The Ethical Demand: Loegstrup's Ethics and Its Implications

道德要求我们付出多少？道德要求我们做什么？它凭什么要求这么做？道德要求与审慎、法律和社会习俗等其他要求是如何联系起来的？道德真的有什么要求吗？这些都是伦理学的基本问题，洛格斯特鲁普对此给出了独特的答案。在他看来，道德状况主要是这样一种情况：他人的命运掌握在你手中，你有责任为她做最好的事。因此，这种要求并不是来自对方，因为她要求你做的可能与你应该做的不同。它也不是来自社会对你的期望，因为它不是由社会规则规定的。它也不是由上帝规定的，也不是由任何实践理性的形式原则规定的，如康德的普遍性原则。它也不是基于对方的权利，或任何互惠原则。而是来自于照顾他人所需要的东西，以及她在这种情况下需要的指导力量。因此，洛格斯特鲁普拒绝了基于上帝的命令，或基于支配实践理性的抽象原则，或基于社会规范，或基于对权利和正义的考虑的道德义务的解释；相反，他提出了一种不同的观点，其基础是他声称我们是相互依存的，因此对我们每个人来说，“生命都是一份礼物”。我对Loegstrup的兴趣源于这些问题，因为他采用的方法为大多数道德义务的解释提供了另一种策略。因此，我将把它与那些相互竞争的说法放在一起，并评估其优点，特别是他的主张，即道德义务来自于他人的需要给我们提供帮助的理由，以及这些理由必然胜过其他理由的方式。我还将探讨Loegstrup的方法与Levinas的工作相关但又不同的方式，以及吉利根和其他人开发的护理伦理。这种方法将引起解释性和系统性的问题。在解释上，它必须与其他解读洛格斯特鲁普的方式相抗衡，比如那些将他视为神圣命令理论家的人。在系统层面上，这种方法本身需要辩护，不仅要反对道德义务的竞争性解释，而且要在其自身的条件下保持连贯。解释性问题将通过密切关注Loegstrup的文本，以及它们写作的历史和知识背景来处理，而我将通过提出他的方法的比较优点来处理系统问题。除了专著，我还将参与翻译洛格斯特鲁普的著作《克尔凯郭尔与海德格尔的存在分析》。这本书就写在《道德要求》之前，它本身就很有趣，它也将帮助我把《道德要求》本身的论点置于背景中。Loegstrup的思想在现代丹麦的知识分子生活中发挥了重要作用：Den etiske fordings已售出超过10万册，他所有作品的新版本目前正在制作中，他不仅影响了学术研究，而且影响了教育学和护理学。他在斯堪的纳维亚半岛也很有名，在德国也有一定程度的知名度；但直到最近，他的思想才被英美世界所忽视。虽然一些重要的思想家关注他的工作（如麦金泰尔，鲍曼和达沃尔），但这是相当零碎的，尚未取得任何重大影响。我将把对Loegstrup的观点的接受提升到一个新的水平，同时也展示它们如何在学术界以外产生巨大影响的潜力，例如在医疗培训、实践和政策方面。这些想法值得更广泛的考虑，而这只能通过这个项目所实现的规模来实现。

How much does ethics demand from us? What does ethics demand of us? On what authority does it demand it? How does what ethics demands relate to other requirements, such as those of prudence, law and social convention? Does ethics really demand anything at all?These are fundamental questions in ethics, to which Loegstrup gives distinctive answers. On his account, the ethical situation is primarily one in which the fate of the other person is placed in your hands, where it is then your responsibility to do what is best for her. The demand therefore does not come from the other person as such, as what she asks you to do may be different from what you should do. It also doesn't come from what is expected of you by society, as it is not laid down by social rules. Nor is it laid down by God or by any formal principle of practical reason, such as Kant's principle of universalizability. It is also not based on the rights of the other, or any principle of reciprocity. It rather comes from what is required to care for the other, and the directive power of her needs in the situation. Loegstrup therefore rejects accounts of ethical obligation based on the commands of God, or on abstract principles governing practical reason, or on social norms, or on considerations of rights and justice; instead he develops a different picture, at the basis of which is his claim that we are mutually interdependent, and thus that for each of us 'life is a gift'. My interest in Loegstrup arises from these issues, since the approach he adopts offers an alternative strategy to most accounts of ethical obligation. I shall therefore set it alongside those competing accounts, and assess its merits, particularly his claim that ethical obligation comes from the reasons that the needs of others give us to help them, and the way in which these necessarily trump other kinds of reasons. I will also explore the way in which Loegstrup's approach relates to but differs from the work of Levinas, and the care ethics developed by Gilligan and others. This approach will give rise to both interpretative and systematic questions. Interpretatively, it will have to be justified against other ways of reading Loegstrup, such as those that treat him as a divine command theorist. At a systematic level, the approach itself will require defence, not only against competing account of moral obligation, but as coherent in its own terms. The interpretative questions will be dealt with by close attention to Loegstrup's texts, and also the historical and intellectual context in which they were written, while I will deal with systematic questions by bringing out the comparative merits of his approach.As well as the monograph, I will also co-translate Loegstrup's book Kierkegaards und Heideggers Existenzanalyse. Written just before The Ethical Demand, and of great interest in its own right, this will also help me contextualize the arguments of The Ethical Demand itself.Loegstrup's ideas play a major role in the intellectual life of modern Denmark: Den etiske fordring has sold over 100,000 copies, and a new edition of all his works is currently being produced, where he has influenced not only academic research but also pedagogics and nursing. He is also well-known in Scandinavia generally and to some extent in Germany as well; but until recently his thought was neglected in the Anglo-American world. While some important thinkers pay attention to his work (such as MacIntyre, Bauman and Darwall), this has been rather piecemeal, and not yet achieved any significant effect. I will take this reception of Loegstrup's ideas to a new level, while also showing how they have potential for considerable impact outside academia, for example in medical training, practice and policy. These ideas merit much wider consideration than they have received up to now, which can only be achieved by work on the scale that this project makes possible.