The Radical Demand in Løgstrup's Ethics

The Radical Demand in Løgstrup's Ethics
Author: Robert Stern
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 387
Release: 2019-01-03
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0192564234

How much does ethics demand of us? On what authority does it demand it? How does what ethics demand relate to other requirements, such as those of prudence, law, and social convention? Does ethics really demand anything at all? Questions of this sort lie at the heart of the work of the Danish philosopher and theologian K. E. Løgstrup (1905-1981), and in particular his key text The Ethical Demand (1956). In The Radical Demand in Løgstrup's Ethics, Robert Stern offers a full account of that text, and situates Løgstrup's distinctive position in relation to Kant, Kierkegaard, Levinas, Darwall and Luther. For Løgstrup, the ethical situation is primarily one in which the fate of the other person is placed in your hands, where it is then your responsibility to do what is best for them. The demand therefore does not come from the other person as such, as what they ask you to do may be different from what you should do. It is also not laid down by social rules, nor by God or by any formal principle of practical reason, such as Kant's principle of universalizability. Rather, it comes from what is required to care for the other, and the directive power of their needs in the situation. Løgstrup therefore rejects accounts of ethical obligation based on the commands of God, or on abstract principles governing practical reason, or on social norms; instead he develops a different picture, at the basis of which is our interdependence, which he argues gives his ethics a grounding in the nature of life itself.

The Radical Demand in Løgstrup's Ethics

The Radical Demand in Løgstrup's Ethics
Author: Robert Stern
Publisher:
Total Pages:
Release: 2019
Genre: PHILOSOPHY
ISBN: 9780191867453

How much does ethics demand of us? On what authority does it demand it? How does what ethics demand relate to other requirements, such as those of prudence, law, and social convention? Does ethics really demand anything at all? Questions of this sort lie at the heart of the work of the Danish philosopher and theologian K.E. Logstrup (1905-1981), and in particular his key text The Ethical Demand (1956). In The Radical Demand in Logstrup's Ethics, Robert Stern offers a full account of that text, and situates Logstrup's distinctive position in relation to Kant, Kierkegaard, Levinas, Darwall and Luther. 0For Logstrup, the ethical situation is primarily one in which the fate of the other person is placed in your hands, where it is then your responsibility to do what is best for them. The demand therefore does not come from the other person as such, as what they ask you to do may be different from what you should do. It is also not laid down by social rules, nor by God or by any formal principle of practical reason, such as Kant's principle of universalizability. Rather, it comes from what is required to care for the other, and the directive power of their needs in the situation. Logstrup therefore rejects accounts of ethical obligation based on the commands of God, or on abstract principles governing practical reason, or on social norms; instead he develops a different picture, at the basis of which is our interdependence, which he argues gives his ethics a grounding in the nature of life itself.

The Ethical Demand

The Ethical Demand
Author: K. E. Løgstrup
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 294
Release: 2020-04-02
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 019259804X

The Ethical Demand (1956) by K. E. Løgstrup is one of the great works of modern moral philosophy: it is presented here in a new translation with introduction and notes. Løgstrup puts forward his distinctive view concerning our vulnerability to each other and what this requires of us in response. He starts by considering Jesus's 'proclamation' to love your neighbour and how this can be understood in 'purely human terms' as relating to basic features of our existence. Reflecting on the phenomenon of trust, Løgstrup emphasizes the fundamental interdependence of human life and how this gives rise to an 'ethical demand' on us to care for the other, which he characterizes as radical, silent, one-sided, and unfulfillable. In order to make sense of a demand of this sort, Løgstrup argues, we must see 'life as a gift', rather than treating ourselves as the sovereign grounds for our own existence. He contrasts this demand to social norms, which are often reciprocal in this way, and argues that while such norms are changeable, the ethical demand itself is absolute. Løgstrup therefore makes a fundamental contribution to our understanding of the nature of-and basis for-our obligations to each other. In this critical edition, Løgstrup's original text is accurately rendered into readable English and paired with an introduction which explains the main themes and wider context of the work.

