Autor: Lonergan, Bernard J.F.

Buch: A Second Collection

Titel: A Second Collection

Stichwort: Nowak; Lonergan, Ethik;

Kurzinhalt: Though I did not in Insight feel called upon to work out a code of ethics, neither did I exclude such a code. On the contrary ....

Textausschnitt: 39a Professor Novak has given a subtly accurate account of my position on philosophic ethics. I quite agree (1) that, as I base metaphysics, so also I base ethics not on logically first propositions but on invariant structures of human knowing and human doing, (2) that this basis leaves room for a history and, indeed a development of morals, (3) that there is a concrete level of intelligibility reached by insight but missed when universal concepts are applied to particular instances, and (4) that such concrete intelligibility is relevant not only to science but also to conduct. (Fs)

39b I have said, however, that Professor Novak's account was not just accurate but subtly accurate. The fact is that Professor Novak is an apostle as well as a scholar and I have the feeling that he is inviting or nudging or even perhaps pushing me a little farther than I have gone on my own initiative. (Fs)

39c He attributes to me the rejection of an "objective code of ethics out there." This is quite true inasmuch as I reject naive realism and so reject the "out there" as a measure and standard of objectivity. It is quite true inasmuch as I reject an anti-intellectual conceptualism and so reject an anti-historical immobilism. It is quite true, further, that I do not base a code of conclusions upon a code of verbal propositions named first principles. It is quite true, again, that while I assigned invariant structures as the basis for the possibility of ethics, I did not proceed to work out a code from such a basis. It is quite true, finally, as Professor Novak contends, that the basis I offer in invariant structures provides foundations for personal ethical decision and for personal concern with the concrete good in concrete situations. (Fs) (notabene)

39d Now I am completely at one with Professor Novak in his concern for personal ethical decision about the concrete good. But I wish to forestall any misapprehension about my position. Though I did not in Insight feel called upon to work out a code of ethics, neither did I exclude such a code. On the contrary I drew a parallel between ethics and metaphysics. In metaphysics I not only assigned a basis in invariant structures but also derived from that basis a metaphysics with a marked family resemblance to traditional views. A similar family resemblance, I believe, would be found to exist between traditional ethics and an ethics that, like the metaphysics, was explicitly aware of itself as a system on the move. (Fs)