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Natural and Philosophical Foundations of Ethics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 February 2024

Sélim Abou
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Extract

Guilt and fear today have developed an unexpected quality: they contribute powerfully to the survival of humanity. The feeling of guilt proceeds from an elementary awareness: although the unequaled progress of science and technology in the twentieth century has undoubtedly ameliorated the conditions of human life, it also has given rise to an infernal logic of genocide and crimes against humanity, in which almost all nations, directly or indirectly, have participated and participate still. This awareness is joined to another, which is itself accompanied by a primordial fear: for the first time in history, science and technology have endowed humanity with the power to destroy itself and the planet, without furnishing humans with the means of escaping their destined role as sorcerer's apprentice, for no science can tell us what to do with science. It is this double feeling of guilt and fear that pushes contemporary man to search feverishly for ethical foundations capable of furnishing discreet regulatory principles to underpin decisions and actions. From the point of view of contemporary humanity, ethics must be able to confer meaning and perspective on an existence which apparently has neither: “Now,” writes Hans Jonas, “we shiver in the nakedness of nihilism in which near-omnipotence is paired with near-emptiness, greatest capacity with knowing least for what ends to use it.”

Type
Research Article
Information
Diogenes , Volume 43 , Issue 172 , December 1995 , pp. 35 - 54
Copyright
Copyright © 1995 Fédération Internationale des Sociétés de Philosophie / International Federation of Philosophical Societies (FISP)

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References

Notes

1. H. Jonas, The Imperative of Responsibility, Chicago, 1984, p. 23.

2. P. Ricoeur, Soi-même comme un autre, Paris, 1990, p. 200.

3. Ibid., pp. 200f.

4. See M. Kirsch, "Introduction," in: J.-P Changeux (ed.), Fondements naturels de l'éthique, Paris, 1993, p.14, as well as the bibliographical references, ibid., pp. 63f.

5. M. Ruse, "Une défense de l'éthique évolutionniste," in: J.-P Changeux (ed.), op. cit., p. 44.

6. Ibid., p. 46.

7. Ibid., p. 49.

8. Ibid., p. 54.

9. Ibid., p. 52.

10. Ibid., p. 62.

11. A. R. Damasio, "Comprendre les fondements naturels des conventions sociales et de l'éthique, données neuronales," in: J.-P Changeux (ed.), op. cit., p. 122.

12. J.-P Changeux, Raison et Plaisir, Paris, 1994, pp. 22f.

13. Idem (ed.), op. cit., pp. 8f.

14. M. Ruse, "Une défense de l'éthique évolutionniste," in: ibid., p. 62.

15. Ibid.

16. M. Kirsh, "Introduction," in: ibid., p. 28.

17. J. H. Barkow, "Règles de conduite de l'évolution," in: ibid., p. 88.

18. A. Fagot-Largeault, "Normativité biologique et normativité sociale," in: ibid., p. 218.

19. R. Sève, "L'éthique comme besoin," in: ibid., p. 110.

20. G. Deleuze, Différence et Répétition, Paris, 1968, p. 3.

21. Ibid., p. 4.

22. Ibid., pp. 3f.

23. R. Mizrahi, Traité du bonheur II. Ethique, politique et bonheur, Paris, 1983, p. 16.

24. Ibid., p. 29.

25. Ibid., p. 331.

26. Ibid., p. 30.

27. A. Comte-Sponville, Le Mythe d'Icare. Traité du désespoir et de la béatitude 1, Paris, 1993, p. 45.

28. Ibid., p. 25.

29. Ibid., p. 22.

30. Ibid., p. 95.

31. Ibid., p. 65.

32. M. Conche, Lucrèce, cited ibid., p. 94.

33. C. Rosset, Le Force majeure, Paris, 1983, p. 78.

34. R. Mizrahi, op. cit., p. 20.

35. Ibid., p. 336.

36. Ibid.

37. G. Lipovetsky, Le Crépuscule du devoir, Paris, 1992, pp. 14f.

38. J. Russ, La Pensée éthique contemporaine, Paris, 1994, p. 16.

39. K.O. Apel, L'Ethique à l'âge de la science Lille, 1987, p. 95, cited in: ibid., p. 60.

40. I. Kant, Critique of Pure Reason (transl. by F. Max Müller), London, 1915, p. 89.

41. G.F.W. Hegel, The Phenomenology of Mind (transl. by J.B. Baillie), New York, 1967, p. 138.

42. J. Habermas, Morale et Communication, Paris, 1986, p. 403.

43. Idem, De l'Ethique à la discussion, Paris, 1992, p. 17.

44. Idem (note 42), p. 99.

45. C. Bouchindhomme in his "Introduction" to ibid., p. 16.

46. J. Russ, La Pensée éthique contemporaine (note 38), p. 89.

47. H. Jonas (note 1), p. 11.

48. On this topic see S. Abou, Cultures et Droits de l'homme, Paris, 1992, pp. 78-88.

49. C. Montesquieu, L'Esprit des lois, vol. I, 1, Paris, 1970, p. 3.

50. Ibid., vol. XXI, 21, p. 267.

51. Ibid., vol. X, 3, p. 160.

52. Ibid., vol. XV, 9, p. 208.

53. J.-J. Rousseau, La Nouvelle Héloise, in: Oeuvres complètes, vol. II, Paris, 1970, p. 243.

54. Idem, Le Contrat social (first version), in: ibid., vol. III, p. 287.

55. Idem, Lettre à Beaumont, in: ibid., vol. VI, p. 287.

56. Cited by A. Philonenko in his article "Rousseau" in: F. Châtelet et al., Diction naire des oeuvres politiques, Paris, 1986, p. 698.

57. J.-J. Rousseau Le Contrat social (in a version ed. by M. Halbwachs), Paris, 1948, p. 145.

58. Ibid., p. 154.

59. I. Kant, "Le conflict des facultés," in: idem, Philosphie de l'histoire, Paris, 1947, p.171.

60. Idem, Vers la paix perpétuelle, Paris, 1958, p. 91.

61. E. Weil, Philosophie politique, Paris, 1971, p.35.

62. S. Abou, L'identité culturelle, Paris, 1995, p. 247.

63. A. Jeannière, "Anthropologie sociale et politique," in: Travaux et conférences du Centre Sèvres, vol. 16, Paris, 1989, p. 9.

64. C. Montesquieu, Cahiers, 1716-1765, Paris, 1941, p. 10.

65. Ibid.

66. S. Abou, "L'universel et la relativité des cultures," in: L'Idée d'Humanité (Actes du Colloque des Intellectuels Juifs), Paris, 1995, pp. 58f.