An ethics of responsibility for our time

Etienne De Villiers

doi:10.17570/stj.2020.v6n1.a10

Abstract

We live in a time in which the way of life characterised as “ethical” or “moral” is under stress. The challenge we face is to take up responsibility for salvaging and enhancing the exercise of moral responsibility in all spheres of life. It is argued in this article that the ethical approach to be followed in facing this challenge is the ethics of responsibility. This ethics should, however, not be conceptualised as yet another first-level normative ethical approach vying to replace existing ones, but as a second-level one. Such an approach recognises the indispensable contribution of existing normative ethical approaches to the exercise of moral responsibility. At the same time, it provides guidance to these approaches on enhancing the exercise of moral responsibility in a contextually appropriate manner. In the article, a case is made out for the ethics of responsibility that is proposed, followed by a discussion of its profile and agenda.

Highlights

We live in a time in which the way of life characterised as “ethical” or “moral” is under stress
The challenge we face is to take up responsibility for salvaging the ethical way of living, or to put it differently, for the exercise of moral responsibility in all spheres of life
I have attempted to present a clear profile of the proposed ethics of responsibility by discussing some of the most important premises on which it is based

Summary

Introduction

We live in a time in which the way of life characterised as “ethical” or “moral” is under stress. I am arguing in this article that one should not expect one of the existing normative ethical approaches to provide this guidance. The answer rather lies in designing a second-level normative ethical approach that would provide guidance to the existing first-level normative ethical approaches on how they ought to take responsibility for enhancing the exercise of moral responsibility in our time. This would include, among others, guidance on the adaptations they need to undergo in order to fulfil this responsibility. Attention is given to both the profile and the agenda of the proposed ethics

The case for the proposed ethics of responsibility

Profile of the proposed ethics of responsibility

Agenda of the proposed ethics of responsibility

Conclusion