The quest for happiness

traces of ancient life wisdom within the moral philosophical context of the vienna circle

Manfred Geier

pp. 13-21

in: Herlinde Pauer Studer (ed), Norms, values, and society, Berlin, Springer, 1994

Abstract

There is presently a real boom in ethics. Never, it seems, has there been more published on fundamental moral claims to validity and on the ethical foundations of philosophical statements than today. One can note a sort of moral low, a tendential decline in human values accompanied by a real boom in publications with a bewildering array of moral philosophical arguments and theories. Ethics has paradoxically succumbed to ever greater confusion, ever since it has become subjected to the more rigorous criteria of validation and foundation of "modern" philosophical reflection. Hardly anyone knows his or her way. Yet most people seem to have good reasons for their ultimate moral foundations. They see themselves as moralists in a crisis and actively participate in the game.