Morality via Kant and Hegel - 1712 Words

1. Introduction Human beings have moral inclinations that affect our actions. Few would deny as a fact of human life a perpe-tual strive to do right and good concordant with one’s particular moral beliefs (while concomitantly judging others by them). For most, this strive is accompanied by a questioning of the very nature of the moral: Is there an impartial criterion that enables us to know objectively what one ought to do, or do our moral intuitions rest solely on subjective, arbitrary grounds? With the lure of divine command theory fading from the Enlightenment and onwards, modern moral philosophy can be seen as an attempt to uncover either the criterion or its nonexistence. An endeavor in which few can be said to have been as†¦show more content†¦The disjunction between Kant and Hegel, between the ‘universalistic’ and ‘communitarian’ conceptions of morality that they respectively gave rise to, has been ever present in moral philosophy for the last two cen tu-ries (Finlayson, Article 2005, 1). A communitarian critique that largely mirrors Hegel’s critique of Kant, for example, confronts Rawlsian liberalism qua its neo-Kantian foundation. With his Discourse Ethics, Jà ¼rgen Habermas has made one of the most thorough attempts at dissolving this disjunction by occupying a position between Kant and Hegel. While recognizable as a fundamentally Kantian moral theory, Discourse Ethics weak-ens Kant’s conception of the moral standpoint, as Habermas reneges on Kant’s metaphysical presuppositions and relies instead on an analysis of the transcendental pragmatics of communication. Indeed, Habermas ac-knowledges that Discourse Ethics follows Hegel’s criticism of Kant on several points (Habermas 1990, 201). Notably, he follows Hegel in insisting that morality is an intersubjective matter, while also affording the good a greater role than Kant did, albeit one still secondary to that of the right. Nevertheless, as Discour se Ethics shares the deontological, cognitivist, formalist, and universalist nature of the CategoricalShow MoreRelated marxism Essay3150 Words   |  13 PagesMarxism as being three types of theory in one: philosophy, history, and economics. First, Marxism is a philosophical movement; Marxs ideas about human nature, and about how we know and function in the world come from traditions articulated by Hegel, Feuerbach, Kant, and other German philosophers. All of these guys, including Marx, are interested in the relation between materialist and idealist philosophy. As a philosopher, Marx helps create and define a branch of philosophy called DIALECTICAL MATERIALISMRead MoreBranches of Philosophy8343 Words   |  34 Pagesnormative ethics, and applied ethics. Meta-ethics concerns the nature of ethical thought, comparison of various ethical systems, whether there are absolute ethical truths, and how such truths could be known. Ethics is also associated with the idea of morality. Platos e arly dialogues include a search for definitions of virtue. †¢ Political philosophy is the study of government and the relationship of individuals and communities to the state. It includes questions about justice, the good, law, propertyRead MoreOrganisational Theory230255 Words   |  922 PagesTwo sorts of information become of high importance at this level. The first is information from the external environment. This includes information about customers and competitors that comes via marketing and sales; it includes information about suppliers to the organization of goods and services that comes via the production department. The second information flow Example: keeping the information flowing Imagine an organization that has been going through major change in structure, culture and