What is Ethically Demanded?

What is Ethically Demanded?
Author: Hans Carl Fink
Publisher:
Total Pages: 368
Release: 2017
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780268101855

Cover -- What Is Ethically Demanded? -- Title -- Copyright -- Contents -- List of Abbreviations -- Introduction -- I. LØGSTRUP, KANT, AND MODERN KANTIANISM -- ONE The Anthropology of Kant's Ethics -- TWO Løgstrup on Morals and "the Sovereign Expressions of Life"--THREE Løgstrup's Point: The Complementarity between the Ethical Demand and All Other Moral Demands -- II. LØGSTRUP, KIERKEGAARD, HEIDEGGER, AND LEVINAS -- FOUR Løgstrup on Death, Guilt, and Existence in Kierkegaard and Heidegger -- FIVE The Configuration of the Ethical Demand in Løgstrup and Levinas -- SIX The Ethical Demand: Kierkegaard, Løgstrup, and Levinas -- III. THE DEVELOPMENT OF LØGSTRUP'S ETHICS -- SEVEN Kierkegaard's Demand, Transformed by Løgstrup -- EIGHT The Ethical Demand and Its Ontological Presuppositions -- NINE Løgstrup's Conception of the Sovereign Expressions of Life -- TEN The Out-Side In-Sight: Løgstrup and Fictional Writing -- IV. THEMES AND PROBLEMS: TRUST, DEPENDENCY, AND UNFULFILABILITY -- ELEVEN Trust and the Radical Ethical Demand -- TWELVE Danish Ethical Demands and French Common Goods: Two Moral Philosophies -- THIRTEEN Spontaneity and Perfection: MacIntyre versus Løgstrup -- FOURTEEN "Duty and Virtue Are Moral Introversions": On Løgstrup's Critique of Morality -- FIFTEEN Løgstrup's Unfulfillable Demand -- List of Contributors -- Index

The Ethical Demand

The Ethical Demand
Author: Knud Ejler Løgstrup
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2022-09-30
Genre:
ISBN: 9780268206994

Knud Ejler Logstrup s "The Ethical Demand" is the most original influential Danish contribution to moral philosophy in this century. This is the first time that the complete text has been available in English translation. Originally published in 1956, it has again become the subject of widespread interest in Europe, now read in the context of the whole of Logstrup s work. "The Ethical Demand" marks a break not only with utilitarianism and with Kantianism but also with Kierkegaard s Christian existentialism and with all forms of subjectivism. Yet Logstrup s project is not destructive. Rather, it is a presentation of an alternative understanding of interpersonal life. The ethical demand presupposes that all interaction between human beings involves a basic trust. Its content cannot be derived from any rule. For Logstrup, there is not Christian morality and secular morality. There is only human morality."The Ethical Demand "is of the highest relevance to contemporary debate, especially around those issues raised by Levinas. It will exert a steadily increasing influence both in theology and philosophy. "

Protestant and Roman Catholic Ethics

Protestant and Roman Catholic Ethics
Author: James M. Gustafson
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 204
Release: 1978
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 0226311082

"If Catholic and Protestant ethicians were asked to name a single theologian who was qualified to write a comprehensive overview of the historical divergences of Catholic and Protestant positions on ethical questions, the bases for those divergences in fundamentally different philosophical and theological perspectives, and the possibilities for future convergences of the traditions, my guess is that James Gustafson would be the one. . . . This brilliant and tightly argued book . . . will be the most important book on moral theology to appear this year."—John Coleman, National Catholic Reporter

Beyond the Ethical Demand

Beyond the Ethical Demand
Author: Knud Ejler Løgstrup
Publisher:
Total Pages: 212
Release: 2007
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN:

This book contains excerpts, translated into English for the first time, from the numerous books and essays Løgstrup continued to write throughout his life after his landmark work, The Ethical Demand.

