Relation to others· Morals
A tacit convention
Axis: The source of morality — What gives morality its authority?
Morality rests on a tacit agreement, sedimented by a society's history: a tradition of shared judgments about what is done and what is not. Neither the law of a pure reason nor a mere impulse of the heart, this convention holds because we renew it together; its authority is real, but immanent, situated, and therefore revisable.
- Descriptive QuestionWithout God, is everything permitted?
If no transcendent guarantor upholds our duties, do they keep their binding force, or do they become choices that can always be undone? Secularized societies put the phrase to the test every day.
morality without a guarantor - DescriptiveThe force of custom
Can a rule that rests only on our agreement bind someone who withdraws from it? Custom binds as long as it is shared, but the reformer who contests it seems to appeal to something beyond it.
custom - DescriptiveDoes explaining morality destroy it?
If we can tell how our values were fabricated (history, evolution, ressentiment), does their claim to the absolute collapse, or does a norm's origin say nothing about its validity?
the history of morality