Teoría y práctica de la ética en el siglo XXI (Undécimas Conferencias Aranguren, 2002)

Abstract

This paper deals with the difficult link between ethical theory and moral practice. It is a recurrent problem of moral philosophy specially worsened because of the spread of economic, social and political liberalism. The three parts of the paper deal with three questions which, from the point of view of the author, bring about mistrust and skepticism about contemporary ethics. The first questions is the difficulty of constructing a public morality within our secular and plural societies. The second one refers to the little attention payed by ethical theories to the problem of moral motivation. The last question raise the problem represented nowadays by fanatism and fundamentalism. All three parts have to deal with a further question which lays at the core of contemporary ethics: the exercise of liberty in liberal democracies.