Concern for the Other

Concern for the Other
Author: Svend Andersen
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess
Total Pages: 199
Release: 2007-12-11
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0268160600

In Concern for the Other: The Ethics of K. E. Løgstrup, eleven scholars examine the structure, intention, and originality of Løgstrup's ethics as a whole. This collection of essays is a companion to Beyond the Ethical Demand, as well as to The Ethical Demand. The essays examine Løgstrup's crucial concept of the "sovereign expressions of life"; his view of moral principles as a substitute for, or inferior form of, ethics; his relationships to other philosophers, including the twentieth-century British moral philosophers; and the role of his Lutheran background in his ethics. Løgstrup also firmly advanced the controversial thesis, examined by several essays in this volume, that the demand for "other-concern" central to his ethics does not depend on religious faith.

Ethical Concepts and Problems

Ethical Concepts and Problems
Author: K. E. Løgstrup
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 157
Release: 2020-06-11
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 0192602810

This is first English edition of Ethical Concepts and Problems (1971) by Danish philosopher and theologian K. E. Løgstrup (1905-81). Originally published as a contribution to a textbook of ethics for students of theology, it propounds a philosophical ethics in continuity with Martin Luther's conception of the natural law. We find here the core idea from The Ethical Demand, that in our dealings with others we are faced with the demand that we take care of them, now conceptualized as the central tenet of an ontological ethics based on human interdependence as a fundamental condition of life. Later in his career, Løgstrup developed a conception of what he called 'the sovereign expressions of life'-spontaneous other-regarding impulses or ways of conduct such as trust, sincerity, and compassion-and these are here described and determined in their relation to the ethical demand and moral norms. Furthermore, this key text discusses a number of central ethical concepts such as duty, responsibility, will, and choice. Løgstrup also explores the relationship between love of the neighbour and politics, before finally concluding with an extensive discussion of political questions such as cultural policy, democracy, and the right of resistance. Ethical Concepts and Problems therefore offers an instructive survey of important parts of Løgstrup's ethical and political thinking, from theological issues like Luther's doctrine of the bondage of the will, to the ideas of philosophers such as Descartes, Kant, Nietzsche, and Kierkegaard. In this edition Løgstrup's original text is accurately rendered into readable English and paired with an introduction which explains the main themes and wider context of the work.

The Ethics of Nature and the Nature of Ethics

The Ethics of Nature and the Nature of Ethics
Author: Gary Keogh
Publisher: Lexington Books
Total Pages: 170
Release: 2017-10-18
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1498544355

This volume explores questions which emerge from considering the relationship between nature and ethics through philosophical, theological, ethical and environmental lenses. It will examine the nature (understood as essence or character) of ethics itself and whether nature (understood as natural world) has embedded in it a moral code, as well as examining how particular ethical/theological worldviews influence our treatment of nature. Is there an abstract, objective moral code in nature? If so, how do we gain access to this code of ethics? Is it only accessible through revelation, as in some religious traditions, or is this code of ethics more generally accessible to humanity? Indeed, does such an objective notion of ethics exist; could it be that ethics are a natural and subjective development? Is ethics a feature of nature, or have we invented it? There is, this volume might suggest, no consensus on these questions, as they at times divide and at times unite both the contributors to this volume and the bodies of scholarly work with which they engage. As time moves forward, investigations into ethics in the context of the relationship between humanity and nature have become more complex, taking account of advances in the natural sciences and a growing appreciation of nature. How are we to understand our relationship with nature, and how does this have implications for our understandings of ethics? Are we now realising the repercussions of our failure to take seriously our experience of climate change? This volume offers the reader a unique and underrepresented interdisciplinary perspective, from philosophers, theologians and environmentalists on the dynamic relationship between nature and ethics. It offers breadth in terms of the range of theoretical, cultural, philosophical and theological frameworks, but balances this with chapters providing an in-depth treatment of particular lenses, e.g. the work of Hegel, or the work of Gordon Kauffman. Through philosophical and theological investigation, these collected essays deepen and problematize the scientific and pragmatic discourses on nature, offering scholars solid resources to engage with some of the most pressing issues of our time in light of ongoing debates at many levels on dealing with climate change.