable drafts. He has provided me with both the understanding and the demanding criticism essential to bringing a long project of this sort to completion. He has exemplified the spirit of dialogism I present in this Article. I also owe to him my introduction into an intellectual comm.nity that convenes every year in Dubrovnik. It is no exaggeration to say that without his support this Article would never have reached its current form. Any remaining errors are of course my own. (291) J. RITTER, Hegel and the French Revolution, in MORALITY AND ETHICAL LIFE at 161 (1975). 3 See F. NIETZSCHE, Thus Spake Zarathustra, in THE PORTABLE NIETZSCHE (W. Kaufman trans. 1954). 4 Many postmodern writers have not spoken directly to the problem of ethics. Shortly before his death, however, Foucault indicated that he saw the project of ethical reconstruction as crucial. His goal (admittedly rather vague) was the reconstruction of something like the Greek ethic, with the exception that the exclusiveness of the Greek ethical community would be remedied by a recognition of the pleasure of the other. Foucault's critique is directed at Kantian morality, which he distinguishes from the classical notion of ethics. See On the Genealogy of Ethics: An Overview of Work in Progress, in BEYOND STRUCTURALISM AND HERMENEUTICS 229 (H. Dreyfus & P. Rabinow eds. 1983). 5 Irigiary, The Sex Which is Not One, in NEW FRENCH FEMINISMS 99, 104 (E.

Lulu.com, 2021

According to some theorists, the 20th century can be divided into two distinct periods: one period is characterized by the modernism movement and the other by postmodernism. Some believed that postmodernism was a response to modernism; hence, they consider them as two aspects of the same movement. However, there are some major differences between modernism and postmodernism. These distinctions make clear the basic differences in the ways of thinking and the approaches towards life that led to these movements. To discuss post-modernism, a cursory look into modernism is germane. According to Heaney, the roots of Modernism are extremely complex. Four factors may be singled out as the principal occasions for its rise: (1) in philosophy, the prevalence among Catholics is a shallow Eclecticism combined with the strong influence exerted by Neo-Kantian Pragmatism , and the disciples of F. D. E. Schleiermacher; (2) in theology, a growing dissatisfaction with a too static Neo-Scholasticism; (3) in the sciences, the development of evolutionary biological theory and the growth of historical method; and (4) at least of equal importance, the not yet assimilated changing relationship between the Church and the socio-political order. Heaney goes further to assert that modernism’s ideology emerged clearly within the Church in c. 1900 and sought a revolutionary transmutation of Catholic doctrine via the application of naturalistic evolutionary philosophy and arbitrary historical criticism. From the ambience of Catholicism, modernism was condemned by the decree of Lamentabili and Pascendi Dominici Gregis, the Encyclical letters of Pius X and was definitively brought to an end by the oath against modernism. Heaney observes that the modernist crisis retarded Catholic erudition and strengthened Catholic discipline by way of Church teaching which arose in the process of addressing the crisis engendered by modernism. But its capital effect was the decisive victory over a subtle and mortal enemy, a victory that preserved the essential life of the Church. In this research, we shall do a study of modernism; flesh out the root causes of modernism that serves as prospects for postmodernism; examine the root causes of postmodernism; explicate its strong influence; expose the characteristics of postmodernism; and expound the theological responses to postmodernism. Then we shall explicate the universality of moral principles and expose it as the religious moral principles for the whole world not just for Christians. We shall expose this morality as Christo-centric initiated by the Triune God, a way of life that we are all called to live according to the moral principles laid down by Jesus Christ. We shall examine one of the sources of this moral principle and then draw our conclusion.

The alleged impossibility of ethics after poststructuralism has been of some concern for everyone as ethics directly bears on the sustainability of the universe. The thought of M.K.Gandhi and Emmanuel Levinas, two visionaries of the East and the West , is selected as touchstones, to demonstrate both the viability of ethics as well as the inclusive character of their views. Even as one can hardly call Gandhi as a poststructuralist, Gandhian ethical framework is attuned to post structuralism. The thought of Levinas bears the stamp of approval of Derrrida himself.

1995

English studies is paralyzed by the view that "the imposition of ideological agendas... [is]...morally questionable," yet "our moral sensibility motivates us to promote particular ethic positions." The field is caught in this dilemma because its postmodern skepticism forces it to acknowledge that there are no universal values, yet its teachers and scholars want a subject position allowing them to appeal to some standards even if they are not universal. The question this ,:ilemma raises is how can the fields of rhetoric and composition conceive of ethics in a postmodern manner and still allow for moral agency and authority. The problem with the "deontological" view, which characterizes the view of Western culture at large and the liberal enlightenment view of the academy, is that it decides what is right, good, and of value prior to any rhetorical discussion or inquiry. This means that the abstract values of an .:thical rhetoric are not tied to contextual constraints. In "After Virtue," Alasdair MacIntyre shows how arguments about abortion are constructed in such a way as to preclude any discussion; the speaker either forces her audience to accept her premises or labels that audience immoral. By directing attention to the subject, Michel Foucault suggests one possible way out of this predicament and points to inquiry into subjectivity theory. He encourages the speaker to ask, "How have I constructed myself as a moral agent?" (TB)

How do we determine what is moral and ethical behavior? One thing the post-modern perspective offers in response to this question is the proposition: “there are no singular truths” woven into the fabric of the cosmos. We must find our own way to answers and making choices. The life ethic offers a way to do this without resorting to moralistic judgmental approaches and which clan lend themselves to scientific support.

