Original scientific paper

Ideas for a Postsecular Ethics

Borut Ošlaj orcid.org/0009-0004-0911-5696 ; University of Ljubljana, Faculty of Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia

Abstract

The fact that ethics, as understood and practiced in our Western culture, has definitively come to a dead end, is overlooked only by those academic philosophers for whom it is still an esoteric and self-sufficient matter of proper reasoning regarding morality. Both religiously and secularly conceived theories have failed; it is especially evident in the fact that we have never thought about ethics as much and acted according to moral principles as rarely as today. Ethical reflection and moral conduct have long ago become incompatible worlds, and relate to each other in an inversely proportional relationship. On this background an eternal question is raised once again: Can the difference between ethical thought and moral action on one side, and secular and religious approaches on the other, be overcome within a single ethical-moral concept? This paper presents an investigation of a postsecular ethics together with examining its basis and possibilities of bringing action motivated beliefs together with critical, responsible thinking based on personal autonomy in a consistently experienced and, at the same time, reflexive constellation.

Keywords

ethical differences; religious ethics; secular ethics; postsecular ethics; beliefs; virtues

Hrčak ID:

101715

URI

https://hrcak.srce.hr/101715

Publication date:

19.2.2013.

Article data in other languages: croatian french german

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