Resume
Queries in the Way of Contemporary Ethical Thinking
Nesvadba, Petr:
The author gives questions concerning the further direction of modern western ethical thinking. He concludes that there is no need to be pessimistic in current era of decay of the great legitimizing stories; firstly, existing “classical” ethical paradigmas are still valid (although their universalizing claims fell down), and secondly, there are growing lots of new attitudes. According to the author, it is important to focus the attention especially on perspectives of situational ethics, but he also suggests to link the main idea of this situational ethics with requirements of Habernases ethics and with the principle of “responsibility for other”, which was formulated mainly by Emmanuel Lévinas.
Keywords: ethics, philosophy, communication, contexts, legitimacy, responsibility, understanding, situation ethics.