Moral imperatives for an immanent world
An investigation of the pragmatist, deconstructive and ante-philosophical positions
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11420196 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Minka Woermann (Stellenbosch University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2013 |
| Volume | 32 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 275-284 |
| Publication date | 2013-09-01 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | South African Journal of Philosophy (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0258-0136 • E-ISSN: 2073-4867 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/02580136.2013.837657 |
| OpenAlex | W2168664431 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 15 |
In this paper, I argue that an implication of the so-called ‘death of metaphysics’ is the imbrication of the normative and descriptive understandings of morality. This imbrication gives rise to a paradox, which amounts to the desire to refute both a priori moral justifications, and ‘the tyranny of the real’ or the socialisation and relativisation of our moral assertions and positions. I investigate three responses to this paradox, namely the pragmatic response, Jacques Derrida's deconstructive response, and (what I term) the ante-philosophical response, which is based on the work of Jean-Luc Nancy. The reason for focusing on these three philosophical positions is that they all espouse an immanent (as opposed to transcendental) view of morality. Through means of this analysis, I attempt to highlight the following implications of an immanently-defined moral position: (1) the constitutive, as opposed to the pedagogical or prescriptive, nature of philosophy; (2) the increasing focus on the performative force of doing philosophy and the importance of philosophical skill; (3) the problematic nature of the distinctions between philosophy, moral theory, and applied ethics, and therefore also between the nature and function of morality; and (4) the status of philosophy and moral theory as one type of praxis amongst many, rather than the definitive voice on praxis
Epistemology · Metaphysics · Moral psychology · Morality · Normative · Normative ethics · Performative utterance · Pragmatism · Praxis · Sociology · Transcendental number · Critical Theory and Philosophy · Hannah Arendt's Political Philosophy · Philosophy · Philosophy, Ethics, and Existentialism
On Deconstruction
Pragmatism
A Treatise of Human Nature
Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus
Objectivity, Relativism, and Truth
Ethics, Institutions, and the Right to Philosophy
Reconsidering Difference
A Different Alterity
Intimations of Postmodernity
Immanent Systems, Transcendental Temptations, and the Limits of Ethics
Broken imperatives
| Highly cited | No |
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