Moral lines like ‘no torture’ hold only as impulse, not as rationalized principle
Evidence
But if a moral philosopher were to seize upon these lines and to exult at having caught the critics of morality at lastcaught them quoting the same values that are happily proclaimed by the philosophy of moralshis cogent conclusion would be false. The lines are true as an impulse, as a reaction to the news that torture is going on somewhere. They must not be rationalized; as an abstract principle they would fall promptly into the bad infinities of derivation and validity … — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2562
Categorization
- XREF: This is Adorno’s crucial defense against the charge that his anti-moralism secretly re-adopts moral principles — the reader’s broader engagement with ethics and Adorno. — connects to: Any moral principle admitting its opposite becomes meaningless without unambiguous situations; Moral behaviour springs from the Other’s powerless demand, not from sanctions — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 611; Liberal-rationalist rhetoric can normalize torture as a managed procedure — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 371 (+3 more)
Broader Connections
- Moral conduct grounds itself in physical fear and solidarity with tormentable bodies, not rationalization
#corroborates(0.85) — Rolf Wiggershaus, The Frankfurt School, 2563 - Liberal-rationalist rhetoric can normalize torture as a managed procedure
#corroborates(0.80) — Peter Morey, Islamophobia and the Novel, 371 - Any moral principle admitting its opposite becomes meaningless without unambiguous situations
#expands(0.75) - Moral behaviour springs from the Other’s powerless demand, not from sanctions
#qualifies(0.75) — Zygmunt Bauman, Modernity and the Holocaust, 611 - Acquired moral standards do not regulate conduct unceasingly
#expands(0.72) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 56 - Moral self-regulation is not a fixed conscience but can be selectively disengaged
#expands(0.70) — John T. Jost and Jim Sidanius, Political Psychology, 3940