Original scientific paper

Why Pavao Vuk-Pavlović did not Write an Ethics?

Milan Polić ; Učiteljska akademija, Zagreb, Hrvatska

Abstract

Although Pavao Vuk-Pavlović, as a writer, kept systematically adding to the themes that were the subjects of his philosophical interest, he had never expounded his ethics. Moreover, he never wrote a single paper on either ethics or morality. Furthermore, in those of his works in which educational issues are the central topic, ethics 'and morality, or the necessarily related notions of duty, obligation, or »one should« are never mentioned, except, quite marginally, in several places.
In spite of that, some authors are willing to consider Vuk-Pavlović as an ethics or morality writer and look for hidden ethics in his works that they would gladly (re)construct, after he had not done so in his lifetime. Two questions should be answered here, however, not only whether it would be possible, but also whether it would be justified. For the issue is not exclusively whether Vuk-Pavlović's legacy of thought contains material enough to reconstruct an ethics in a high-grade manner, but above all whether there is in it a place for something like that.
That is, the question is whether Vuk-Pavlović's quite evident interest in values contains a philosophical justification for a (re)construction of an ethics of his, or whether such intentions miss the essence of his thought, perhaps even reproving the very essence of his work.

Keywords

Hrčak ID:

68116

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/68116

Publication date:

5.12.2005.

Article data in other languages: croatian

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