Of Dictators and Greengrocers: On the Repressive Grammar of Values-Discourse

Joel Backström

Research output: Contribution to journalArticleScientificpeer-review

5 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

The present contribution questions the seemingly self-evident idea that morality is, most basically, about values and valuation. Values are indeed pervasive in moral life, but they are not original phenomena; rather, they are repressive responses to a sense of good and evil beyond values. This 'beyond' relates, I argue, to the encounter between individual human beings, and values function to manage and mask the inescapability and difficulty of this encounter, with its unbearable either-or of openness to, or refusal of, the other; of love or destructiveness. Various manifestations of the inherently problematic character of values-thinking are examined, e.g. its inextricable intertwinement with social pressure, moralism, and egocentric concern. I also discuss the relation of shared 'moral languages' to moral understanding, and the way in which a Wittgensteinian, strictly descriptive ethics can nonetheless challenge not only theories of morality, but our moral life itself.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)39-67
Number of pages29
JournalEthical Perspectives
Volume22
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Mar 2015
MoE publication typeA1 Journal article-refereed

Keywords

  • Values
  • Wittgenstein
  • I-you relations
  • moralism
  • evil
  • racism
  • WITTGENSTEIN LECTURE
  • ETHICS
  • 611 Philosophy

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