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Universal Morality Possible? 2 ¨ Ferenc Hörcher INTRODUCTION – UNIVERSAL MORALITY ¨ 1 IS A UNIVERSAL MORALITY POSSIBLE? 2 ¨ FERENC HÖRCHER The publication of this volume was supported by the international conference fund of HAS. The editing work of this volume was supported by the Research Centre for the Humanities. The publication of this volume was supported by the National Cultural Fund of Hungary. INTRODUCTION – UNIVERSAL MORALITY ¨ 3 IS A IS A UNIVERSALUNIVERSAL MORALITYMORALITY POSSIBLE? POSSIBLE? Edited by FERENC HÖRCHER, BÉLA MESTER AND ZOLTÁN TURGONYI BUDAPEST, 2015 4 ¨ FERENC HÖRCHER Graphic design and cover: Viktória Dombi Typesetting: Viktória Dombi Cover painting: Rembrandt, Harmensz van Rijn: Moses Smashing the Tablets of the Law (1659), Gemäldegalerie der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin Linguistic editor: Ákos Sivadó Proofreading: Dóra Kis-Jakab Séd Press Ltd. Director-in-charge: Szilvia Katona © Authors, 2015 © Editors, 2015 © L’Harmattan Publishing House, 2015 © Institute of Philosophy of the Research Centre for the Humanities of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences Volumes may be ordered at a discount from L’Harmattan Könyvesbolt Kossuth Lajos utca 14-16. H-1053 Budapest, Hungary Phone: +36-1-267-5979 E-mail: [email protected] www.harmattan.hu L’Harmattan France 7 rue de l’Ecole Polytechnique 75005 Paris T.: 33.1.40.46.79.20 L’Harmattan Italia SRL Via Bava, 37 10124 Torino-Italia T./F.: 011.817.13.88 HAS Research Centre for the Humanities Phone: +36-1224-6700; extensions 624, 626 E-mail: [email protected] ISBN 978 963 416 000 7 INTRODUCTION – UNIVERSAL MORALITY ¨ 5 Contents Introduction Ferenc Hörcher: Universal Morality: Contemporary Socio-Political and Philosophical Stakes 7 I. RELIGION AND MORALITY Gábor Balázs: Is a Universal Morality Possible According to Jewish Tradition? 21 Tamás Béres: Under the Rainbow, over the Greed: Universal Morality in the Age of Globalization 31 Géza Kuminetz: Th e Connections Between Personal Maturity and Moral Consciousness: From a Catholic Perspective 39 Virág Dyekiss: I’ll Take Revenge for my Mother’s Soul, but Killing without Reason is Sin: Morals and Values in Siberian Nganasan Society 61 II. HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES I. CLASSICAL APPROACHES Ágoston Guba: Common Preconceptions and their Application in Epictetus 71 Tamás Nótári: On the Role of Ethical Maxims in the System of Classical Interpretation of Law 83 Zoltán Frenyó: Saint Augustine on the Foundation of Morals and the Reason for a Normative Ethics 94 Ádám Smrcz: General Consent and Universal Morality: An Early Modern Platonist View 104 III. HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVES II. MODERN APPROACHES Mojca Küplen: Love for Natural Beauty as a Mark of a Good Soul: Kant on the Relation between Aesthetics and Morality 115 6 ¨ FERENC HÖRCHER Gábor Gángó: Judgement in Politics: Responses to International Insecurity from Hannah Arendt and Immanuel Kant 128 Gábor Kovács: ‘Why is Goodness a Destroying Force?’ Morality and Politics in the Political Philosophy of Hannah Arendt 143 Béla Mester: Dignity of Human Beings. Dignity of Animal Beings – A Case Study: Bulls as Gladiators 151 IV. CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES I. GENERAL APPROACHES Tamás Paár: A Possible Contradiction in Discrediting Morality: Th e Queerness of the Argument from Queerness 163 Zoltán Balázs: Principles or Values? 170 Iwona Barwicka-Tylek: Th e Aporia of Morality and Law in Democratic States 180 Zoltán Turgonyi: Taking Disanthropocentrism Seriously: Outlines of a Hypothetical Natural Law 193 Ákos Sivadó: Two Kinds of Moral Relativism 205 V. CONTEMPORARY PHILOSOPHICAL PERSPECTIVES II. CASE STUDIES Szilárd Tattay: Multiculturalism and Ethical Objectivism/Relativism 217 Renata Katalin Smith – José Colen: Lift ing the Veil of Relativism 225 Miklós Lehmann: Morality and Empathy in the Digital Age 237 Gábor Szécsi – Inez Koller: Community and Morality in the Information Age 246 Contributors 257 Index of Names 259 INTRODUCTION – UNIVERSAL MORALITY ¨ 7 INTRODUCTION Universal Morality: Contemporary Socio-Political and Philosophical Stakes FERENC HÖRCHER Th is essay provides an overview of the stakes of the globalised but disintegrating world of the 21 century. It argues that a hope for moral universalism, which was shared by both the Judeo-Christian tradition and the Enlightened secular view faces serious challenges aft er 9/11 and Charlie Ebdo. It distinguishes the socio-political and the moral philosophical stakes. As far as the fi rst ones are concerned it argues that in fact globalisation does not solve the problem of con- testing cultures, and the world of identity politics does not off er much hope for a more moderate period in global politics. On the other hand, there are signs – for example in the reception of two important political philosophers, John Rawls and Jürgen Habermas – that moral universalism might be a shared platform in the Western intellectual world for both religious and secular views. But certainly contestation is present in this sphere