The Response of Discourse Ethics to the Moral Challenge of the Human Situation as Such and Especially Today Mercier Lectures, Louvain-la-Neuve, March 1999 (Morality and the Meaning of Life)

The need for a global ethics has its origin in the human situation as such (i.e. in the fact of hominisation that has dismissed us from the natural security of animal instincts and thrown us into the state of freedom) and especially in the present situation of humankind that is characterised by an extreme increase of external challenges to our co-responsability, brought about by the results of natural science, technology, politics and economy, and - as it appears - lacking internal resources of ethical reason. The present book tries to show that the transcentendal-pragmatic approach to discourse ethics can reconstruct the genesis of this situation and provide a rational response to the external challenges to and the internal deficits of global ethics. (Peeters 2001) Ist Lecture. The Human Situation As A Challenge To Ethics: The Development Of The External Challenge To Morality From Hominization To The Present Time -- 2nd Lecture. Third And Fourth Course Of A Reconstruction Of The Human Cultural Evolution: The Internal Resources Of Morality From Hominization To The Present Time -- 3rd Lecture. The Situation After 1945: The Sharpening Of The External Challenges To The Ethics And The Insufficiency Of Its Internal Resources In The East And In The West. The Need For A New Foundation -- 4th Lecture. First Introduction To Discourse Ethics: The Novel Paradigm Of A Transcedental-pragmatic Foundation Of Ethics -- 5th Lecture. First Introduction To Discourse Ethics Continued: Discourse Ethics As A Transformation Of Kantian Ethics -- 6th Lecture. Second Introduction To Discourse Ethics: The Reception Of The Hermeneutic-linguistic-pragmatic Turn Of Philosophy And The Overcoming Of Historism-relativism -- 7th Lecture. Application Problems Of Discourse Ethics. Pt. 1. The Distinction Between Pt. A And Pt. B Of A History-related Ethics Of (co-) Responsibility -- 8th Lecture. Application Problems Of Discourse Ethics. Pt. 2. How To Deal With The Functional Constraints Of The Sub-systems Of Society: Politics, Law And Economy. Karl-otto Apel. The Eight Lectures Published Here Were Given In English In Louvain-la-neuve In March 1999 In The Context Of The Cahire Cardinal Mercier At The Invitation Of The Institut Superérieur De Philosophie Of The Université Catholique De Louvain. They Are Also Published In French In The Series Bibliothèque Philosophique De Louvain (peters, 2000)--t.p. Verso. Also Published In French In The Series Bibliothèque Philosophique De Louvain (peters 2000). Includes Bibliographical References And Index.