Abstract
This manuscript brings the early writings of M.M. Bakhtin to the contemporary concern over pluralist ethics. Generally, I argue that many ethical quandaries which individuals face cannot be ascribed to a plurality of ethics or a social indeterminacy of morals. I maintain that human valuation, as an ethics of action always already in play, refers to existing individuals' struggles to participate in their personally proclaimed and endorsed value systems. Thus, I draw upon Bakhtin to suggest that concrete acts of valuation (ethics in everyday practice) are not reducible to theoretically agreed upon ethical systems, but rather, they are inseparable from the emotional-volitional moments within the total context of my uniquely held existence.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Bakhtin, M.M. (1993). Toward a Philosophy of the Act. Trans. V. Liapunov. Austin: University of Texas Press.
Bauman, Z. (1989). Modernity and the Holocaust. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.
Cummings, E.E. (1991). Complete Poems, 1904–1962. New York: Liveright Publishing.
Deetz, S. (1990). Reclaiming the Subject Matter as a Guide to Mutual Understanding: Effectiveness in Ethics and Interpersonal Interaction. Communication Quarterly 38: 226–243.
Habermas, J. (1984). The Theory of Communication Action. Volume One: Reason and the Rationalization of Society. Trans. T. McCarthy. Boston: Beacon Press.
Heidegger, M. (1962). Being and Time. Trans. J. Macquarrie and E. Robinson. New York: Harper and Row.
Kierkegaard, S. (1980). The Sickness Unto Death: A Christian Psychological Exposition for Upbuilding and Awakening. Trans. H.V. Hong and E.H. Hong.New Jersey: Princeton University Press.
Kristeva, J. (1984). Revolution in Poetic Language. Trans. M. Waller. New York: Columbia University Press.
Leder, D. (1990). The Absent Body. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press.
Lyotard, J. (1984). The Postmodern Condition: A Report on Knowledge. Trans. G. Bennington and B. Massumi. Minnesota: University of Minnesota Press. 225 BEYOND THEORETICAL ETHICS
Nietzsche, F. (1974). The Gay Science. Trans. W. Kauffmann. New York: Random House.
Schrag, C.O. (1980). Radical Reflection and the Origin of the Human Sciences. West Lafayette: Purdue University Press.
Shweder, R.A. (1986). Divergent Rationalities. In D. Fiske and R. Shweder (Eds.), Metatheory in Social Science: Pluralisms and Subjectivities. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Thayer, L. (1987). On Communication. Norwood, NJ: Ablex Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Anton, C. Beyond Theoretical Ethics: Bakhtinian Anti-Theoreticism. Human Studies 24, 211–225 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1017595123372
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/A:1017595123372