The Paradox of MoralityThe last work by "one of the most singular voices of twentieth-century French philosophy" (Critical Inquiry) on the complexities of love in public and private life Vladimir Jankélévitch stands alongside Emmanuel Levinas as one of the most admired French ethicists of the twentieth century, known for his work on everything from the possibility of forgiveness after the Holocaust to the philosophy of music. In his final work, The Paradox of Morality (1981), Jankélévitch turns his attention to the fundamental questions of the moral life: the struggle between egoism and self-sacrifice, the question of whether pure or infinite love exists, and moral agency in the pursuit of human rights. In dialogue with philosophers from Plato to Nietzsche, Jankélévitch proposes that the moral life comprises an acrobatic act in which we must balance the demands of love and our responsibility to the other against our natural attachment to the self. Morality is the activity of realizing and combining, in each individual action, the maximum amount of love possible with the minimum of being. This oscillation between self and other--and between being and love--is never fixed or stable. In the end, morality is not something that exists in the world of contemplation; instead, it is the substance of what must be done here and now: created anew in each new moment. |
Contents
1 Moral Evidence Is Simultaneously Encompassing and Encompassed | 3 |
2 The Conspicuousness of Morality Is Simultaneously Equivocal and Univocal | 39 |
3 The Least Evil and the Tragic Side of the Contradiction | 112 |
4 The Scheme of the Conscience How to Preserve Innocence | 188 |
Notes | 237 |
Translators Acknowledgments | 243 |
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Common terms and phrases
able abnegation absurd affirmation almost-nothing alternative altruism ambiguity ambivalence Aristotle ascetic asceticism aseity axiology bad conscience Baltasar Gracián becomes being-proper beloved Bergson called claim condition consciousness contradiction contradictory cynical death Diotima disinterested duty effect of relief egoism ethical everything existence extreme fact Fénelon finitude gift gives golden mean happy medium heart human ical imperative impetus impure infinite infinitesimal innocence instant intention Jankélévitch least evil Leibniz limit live logic longer lover loving-being manner of speaking mediation ment monad moral movement mystery necessary negation never nihilized nonbeing normative obstacle one's oneself ontic organ-obstacle paradox passionate person philautia Plato pleasure pleonexia Plotinus posology possible principle principle of identity problem prohibition prosopolepsia pure love rational reason refusal renounce sacrifice scruples sense simple simultaneously solution sometimes sophisms soul sublime T. S. Eliot takes thing thought tion tive Trans truth virtue VLADIMIR JANKÉLÉVITCH wholly word