Morality and the Meaning of Life – serie

In the dominant view, morality is more rational and universal than, and therefore independent from, (christian) religion. Believers do not have exclusive moral knowledge. Moral principles can be known by anyone. Morality, not religion, is the supreme judge of human actions in the world. Some contributors to this volume defend this view on theological and philosophical grounds. The advantages of such a view for thinking about a common global morality are clear. However, according to many authors, the conception of morality underlying this view is at the least, impoverished, if not wrong: this view cannot explain the importance and the persistence of moral taboos. Furthermore, every morality is influenced by metaphysical and anthropological assumptions - whether or not religious: the so-called modern, rational, secular morality. The central moral question in the alternative narrative concept of morality is 'Who am I / who do I want to be ?' and not 'What is the right action ?' In this approach, not universal principles, but tradition-dependant stories constitute the core of a morality. Are these concepts more adequate for understanding the relation of religion to morality ? Do they have room for the project of a universal morality of human rights ?

Consider the fact that thousands of people die daily from preventable, poverty-related causes through no fault of their own. However, despite our failure to prevent more of these preventable deaths, we generally do not seem to consider ourselves particularly guilty, unjust, bad, immoral or irresponsible for our failure to act. This study attempts to understand our continued good conscience amid the suffering of the world's poorest. In doing so, it draws on Emmanuel Levinas's ethical philosophy to demonstrate how writings in the principal debate about the extent of our responsibility for others at the global level, the so-called 'cosmopolitan-communitarian debate', contain a number of elements that enable and perpetuate our indifference to the world's poorest.