Toward a relational moral subject: A critical reappraisal of contemporary ethical-moral discourse.

摘要

This dissertation critically reappraises the contemporary ethical-moral discourses of postmodernism, communicative ethics, communitarianism, Buddhism, and Christianity. Using a method of “critical hermeneutical action,” this reappraisal seeks to recognize, protect, and enhance the otherness of others, considered to be the most significant concern in the face of massive crimes against humanity in the twentieth century.; Postmodernists like Derrida and Lyotard made an enormous effort to deconstruct “modernity,” judged to be the primal perpetrator of the crimes, but failed to recognize and protect the otherness of others. Habermas rejected the postmodern totalizing critique of modernity and reason, as he reconstructed intersubjectivity for the otherness of others through the recovery of communicative, intersubjective rationality. Because they see liberal individualism as the main cause of modern moral pathology, communitarians like MacIntyre, Sandel, Taylor, and Walzer argued for the recovery of tradition and community in moral reasoning. Communitarian politics of the “common good,” however, face challenges from cultural dissidents within a given common culture, as well as a religiously pluralistic globalized society.; The Buddhist discourse of “no-self,” although sometimes abused, as by imperial Japanese Zen Buddhists, provides an alternative view for the otherness of others. Their teaching of unlimited, unbounded responsibility for others is expressed in the ethical action of “giving.” The Buddhist view of self as one-for-others has strong affinity with the Christian theologian Johann Baptist Metz's view of a “strong subject” as one-for-others'-suffering. Metz recovers an understanding of the strong moral self from the Judeo-Christian tradition, assisted by Benjamin's idea of anamnestic solidarity.; A “relational moral subject,” constituted in relation with the otherness of others, is presented as the “Ariadne's thread” that can connect different theoretical positions in contemporary ethical-moral discourse. Relationality can supercede both modern subjectivism and postmodern subjectless mysticism. Relationality can sublate individualism and communalism. A relational moral subject can recognize, support, and protect the otherness of others.; The Ariadne's thread of genuinely relational, moral subjectivity may cut through the theoretical arguments in contemporary ethical-moral discourse about human rights, and connect various practical efforts to achieve human rights and a better justice.