On the Ontological Foundation of Ethics - A study of concepts, "nature", "freedom" and "responsibility" in the history of thought

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

In this period I tried to inquire into the ontological foundation of ethics, examining such concepts as "nature", "freedom" and "responsibility" in the history of Western thought. 1) As for nature, it became clear that nature faced us as "physis", "natura" and "creatio". 2) As for freedom, I compared K. Jaspers' existential freedom with M. Heidegger's ontological freedom. Then, I further traced the origin of this difference in the history of thought. 3) When the universal concept of the "freedom" is assumed as the basis of ethics, a problem arises how "freedom" and "nature" are compatible with each other. I. Kant solved this problem by using the concept "Zweckmassigkeit (the purposiveness of nature)". On the other hand, H. Jonas used as the foundation the general idea of "Zweckhaftigkeit". 4) The general idea of the responsibility, appeared in the latter half of the 15th century, was frequently used the 19th century, and became the key concept of ethic in the 20th century. But, the con … More sept is old, and has its origin in the old legal life. Moreover, this fundamentally legal responsibility, "imputatio", which means explanation before God, already appeared in the Old Testament. 5) The modern idea of responsibility appeared together with morbid phenomenon of the principle of modern morality, "conscience". While conscience goes deep into one's self, the value standard has been searched in a vacuum of value. 6) Responsibility is a relational concept with many meanings. Someone is responsible for something to some person according to a certain standard in front of a certain court. Responsibility is divided into social responsibility, religious responsibility and individual responsibility from the viewpoint of "vor". And from another viewpoint, it is devided into responsibility for the causal result of an act, task and role responsibility, moral responsibility and legal responsibility. 7) An issue to be pursed is : How could co-responsibility be founded in the dehumanized system society? Could it be fpunded on the viewpoint of existence argument or on the viewpoint of humanities? Less