Kollektiver Moralismus im Diskurs. Eine argumentationstheoretische Explikation (Collective moralism in discourse. An argumentation-theoretical explication)
Lecture
Abstract
According to a recurring assessment, our time is characterized by an increasing moralization of public debates. In addition to empirical questions, such a diagnosis raises the upstream conceptual question of what is actually meant by the moralization of public debates. In this talk, I will first argue that the predominant approach in moral philosophy (which assumes various manifestations of moralism as individual misconduct) does not fully do justice to the phenomenon. I will then suggest how to explicate the moralization of public discourse in terms of argumentation theory – as an emergent moral distortion of the dialectical structure (the rational core) of a discourse. Finally, I will outline the perspectives for further empirical and moral philosophical investigations, especially with regard to collective action problems in discourses.
