The evolution of the forms of unity of the social and the ethical

This article analyses the evolution of the forms of unity of the social and the ethical. In this case, three forms of such a unity were described: classical transcendental, immanent and post-classical transcendental. Each form has its own concept of relation between the social and the ethical, concept of sense of the moral and has its own problems and limits. The description and analysis of this problems give us practical opportunities to reconstruct the area of ethical discourse. The classical transcendental form bases on the metaphysical approach. Ethics and sociality both are founded and determined by a transcendental base. This base has some qualities, which could be recognised as the foundation of the moral. In this case, the moral is something like a function of "bringing to conformity". The main problem of this approach could be described as such a dilemma. On the one hand, there is no need in the moral if transcendental bases determine the individual's conduct - the moral is only the mode of rationality (or another ability to understand the reality). On the other hand, if the moral has no bases, it is not obligatory for anybody. There are real attempts to solve this problem in the immanentism, which starts from the criticism of the metaphysical approach and refusal from the search of the transcendental foundation. If only the immanent content of existence is important, then the task of the moral is to harmonise the individual's actions and modus of existence. From this point of view we avoid the problem of separation of "is and ought": ethics is just a way to manage our conduct from the point of the current modus of existence. But we have another problem: we have no criteria to decide how to change the modus of existence or how to choose between the two ways. Post-classical transcendentalism begins from the point that absence of any transcendental base is a kind of the base. Sociality or co-being is described as a transcendental schema, as the process of realisation of the ability to exist. In this sense, ethics looks like the way of sociality. The ethical action is the way to move to a new immanent modus to claim difference and to realise the individual's ability to exist. Difficulties of this approach are more practical than theoretical: such a moral position needs some kind of "faith in being", readiness to continue moral attempts without any rational estimation of their success.

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