Popper and communitarianism

justification and criticism of moral standards

Harald Stelzer

pp. 273-285

in: Zuzana Parusniková, Robert S. Cohen (eds), Rethinking Popper, Berlin, Springer, 2009

Abstract

In this paper I start with a critical discussion of the communitarian justification of moral standards with reference to communally shared moral convictions. I criticize a reconstructed communitarian ethical position on two levels: an individual level, focusing on the possibility to criticize and reject the moral standards of one's own community, and a socio-cultural level, emphasizing the intracul-tural moral pluralism and intercultural contact. Finally, on the basis of this criticism of the communitarian view, the thesis of a critical-rationalist ethical position will be elaborated. Such a position can be derived from the fact, that all life can be seen as a process of problem solving based on the method of trial and error. Hence, moral standards can be interpreted as attempts to solve different problems, resulting from social life. Linking this interpretation to the method of critical discussion and the willingness to learn from our mistakes, a critical-rationalist ethical position is consistent with intercultural discussion, interpretation and evaluation of different moral systems and allows for improvement of moral standards.

Cited authors

Popper Karl