Hem / Att delta i NSU / Förslag till nya studiekretsar / 2010 / A. Towards a New Ethical Imagination

Towards a New Ethical Imagination: Political and social values in a cosmopolitan world society

The proposed research program will investigate ethical and social values in a cosmopolitan world society. We will examine the paradoxes, dilemmas and tensions in recent debates about ethical, political and social values in contemporary societies. We can observe that ethical problems increasingly have been a central problem in public debates in Nordic societies and in the international community. Both political decisions and daily practices in public institutions and private business organizations are increasingly faced with ethical problems and issues. Moreover, there are more and more problems and practices where ethical issues are central themes and where ethical reflection is a central theme. This tendency has been very present in the relation between democracy and administration, the obligations of business corporations in relation to profit maximization and economic efficiency, public and private management and governance, health issues, the relation to the environment and concerning the use of natural resources and social obligations and responsibilities towards global poverty, democracy and environmental problems. Every discussion of the prioritization of the social use of resources have today to be oriented towards different ethical dilemmas, problems and paradoxes of different kinds with very far reaching implications for the life of people in society and nature.
Where ethics earlier was conceived as a concern only for individual human beings, ethics is now a problem that is present in all areas of society and in all institutions of society. Therefore it is now relevant to talk about social ethics, societal ethics and ethics in global society and we would add ethics in a cosmopolitan society where all problems and solutions concern the whole world and not only separated parts of particular communities. In this context we need to develop a socially relevant ethical reflection and competency and a social ethical and cosmopolitan public debate that can qualify and contribute to debate about good solutions of the dilemmas and paradoxes that we face in global community. We need to build on existing theory and research and we need to develop these reflections in order to make concrete choices and decisions in relation to contemporary problems and practices. There is also a need for publication of this work so that the Nordic and international public debate can have possibilities of a qualified ethical reflection over these problems and paradoxes.
Social ethics is not new in philosophy and social thinking. It has its origin in the antique Greek philosophy, where ethics in the philosophy of Aristotle was closely connected to political issues and social relations. Therefore we can say that it is Aristotle who formulated the first social ethics. But in modern times with Immanuel Kant there has been formulated a strong division between personal ethics and the common law and it is this distinction that has been dominating until our times. In the last 30-40 years there have been attempts to connect the ethical and political reflections again. In this context we can in particular mention the German philosopher Jürgen Habermas, because his work is a great attempt to create a differentiated social ethics that connects personal ethical dimension, the moral dimensions, the political dimensions and the technical instrumental dimensions in a common theoretical framework. Habermas also connects philosophical reflections with a sociological approach in a differentiated social theory that includes the plurality of institutions in modern democratic societies. We can indeed also mention many other theorists for example John Rawls who develops a liberal political philosophy, Paul Ricoeur who gives the hermeneutical philosophy an intercultural political dimension and Richard Rorty who discusses the paradoxes of postmodern global society. What is essential in these different attempts is to formulate theories of ethical, political and social values in cosmopolitan world society and they are therefore among others important contributions to social ethics in post-secular global world.
It is essential for our research project to link such social theories to empirical research in the social sciences. We want to discuss political processes in cosmopolitanism and globalization with the use of the insights of empirical social sciences like history, law, economics, sociology and political sciences. But we will also include insights of the technical and applied sciences like business economics, medicine and the natural sciences that are in particular relevant with regard to the study of environmental damage and climate change. In short we consider our methodological approach as based on the insights of hermeneutics and science and technology studies where practical and theoretical approaches are combined in a solution and context oriented approach to the relevant problems and research objects. In our case we propose a problem oriented approach to pressing issues of contemporary world politics and social ethics.

Six workshops of the study program:
We propose to study these issues of a development of a social ethics for a cosmopolitan world in the framework of six workshops during the three years of work of the study group. The six workshops will subsequently deal with following topics: 1. Conceptions of ethical and social values in post-secular society. 2. Economy and ethics in the context of the crisis of capitalism 3. Recognition, dignity and social battles for justice in intercultural society. 4. Climate and climate justice in the context of globalization of capitalism. 5. Political and social conceptions of post-colonialism in world society. 6. World government and transnational justice in the cosmopolitan society.
1. Conceptions of ethical and social values in post-secular society. 
This workshop will examine the foundations of a social ethics in post-secular society. It will look at classical concepts of social ethics and relate them to modern concepts of social ethics in a cosmopolitan perspective. The workshop will confront the positions of theories of social ethics from sociology, political science and economics etc. We will give an overview of the most important concepts of social ethics in the contemporary world.
2. Economy and ethics in the context of the crisis of capitalism.
This workshop will discuss the causes and theories of the contemporary crisis of capitalism. It will investigate the potentials of a new economy of responsibility based on social ethics. It will discuss financial paradoxes and crisis dimensions in Nordic countries in an international perspective, but it will also address broader political and cultural aspects of the emergence of the crisis and potentialities for overcoming the crisis
3. Recognition, dignity and social battles for justice in intercultural society.
This workshop will examine recognition and identity struggles that have emerged around the world as a result of post-secular society. It will look at the cultural and social consequence of globalization and it will deal with proposals for world justice as a result of globalization and it will deal with proposals for world justice as response to this. It will focus on different battles of recognition and assert how to influence democratic politics.
4. Climate and climate justice in the context of globalization of capitalism.
This workshop will deal with environmental dilemmas of the global environmental crisis. It will discuss the climate change issue in the perspective of proposals for a new economy and it will assert how we should consider the climate change issue in relation to topics of identity struggles and poverty in developing countries.

5. Political and social conceptions of post-colonialism in world society.
This workshop will deal with the changed power relations in the international community as a result of the post-colonial situation with the end of the West as dominating cultural and social powers. We will discuss different conceptions of post-colonialism. The workshop will look at the change of world power with the emergence of new powerful nations like for example China and it will discuss the problems that the developing countries face in relation to the world crisis. 

6. World government and transnational justice in the cosmopolitan society.
This workshop will deal with the relation of government and transnational justice in the globalized world. It will ask the question whether it is possible to have a cosmopolitan foundation for dealing with international problems and it will examine the political, legal and philosophical foundations of such an international movement towards a new cosmopolitanism.

The result of the workshop will be a book collecting the best contributions. This book will present explanations and analysis of the theoretical dimension of social ethics and values, and it will propose concrete political and economic solutions for the future.