The Ethical Demand: Loegstrup's Ethics and Its Implications

道德对我们的要求有多高？伦理对我们的要求是什么？它凭什么权威要求这么做？伦理要求与其他要求，如审慎、法律和社会习俗的要求有何关系？伦理学真的有什么要求吗？这些都是伦理学的基本问题，Loegstrup对此给出了独特的答案。在他看来，道德状况主要是另一个人的命运掌握在你手中，然后你有责任为她做最好的事情。因此，需求并不是来自另一个人本身，因为她要求你做的事情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。它也不是上帝或任何形式的实践理性原则所规定的，例如康德的普遍性原则。它也不是基于对方的权利，也不是任何互惠原则。相反，它来自于照顾他人所需的东西，以及她在这种情况下的需求的指导力。因此，洛格斯特鲁普驳斥了基于上帝命令的道德义务的描述，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；相反，他发展了一种不同的图景，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，“生命是一种礼物”。我对Loegstrup的兴趣源于这些问题，因为他所采用的方法为大多数关于道德义务的描述提供了一种替代策略。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，特别是他所说的道德义务来自于他人的需要给我们帮助他们的理由，以及这些理由必然胜过其他类型的理由的方式。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Gilligan和其他人发展的护理伦理。这种做法将引起解释性和系统性问题。从解释上讲，它必须与其他解读Loegstrup的方式相抵触，比如那些将他视为神圣命令理论家的方式。在系统层面上，该方法本身将需要辩护，不仅是针对道德义务的相互竞争的说法，而且在其本身的术语中也是连贯的。解释性问题将通过密切关注洛格斯特鲁普的文本以及它们被写成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的问题。除了专著，我还将联合翻译洛格斯特鲁普的书《Kierkegaards and Heeideggers Existenzanalysis》。洛格斯特鲁普的思想在现代丹麦的知识生活中发挥着重要的作用：他的思想在现代丹麦的知识生活中扮演着重要的角色：他的作品已经售出了10万册，他所有作品的新版目前正在制作中，他不仅影响了学术研究，还影响了教育学和护理学。他在斯堪的纳维亚半岛也很出名，在某种程度上在德国也是如此；但直到最近，他的思想在英美世界中一直被忽视。虽然一些重要的思想家注意到了他的工作(如麦金太尔、鲍曼和达沃尔)，但这是相当零碎的，尚未取得任何重大影响。我将把这种对Loegstrup思想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相当大的影响，例如在医疗培训、实践和政策方面。这些想法值得比到目前为止得到更广泛的考虑，这只能通过该项目可能实现的规模的工作来实现。

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.