The non-prescriptive aspect of ethics. Ágnes Heller's An Ethics of Personality

Bibliographic Data

ID4952899
AuthorsAndrea Vestrucci (0000-0002-6336-1036, Institute Eric Weil, University of Lille 3, France; University of Geneva, Switzerland, corresponding author)
Year2014
Volume125
Issue1
Pages66-86
Publication date2014-12-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueThesis Eleven (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0725-5136 • E-ISSN: 1461-7455
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/0725513614556856
OpenAlexW1978068008
LanguageEN
Citations received1
References cited2

According to Ágnes Heller's plans in 1989 and 1990, the last volume of her moral trilogy should have been entitled A Theory of Proper Conduct. In 1996 the third volume finally appeared with the title An Ethics of Personality. Its content: a series of philosophical dialogues between many dramatis personæ. The change in style and methodology of the third volume led to many criticisms, amongst them Mihály Vajda's questioning of the whole project's consistency. The present paper aims to engage these criticisms by retracing the presence in An Ethics of Personality of the themes that, according to Heller's previous intentions, should have informed the last part of her moral theory. The contribution analyses Heller's definitions of modern paideia and moral wisdom, the issue of the possibility of happiness for modern people, and the philosophically problematic concept of moral aesthetics. In conclusion, the 'literary' methodology of the book is put in relationship with the non-prescriptive aspect of ethics

Epistemology · Happiness · Literature · Normative ethics · Paideia · Personality · Sociology · Theology · Trilogy · Critical Theory and Philosophy · Philosophy · Psychology · Social Psychology

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