Discourse Ethics and Moral Rationalism

Dialogue 48 (2):373 (2009)
  Copy   BIBTEX

Abstract

ABSTRACT: In this paper, I raise the following question: can the ethical thought of Jurgen Habermas and Karl-Otto Apel provide us with a way of showing that morality is a rational requirement? The answer I give is that it cannot. I argue for this claim by showing that a decisive objection to Alan Gewirth’s line of thought in Reason and Morality also applies to discourse ethical arguments that try to show an inescapable commitment to a moral principle. RÉSUMÉ: La pensée ethique de Jurgen Habermas et Karl-Otto Apel peut-elle nous fournir une façon de montrer que la moralité répond à un besoin rationnel? Ma réponse, malheureusement, est que non, elle ne le peut pas. Je défends cet argument en montrant qu’une objection décisive à ce courant de pensée, tel qu’il est présenté par Alan Gerwirth Raison et Moralité, s’applique aussi aux arguments ethiques qui essaient de prouver leur lien incontournable avec un principe moral

Links

PhilArchive



    Upload a copy of this work     Papers currently archived: 90,616

External links

Setup an account with your affiliations in order to access resources via your University's proxy server

Through your library

Similar books and articles

Do psychopaths really threaten moral rationalism?Jeanette Kennett - 2006 - Philosophical Explorations 9 (1):69 – 82.
Richard Price’s Contextualist Rationalism.Susan Purviance - 2008 - Studies in the History of Ethics 6:1-21.
Moral rationalism and moral commitment.James Doyle - 2000 - Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 60 (1):1-22.

Analytics

Added to PP
2010-09-25

Downloads
29 (#474,441)

6 months
3 (#445,838)

Historical graph of downloads
How can I increase my downloads?

Author's Profile

Brian Powell
Western Illinois University

Citations of this work

Axiomatizing Umwelt Normativity.Marc Champagne - 2011 - Sign Systems Studies 39 (1):9-59.

Add more citations

References found in this work

No references found.

Add more references