Vitality and Wobbliness of Universal Moral Values in the Post-Modern World: Creativity and Regulative Function of the Logos of Life

Abstract

Transformations in the sphere of ethical values in the modern times are complex and dynamic. Their impact on the quality of collective and individual life of societies in the globalising world is increasing. The process of describing this phenomenon may be facilitated by the category of “wobbliness of moral values.” This term refers both to the existence, the functioning of values and their relation to human agents: intellectual and emotional reception, internal acceptance, impact on the recipients’ personality, their stances, behaviour, etc. In the first case, the category of “wobbliness” denotes the extension or the narrowing (in current social, cultural and civilisational contexts) of practically recognised and realistically complied with basic moral values and principles, as well as obligations resulting from them. This is the “yielding” under the impact of external factors (economic, political, demographic, ecological, etc.) and at the same time the “straightening” – in a specific time and place – of the backbone of elementary values and principles of conduct, the brightening or the darkening of the significant meaning of objective criteria for basic goods and moral choices, the integration or the disintegration of historically and practically verified systems of values and rules of conduct. In the second case, this category denotes the increase or the decrease in readiness and the need of personal acceptance and practical implementation of a circle of basic values and ethical principles, an increased or a lowered level of understanding and appreciation of the significance of moral culture in the life of people, the awakening or the muffling of the personal and collective moral sensitivity, the opening onto or the isolation from the other people, the revival or the decay of empathic, altruistic and humanistic references in inter-human relations. A characteristic feature of moral wobbliness – in both its meanings – is primarily the fact that in spite of differentiation between internal or external moral qualities, the moral core embedded in the human nature remains untouched in its foundations. This relatively durable and solid core of morality is inherent in the human nature, excluding pathological or deformed cases and particularly extreme external circumstances. The ethical element, known as the conscience or the moral feeling, constitutes the so-called natural morality, confirmed both in the contemporary philosophy (phenomenology, existentialism, personalism, eco-philosophy, recentivism, etc.), as well as in certain social sciences (developmental and personality psychology, neuro-psychology, social anthropology, recent morality theories and other theoretical and empirical concepts).