政治自由主义 = Political liberalism

The previous chapter gave us some reasons for caution about speaking of trust as a pervasive aspect of all social life. However, I wish now to turn to what I see as a legitimate use of such expressions. K. E. Logstrup writes in his work on theological ethics:
Trust, in an elementary sense, belongs to every exchange of words. [...][B]y addressing someone—no matter the weight of what is being said—one takes up a certain tone in which the speaker, as it were, goes outside himself so as now to exist in the relationship of the speech to the other. This is why the demand—tacitly—is to the effect that one be received oneself when one’s tone of voice is received. When someone fails or refuses to hear the tone it therefore means that the speaker himself is being ignored, insofar as what has exposed itself is the speaker himself.

The fact that all speech takes place in the midst of such an elementary trust is shown by the fact that the most trivial of remarks will ring false if one does not believe it will be taken as it is meant.1

The Ethical Demand

Phänomenologie des Geistes

Ethical Governance and Society: A Select Bibliography:

Political Dissent in Democratic Athens: Intellectual Critics of Popular Rule

Zygmunt Bauman’s entire body of work has been dedicated to exploring sociological issues. However, problems of moral philosophy have come to play an increasingly crucial role for his understanding of social life in later works. In particular, the Danish philosopher Knud Ejler Logstrup’s moral philosophy has shaped Bauman’s thinking. Logstrup argued that there is an unconditional imperative in the ethical demand to take care of the Other, and this imperative cannot be superseded, rationalized, calculated, or strategically managed. Bauman is right in telling us that the personal ethics is the point of departure for a moral judgement. In this context it is very relevant to integrate Levinas’ and Logstrup’s considerations. However, this perspective cannot stand alone. It is necessary to move forward to a form of Habermasian communicative ethics that can transmit the substantial moral judgement from a spontaneous communal perspective to a pragmatic societal perspective expressed in political terms. In other wo...

The ethical demand in societal perspective: Zygmunt Bauman’s sociological interpretation of the Danish philosopher K. E. Løgstrup’s moral philosophy

Modern society modern politics and administration the modern administrator ethics and administration freedom of expression, the public space and democracy the obedient administrator.

Øjvind Larsen

Papers

The ethical demand in societal perspective: Zygmunt Bauman’s sociological interpretation of the Danish philosopher K. E. Løgstrup’s moral philosophy

Administration, Ethics and Democracy

Den samfundsetiske udfordring

Forvaltning, etik og demokrati

The Ethical Demand in a Global Perspective: A Response to Bauman