back to ideas for this text


Single Idea 15677

[from 'Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action' by Jürgen Habermas, in 20. Action / C. Motives for Action / 3. Acting on Reason / b. Intellectualism ]

Full Idea

According to discourse ethics moral rightness is internally linked to validity and is analogous to truth: ..thus Habermas takes himself to have shown that morality is a matter of knowledge, rather than the expression of contingently held values.

Gist of Idea

Moral right is linked to validity and truth, so morality is a matter of knowledge, not an expression of values

Source

report of Jürgen Habermas (Moral Consciousness and Communicative Action [1990]) by James Gordon Finlayson - Habermas Ch.7:102

Book Reference

Finlayson,James G.: 'Habermas' [OUP 2005], p.102


A Reaction

I can immediately hear Nietzsche asking why you place such a high value on knowledge. Personally I don't assume that values must be 'contingent'. The Aristotelian tradition sees necessary values in facts about human nature.