Ethics

pp. 64-85

in: William Hamrick, An existential phenomenology of law, Berlin, Springer, 1987

Abstract

One would search in vain throughout Merleau-Ponty's writings for anything like a systematically developed ethics. Instead, what one finds is a variety of remarks about ethics, morals, and morality which are usually, but not always, situated in the context of his more comprehensive concern for politics, which is the subject of the following chapter. Furthermore, just as he is not ordinarily inclined to disentangle clearly his moral from his political concerns, he equally makes no sharp distinctions between morality, usually thought of as referring to human behavior; morals, interpreted as the rules, norms, or codes employed in acting morally; and (normative) ethics, the principles of goodness that are reflected in morals. But it is also clear that Merleau-Ponty usually employs these terms in the senses specified, and those are, consequently, the ways that they will be used here.