Abstract
Our ethically informed choice of action is situated in time. However, the question of time is seldom explicitly addressed in publications on ethics. This essay is a tentative comment as a contribution to fill that gap.
NOW has a central position in our choice of action. It is our first step into the FUTURE. This cannot be only a timeless investigation. Our ethical reflection may also involve a vision of the future we want, a tool to assist our decisions. The discussion in ethical theory as well as in applied ethics is often of a general and abstract character. I suggest that we should see such abstractions as tools in an ethical toolbox, rather than timeless or objective justifications. Autonomy in reasons and actions demands self-authorized coherence over time, but also openness to slow changes.
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Notes
- 1.
Thomas Nagel, The Possibility of Altrism, Clarendon Press, Oxford 1970. This book was based upon Nagel’s PhD Thesis. Nagel’s supervisor during his PhD studies was John Rawls. Nagel has later made substantial contributions to many fields of philosophy and ethics. The reason that I found it of relevance to make a second reading of his book on altruism and use this as a counterpoint to my own arguments in this essay was mainly that I found its arguments and standpoint characteristic for much ethical thinking, not only around 1970, but for long time in wide circles.
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Karin Nordström aptly labels this “langsame Autonomie”. Nordström, Karin, Autonomie und Erziehung. Eine ethische Studie. Verlag Karl Alber, Freiburg/München 2009 (334–336).
References
Ekstrom, Laura Waddell. 1993. A coherence theory of autonomy. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 53(3): 599–616.
Ekstrom, Laura Waddell. 2005. Alienation, autonomy and the self. Midwest Studies in Philosophy XXIX: 45–67.
Nagel, Thomas. 1970. The possibility of altrism. Oxford: Clarendon.
Nordström, Karin. 2009. Autonomie und Erziehung. Eine ethische Studie. Freiburg/München: Verlag Karl Alber.
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Görman, U. (2016). Time – A Dimension of Ethics. In: Baldwin, J. (eds) Embracing the Ivory Tower and Stained Glass Windows. Issues in Science and Religion: Publications of the European Society for the Study of Science and Theology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-23944-6_5
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