Moral Orientation

Prior to all justifications or normative demands, a philosophy of orientation starts with an observation of moral orientation. On the one hand, one’s morality limits one’s leeways of orientation, binding not only one’s actions but also one’s thinking. On the other hand, modern democratic societies allow for a pluralism of morals and thus for a morality for dealing with different morals.

Morality’s most striking and strongest foothold is the inner coercion to help others who are, in immediate proximity, faced with an emergency situation they cannot master themselves. This kind of moral orientation closes the leeways of your orientation, without reservation in the respective situation. It shuts down the complexities of double contingency, thus enabling trust in the reliability of others when being in an emergency situation (chap. 14.1).

For its stabilization, moral orientation develops moral routines (e.g. the expectation of reciprocity), shapes moral identities that distinguish between good and evil, and adopts prevailing or dominant moralities that best relieve the needs of a certain group or society (chap 14.3). Moral characters, norms, and values permit for various leeways in different orientation worlds (chap. 14.5). Orientation can again detach itself from its moral coercions by perspectivizing them (chap. 14.6). Sustaining its own morality while forgoing reciprocity, moral orientation can turn into ethical orientation.

XIII, 8, 11, 15, 62, 98, 113-114, 124, 134, 149, 156, 159, 161, 166, 172-175, 180, 196, 205-246, 248, 250, 263

 

Glossary

Reinhard Mueller