Bat mice shout to find their way. With ultrasound, they move in dark. They find the environment along the echo. How do people focus on an equally dark, moral space? Even before Immanuel Kant, it was clear that you could not break through the daily life with the base course in your luggage. Ultrasound for decisions is when someone wants to believe the Scottish philosophers of the 18th century: moral meaning.
The American philosopher Thomas embroidered the essay about bats. Two years ago, he presented a new book that was published in a German translation: “Moral feelings, moral reality, moral progress.” The book – in fact, the booklet – has matured longer: it consists of two essays, which, in turn, are based on lectures and discussions in different places.
And the problem begins: the audience is offered navigation data from the moment before the election of Trump. Anyone who hurts with this ends painfully in reality, which is less advisable than Nagel could imagine in 2015. However, he is not interested in short -term diagnoses.
Search for “Balance of Consideration”
Instead, an almost 90-year-old philosopher returns to his beginning with a book: his academic path began with a doctoral dissertation in Altruism, under the control of John Rowls. So what is moral progress and how can it be measured? The booklet is trying to avoid two rocks: first, the arrogant self -esteem of the present, which wants to evaluate the whole past in accordance with current standards; On the other hand, the arbitrariness of historical relativism, which, after the motto, “different times, different customs” and do not want anything but the corresponding modern norms. As a solution, Nagel offers a further search for the “balance of consideration”. You can hear the philosophical language of his academic teacher.
What is a good argument in moral matters? Nagel again calls the classic places of moral philosophy, as you know them since the 18th century. What role does moral intuition, social use play the role and, as a whole, mandatory rules and obligations? Nagel plays all three philosophical cards – and claims that you cannot do without any of them. His considerations in moral progress are based on this.
The nail distinguishes two scenarios. Moral progress can be those moral causes that have long been known over time. The abolition of modern slavery will be an example of this. Moral progress can also be in new causes and considerations, for example, when institutions and society are changing, and with them methods of thinking. In ancient slavery, according to Nagel, the question arises of whether it was historically recognized (Nagel tends to Ya) – or was evaluated as an inevitable misfortune.
Some moral balance are unstable
The more specific book becomes at the end, the worse the reading becomes. The supremacy of the law, social equality, sexual freedom, global justice are four areas where it was embodied by moral progress. Unlike an American gift, it is clear how unstable some moral balance is.
Only one footnote in the book refers to a moral decrease. Nagel, who was born in Belgrade in 1937 in the childhood of a Jewish family of refugees, and then emigrated to the United States, has in mind the historical constellations that he experienced himself. Moral truths and moral reasons remain valid, he says, while they are remembered. Only when there is a “catastrophic loss of cultural memory and a descent into barbarism,” this will differ from a moral philosophical point of view. It is worth reading Thomas Nagel to check how far our moral location spreads.
