Alan Gewirth

Alan Gewirth (* November 28, 1912; † 9 May 2004) was an American philosopher who taught at the University of Chicago and va worked on issues of practical philosophy.

Work

Gewirth represents a rationalist deontological ethics. Is from the nature of human action and the associated terms and preferences, according to the thesis of his main work " Reason and Morality ," a supreme moral principle derived, which he called " Principle of Generic Consistency " (PGC ) is called. It says that every actor has to choose his actions according to the general rights to freedom and well-being accruing to him and all the other potential actors.

The argument for the PGC is not a logical deduction, but requires self-reflection - Gewirth refers to the circuit mode as " dialectical necessary." By " dialectic " is the reference not to the outside world, but meant their own situation as doer. Each step of the argument describes what the agent thinks and what he is implicitly committed theoretically. By " necessary " it is meant that from the perspective of the actors reflecting the initial premise and all the other steps are irrefutable.

The starting premise has the form: ( 1) I introduce the plot H to the purpose Z will out. One such premise agree to all potential actors implicitly, if they ever consider a ( voluntary ) action. Who denies ( 1), contradicting the fact of being an actor himself.

Gewirth 's major work claimed not only a final justification of morality has to offer, but also a hierarchy of goods and on related rights and obligations to establish. This prioritization has as a criterion, the relation of the corresponding Guts to act. In basic goods, without which free action is excluded absolutely, made ​​by Gewirth general claim rights, while weaker legal rights and corresponding duties consist in goods, which only extend the possibilities for action.

Finally, Gewirth undertakes a justification of the principles and institutions of the democratic welfare state. In his second major monograph "The Community of Rights " issues of social philosophy and political philosophy are discussed in more detail.

Reception

Both the basic approach of Gewirth as well as many of its individual hypotheses and applications have been widely discussed, adapted, further elaborated and applied to other application areas, as well as criticized.

Deryck Beyleveld reformulated in The Dialectical Necessity of Morality (1991), a defense of Argumenationslinie of Gewirth and responds to a number of critics.

Roger Pilon, a student of Gewirth, a libertarische version of the theory of Gewirth has developed.

In the Theological Ethics relate, inter alia, Dietmar Mieth and Klaus riser leather on Gewirth. The latter has, inter alia, also proposed a reconstruction of the Kantian deontological ethics, which implies several parallels to Gewirth.