as well, although the political programme of a multicultural cohabitation does not seem to be easily available anymore. Th at is why a reworking of the basic premises for and against moral universal- ism seem to be very timely in the present political and intellectual context. Socio-political overview: a risky, globalised but disintegrating world If we try to make sense of our contemporary world – and, aft er all the technical details and terminological tricks, what else is the job of the philosopher? – it is almost impos- sible to avoid bumping into debates about the need for and the ever recurring doubts about the possibility of a universal (i.e. universally valid) morality. One does not need to be a philosopher to see what makes the question topical. We live in a dangerous world: the offi cial borders of the supposedly sovereign countries do not protect the population even from the most brutal forms of external infl uences, including (civil?) war, terrorism and war on terror. Th e dense network of the Internet connects desktops, laptops, iPads and smart phones all around the globe, and their owners or users also connect through these gadgets with the data providers. Television series, popular hits, movie stars and social celebrities, daily fashion, the novelties of information technol- ogy and, more generally, the knowledge industry, global sporting events and cultural festivals link people tightly, whether they like it or not. Global industrial production 8 ¨ FERENC HÖRCHER and the intercontinental fi nancial system secures that no part of the world remain untouched by the eff ects of global community, including the most disastrous fi nan- cial crises. Environmental damages, the more and more extreme global climate and epidemics could help us to realise that we need to synchronise our moral vocabulary, moreover, to reconcile the morality of our actions. Th erefore, we know from fi rst-hand experience that this is a risky world, probably since the disassembly of the bipolar global (cold war or) security) system in or around 1990 and even more so since 9/11. For a moment, Fukuyama might have fallen into the illusion that history was over and the liberal paradigm of the West could become the default contem- porary social-political arrangement.1 He thought that the modern Western model of gov- ernmental organisation, civil societies and individual lives remained without any compe- tent challengers. Th at national fury and religious passions came under control in a system based on the effi ciency of industrial production, a widening realm of common market and the off ers of a globalised consumer society. Th at fi nancial crises could be avoided by the global community’s control over the excessive amplitudes of the fi nancial markets. However, Fukuyama’s illusion has soon been unmasked as such. Th e terrorist attack on 11th September 2001 against New York’s landmark architectural design, the Twin Towers, closely followed by other attacks on American targets, destroyed the philoso- pher’s daydream. “But now all is to be changed. All the pleasing illusions, which made power gentle and obedience liberal, which harmonized the diff erent shades of life, and which, by a bland assimilation, incorporated into politics the sentiments which beautify and soft en private society, are to be dissolved by this new conquering em- pire” of destruction and terror. 2 Edmund Burke, the 18th century author of these disappointed lines, gave a thrilling account of the spiritual chaos caused by the French Revolution. His words describe the disillusionment of a politician, always hoping to be able to domesticate wild political passions, when confronted with a situation where confl icting political interests and values caused the destruction of the whole moral or- der of the community. But, incidentally, he was also the author of an aesthetic treatise, which presented in a rather innovative way the conceptual opposition of the aesthetic categories of the beautiful and the sublime. He described the latter category – which obviously fascinated him much more than simple beauty – the following way: Whatever is fi tted in any sort to excite the ideas of pain and danger, that is to say, whatever is in any sort terrible, or is conversant about terrible objects, or operates in a manner analogous to terror, is a source of the sublime; that is, it is productive of the strongest emotion which the mind is capable of feeling.3 1 Fukuyama 1992 2 Burke 1790 3 Burke 1757 INTRODUCTION – UNIVERSAL MORALITY ¨ 9 Th e words of the young Burke were based on the assumption that the nature of human beings is universally determined, and this nature cannot be overwritten either by historical or cultural contingencies. Th is is because humans’ character traits are ac- claimed to be equally resistant to the helping hand of the most benign creator and the intrusions of the most powerful political tyrants. A similar enlightened conviction of human nature’s universal (a priori) endowment led Immanuel Kant to the memorable formulation of his unconditional imperative of the dignity of the human being.
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