Individual morality and the morality of institutions
pages: 3-36
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.2298/FID1601003SAbstract
This paper discusses the relationship between moral philosophy and political philosophy. It holds that political philosophy in some way is part of moral philosophy as the former deals with the content of moral standards governing the relations between individuals and institutions. That would be the purpose of the „morality of institutions“, while the so-called "individual morality" would inform the standards applicable to individuals. On the basis of a conception of individual morality as it relates to contractualism and a discussion of the morality of institutions that closely follows John Rawls’ theory of justice, the paper addresses the question of the foundations of the obligation to comply with institution-defined standards that are directed towards individuals. At the end, it focuses in particular on the difficulty of rationalizing that obligation in the case of unjust institutions. Keywords: Moral philosophy, political philosophy, institutions, theory of justice, John Rawls, duty of compliance
References
Lessig, Lawrence (2009) Memorandum of October 9, 2009 [http://www.ethics.harvard.edu/ima ges/resources/pdfs/v1.0.pdf]
Nozick, Robert (1999) Anarchy, Sta te and Utopia. Oxford: Blackwell Publishers.
Rawls, John (1999) A The ory of Ju sti ce, re vi sed edi tion. Cambridge, Mass: Belknap
Bress. Scanlon, T. M. (1998) What We Owe to Each Other. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
Shelby, Tommy (2007) „Justice, Deviance and the Dark Ghetto“. Philosophy & Public Affairs 35 (2): 126–160.
Simmons, John (1999) „Justification and Legitimacy“. Ethics 109(4): 739–771.
Williams, Bernard (1985) Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy. London: Fontana.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Articles published in Philosophy and Society are open-access in accordance with the CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 License.
