Abstract
This paper aims to clarify the nature and contents of 'civil ethics' and the source of the binding force of its obligations. This ethics should provide the criteria for evaluating the moral validity of social, legal and morally valid law. The article starts with observing that in morally pluralist Western societies civil ethics already exists, and has gradually started to play the role of guiding the law. It is argued that civil ethics should not be conceived as 'civic morals' which is in fact rather 'state ethics', nor as 'public ethics' which is said to reach its perfection when it becomes law, nor as ethics applicable primarily to the basic structure of a society (political liberalism), but instead as a citizens' ethics. Subsequently the paper attempts to show what the contents of this ethics are, and which ethical theory would be able to ground its obligations.
Similar content being viewed by others
REFERENCES
Alexy, R., Theorie der juristischen Argumentation. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1991.2
Alexy, R., Begriff und Geltung des Rechts. Freiburg: München, 1992.
Apel, K.-O., Transformation der Philosophie. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1973.
Apel, K.-O., Diskurs und Verantwortung. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1988.
Apel, K.-O., Globalization and the Need for Universal Ethics. Manuscript.
Barber, B., Strong Democracy. Berkeley/Los Angeles/London: University of California Press, 1984.
Barber, B., An Aristocracy of Everyone. New York/Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1992.
Beiner, R., Introduction. Why Citizenship Constitutes a Theoretical Problem in the Last Decade of the Twentieth Century?, in R. Beiner (ed.), Theorizing Citizenship. New York: State of New York Press, 1995, pp. 1–28.
Bellah, R.N. et al., Habits of the Heart. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1985.
Cohen, J. (ed.), For Love of Country. Debating the Limits of Patriotism. Boston: Beacon Press, 1996.
Conill, J. and A. Cortina, Pragmática Trascendental, in M. Dascal (ed.), Pragmática II. Madrid: Trotta, 1999.
Cortina, A., Ética mínima. Madrid: Tecnos, 1986.
Cortina, A., Estudio preliminar a I. Kant, La Metafísica de las Costumbres. Madrid: Tecnos, 1989.
Cortina, A., Ética sin moral. Madrid: Tecnos, 1990.
Cortina, A., Diskursethik und Menschenrechte, Archiv für Rechts-und Sozialphilosophie 76 (1990), pp. 37–49.
Cortina, A., Ética aplicada y democracia radical. Madrid: Tecnos, 1993.
Cortina, A., Ciudadanos del mundo. Madrid: Alianza, 1997.
Cortina, A., L'Éthique appliquée comme herméneutique critique des activités humaines, in L.K. Sosoe (ed.), La vie des normes & l'esprit des lois. Quebec/Paris: Harmattan, 1998, pp. 151–168.
Cortina, A., Hasta un pueblo de demonios. Madrid: Taurus, 1998.
Cortina, A., Ciudadanos como protagonistas. Barcelona: Círculo de Lectores/Galaxia Gutenberg, 1999.
Cortina A., Ethik ohne Moral: Grenzen einer postkantischen Prinzipienethik, in K.-O. Apel und M. Kettner (Hg. ), Zur Anwendung der Diskursethik in Politik, Recht und Wissenschaft. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1992, pp. 278.
Durkheim, E., Professional Ethics and Civic Morals. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd., 1957.
Dworkin R., Liberal Community, California Law Review 77 (1989), pp. 479–509.
Edel, A., E. Flower and F.W. O'Connor, Critique of Applied Ethics. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1994.
Etzioni, A., The Community of Communities, The Responsive Community 7 (1996/97), pp. 21–32.
Etzioni, A., The New Golden Rule. New York: Basic Books, 1996.
Fukuyama, F., Trust. New York: The Free Press, 1995.
Gewirth, A., Self-Fulfillment. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1998.
Habermas, J., Gerechtigkeit und Solidarität, H. Joas and G. Nunner-Winkler, Zur Bestimmung der Moral. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1986.
Habermas, J., Faktizität und Geltung. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1992.
Habermas, J., On the Pragmatic, the Ethical, and the Moral Employments of Practical Reason, in Justification and Application. Cambridge/London: The MIT Press, 1993, pp. 1–18.
Habermas, J., Die Einbeziehung des Anderen. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1996.
Hegel, G.W.F., Grundlinien der Philosophie des Rechts. Hamburg: Felix Meiner, 1955.
Hoerster, N., John Rawls' Kohärenztheorie der Normenbegründung, in idem (Hg.), Ñber John Rawls Theorie der Gerechtigkeit. Frankfurt: Suhrkamp, 1977, pp. 57–76.
Huntington, S.P., The Clash of Civilizations and the Remaking of World Order. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1996.
Kant, I, Die Religion innerhalb der Grenzen der blossen Vernunft, Kants Werke. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter, VI, pp. 1–202.
Kant, I., Metaphysik der Sitten, Kants Werke. Berlin, Walter de Gruyter, VI, pp. 203–494.
Macedo, S., Liberal Civic Education and Religious Fundamentalism: The Case of God v. John Rawls, Ethics 105 (1995), pp. 468–496.
Musschenga, A.W., Are Personal and Moral Integrity Goals of Civic Education?, Manuscript, 1999.
Nino, C.S., Ética y derechos humanos. Buenos Aires/Barcelona/México: Paidos, 1984.
Peces, G., Ética, poder y derecho. Madrid: Centro de Estudios Constitucionales, 1995.
Philonenko, A., Théorie et Praxis dans la pensée morale et politique de Kant et de Fichte en 1793. Paris: P.U.F., 1976.
Rawls, J., Political Liberalism. New York: Columbia University Press, 1993.
Rawls, J., The Law of Peoples, in On Human Rights. The Oxford Amnesty Lectures. Oxford: Basic Books, 1993.
Sosoe, L.K. (dir.), La vie des normes & L'esprit des lois. Quebec/Paris: Harmattan, 1998.
Taylor, Ch., Sources of the Self. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1989.
Walzer, M., Spheres of Justice. Oxford: Blackwell, 1983.
Walzer, M., Interpretation and Social Criticism. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1987.
M. Walzer, Thick and Thin. Notre Dame/London: University of Notre Dame Press, 1994.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Cortina, A. Civil Ethics and the Validity of Law. Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 3, 39–55 (2000). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009958315067
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1009958315067