"FormaMente" è la rivista ufficiale di GUIDE, l’Associazione delle Global Universities In Distance Education; i volumi vengono pubblicati in forma cartacea presso Gangemi Editore di Roma; per la versione on line del volume e del paper si veda: https://formamente.guideassociation.org/ethics-and-politics-in-the-postmodern-condition/ Abstract: In this paper I analyze the postmodern condition with particular reference to the ethical and political spheres. Postmodernism attempts a radical break with all of the major strands of post-Enlightenment thought. For postmodernists as the French Jean-François Lyotard and the Italian Gianni Vattimo, the orthodox Enlightenment "meta-narrative" of progress and the "speculative" narrative of Hegel and Marx have lost their explanatory force. In particular, Lyotard speaks about five large meta-narratives of Western culture: 1) Christianity (understood also in the secularized form which its values have taken into modernity); 2) Enlightenment; 3) Idealism as a "theory of progressive freedom in history"; 4) Marxism, and 5) Capitalism. According to Lyotard, one can consider "the incredulity" towards these meta-narratives (méta-récits or grands récits) as postmodern. He points out that after Auschwitz it is impossible to speak of rationality and progress in Western history: In the twentieth century the Nazi genocide showed that history is not a continuous ethical progress towards the best. From the philosophical point of view the precursor of postmodern atmosphere is Friedrich Nietzsche. This German philosopher elaborated a radically anti-metaphysical thought and proposed an ethic of emancipation. Postmodernists refer to Nietzsche's thought and theorize ethical-political practices aimed at the emancipation of women and socially weak subjects. Postmodernism's rejection of "totalizing" theories with universal pretentions is complemented by positive celebration of diversity or "difference" and emphasis on the ethical demands of "the other": this is, for example, the ethical perspective of Michel Foucault.

Critical Studies in German Idealism, 2020

An Ethical Modernity? investigates the relation between Hegel’s doctrine of ethical life ( Sittlichkeit) and modernity as a historical category and a philosophical concept. In this collection of essays, the authors analyze Hegel’s theory of ethical life from various perspectives: social ontology, social practices and beliefs, theory of judgment, relations between Hegel’s theory of ethical life and Kant’s ethics, Hegel’s philosophy of family, relation of the modern market to ‘European values’, the ethos of state and of international relations, and Hegel’s metaphilosophical commitment to philosophy. This volume is of importance to anyone interested in how Hegel’s practical philosophy relates to us and our times.

Yale journal of law and the humanities, 1994

More than forty years ago, Maurice Merleau-Ponty identified a philosophical fault line that continues to rumble through diverse contemporary debates. "Today," he proclaimed, "a humanism does not oppose religion with an explanation of the world. It begins by becoming aware of contingency. ' In the current period of deconstruction and other postmodernisms, Merleau-Ponty's rejection and reconception of the Enlightenment idea of humanism has greater resonance than ever. 2 For many, it has become a postmodern truism that "the human condition" cannot be represented, described, or explained as just so many facts about the world. According to the now standard (if somewhat overstated) axiom of postmodernism, everything about humanity is socially contingent. Reactions vary dramatically. For some, the recognition of contingency appears to open up conceptual space for transformative politics and radical social change. For others, however, the specter of contingency is radically destabilizing. Because they equate social contingency with the loss of foundations, they believe that social contingency leads inevitably from moral relativism to nihilism. For them, the logic of this trajectory is ineluctable. If everything is socially contingent, no social or moral system can claim greater validity than any other. And if all such systems are equally valid, then we are left with no reliable values, no moral standards, and no criteria of choice. The absence of sure foundations, they are convinced, means that we are left with an alarming and intolerable nihilism. 3

The Encyclopaedia of Postdigital Science and Education, 2023

Ethics is not a discrete set of rules or God-given imperatives concerning how humans ought to behave. Ethics resembles a holistic process of normative inquiry, implicating concepts such as duty, utility, virtue, and rationality. Postdigitalism concerns the ways in which human knowledge and experience adapt to the rapid growth and dissemination of digital technologies. Since technology and morality are in constant flux, postdigital ethics must remain flexible and accommodating to the tools and mores that define a rapidly changing civilization. In this vein, the outcomes of postdigital ethical inquiry are typically treated as fallible, unsettled, and subject to revision in light of shifting societal norms and dynamic moral beliefs. The proper subject-matter of postdigital ethics includes theory, applied ethics, posthumanism, and theology.

This paper traces the historical discourse of Western Civilization from the period of Modernity to Postmodernity. Major political, social, moral, and scientific shifts occurred in the Western Civilization during Modernity because of the maturation of underpinning utilitarian and materialistic ethics. Postmodernity is a critique on the ideologies of modernity. The identifiable difference between the two lies in the nature of discourse. The discourse of modernity rests on the transcendent criteria such as 'progress' and 'reason'. Postmodern discourse, on the other hand, analyzes social life in terms of paradox and indeterminacy and rejects all metanarratives and overarching guiding principles, religion, science, objectivity, rationality and the notion of truth. Yet the two are closely related and complement each other by sharing a deep commitment and affinity to empiricism, concrete forms and reductionism.