Questioning Ethics: Contemporary Debates in Philosophy

313 Pages·1998·3.55 MB·English

by  Mark Dooley

QUESTIONING ETHICS

Questioning Ethics: Contemporary debates in philosophy is a major
discussion by some of the world’s leading thinkers of crucial ethical issues
confronting us today.
Original contributions by Habermas, Derrida, MacIntyre, Ricoeur,
Kristeva and other major philosophers are organized around five sections:
hermeneutics, deconstruction, critical theory, psychoanalysis and applications
of ethics. Topics considered in these sections include the nature of politics,
women’s rights, lying, repressed memory, historical debt and forgiveness,
the self and responsibility, revisionism, bioethics and multiculturalism. Each
section engages with the critical implications of these problems for
philosophy.
A key feature of this book is an interview with Jacques Derrida, which
makes available the most accessible insight into his thinking for many
years. There is also an interview with Paul Ricoeur, which offers a very
useful introduction to some of the key themes in his work.
Contributors: Hermeneutics: Paul Ricoeur; Richard Kearney; Jeffrey Barash;
Jean Greisch. Deconstruction: Jacques Derrida; John D.Caputo; David
Wood; Simon Glendinning. Critical Theory: Jürgen Habermas; Karl-Otto
Apel; Thomas McCarthy; David M.Rasmussen. Psychoanalysis: William
J.Richardson; Julia Kristeva; Simon Critchley. Applications: Alasdair
MacIntyre; Maeve Cooke; Peter Kemp.
The Editors: Richard Kearney is Professor of Philosophy at University
College Dublin and Boston College. He is the author of The Wake of
Imagination, Poetics of Imagining, Postnationalist Ireland, editor of
Continental Philosophy in the Twentieth Century and co-editor of The
Continental Philosophy Reader, all published by Routledge. Mark Dooley
is Lecturer in Philosophy at University College Dublin, and at the National
University of Ireland, Maynooth. He has published numerous articles in
the area of continental philosophy, and has a book forthcoming on
Kierkegaard, Derrida, and postmodern ethics.

QUESTIONING ETHICS
Contemporary debates in philosophy
Edited by Richard Kearney
and Mark Dooley
London and New York
First published 1999
by Routledge
11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE
This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002.
Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada
by Routledge
29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001
© 1999 Richard Kearney and Mark Dooley, selection and editorial matter;
individual chapters, the contributors
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic,
mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter
invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any
information storage or retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publishers.
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Questioning ethics: debates in contemporary philosophy/edited by
Richard Kearney and Mark Dooley.
p. cm.
1. Ethics, Modern-20th century. I. Kearney, Richard.
II. Dooley, Mark.
BJ319.Q47 1999
170–dc21 98–8544
CIP
ISBN 0-203-45083-3 Master e-book ISBN
ISBN 0-203-75907-9 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-18034-1 (hbk)
ISBN 0-415-18035-X (pbk)
This book is dedicated to the memory of
Míceál O’Regan
and
John Kevin Tierney

CONTENTS
List of contributors x
Introduction 1
RICHARD KEARNEY AND MARK DOOLEY
PART I
Hermeneutics 3
1 Memory and forgetting 5
PAUL RICOEUR
2 Imagination, testimony and trust: a dialogue with
Paul Ricoeur 12
3 Narrative and the ethics of remembrance 18
RICHARD KEARNEY
4 The politics of memory: reflections on practical wisdom
and political identity 33
JEFFREY BARASH
5 Ethics and lifeworlds 44
JEAN GREISCH
PART II
Deconstruction 63
6 Hospitality, justice and responsibility: a dialogue with
Jacques Derrida 65
vii
CONTENTS
7 Reason, history, and a little madness: towards an ethics
of the kingdom 84
JOHN D.CAPUTO
8 The experience of the ethical 105
DAVID WOOD
9 The ethics of exclusion: incorporating the Continent 120
SIMON GLENDINNING
PART III
Critical theory 133
10 Three normative models of democracy: liberal,
republican, procedural 135
JÜRGEN HABERMAS
11 The problem of justice in a multicultural society:
the response of discourse ethics 145
KARL-OTTO APEL
12 Enlightenment and the idea of public reason 164
THOMAS McCARTHY
13 Paradigms of public reason: reflections on ethics and
democracy 181
DAVID M.RASMUSSEN
PART IV
Psychoanalysis 199
14 In the name-of-the-Father: the Law? 201
WILLIAM J.RICHARDSON
15 Revolt today? 220
JULIA KRISTEVA
16 The original traumatism: Levinas and psychoanalysis 230
SIMON CRITCHLEY
viii
CONTENTS
PART V
Applications 243
17 Some Enlightenment projects reconsidered 245
ALASDAIR MacINTYRE
18 Questioning autonomy: the feminist challenge and the
challenge for feminism 258
MAEVE COOKE
19 From ethics to bioethics 283
PETER KEMP
Index 294
ix