David Bowie and Philosophy: Rebel Rebel by Theodore G. Ammon

Author:Theodore G. Ammon [Ammon, Theodore G.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780812699210
Amazon: 0812699211
Publisher: Open Court
Published: 2016-09-06T04:00:00+00:00

Can’t Help Thinking about Me

Is there something more out there that isn’t just hackneyed claptrap about “To have a friend, be a friend” and other pop psychology crap? Yes. There is something worth considering, but it requires that we change our expectations about the relationship between morality and ethics. These two concepts are not “friends” to one another; they are something closer to mortal enemies, as I will explain. I don’t endorse this view, but I find it very difficult to ignore, and very helpful in understanding what happens between people like Bowie and Jagger, with each other and with their intimates, in so far as they have intimates.

The distinction between morality and ethics goes back to Immanuel Kant (1724–1804) who grounded morality in “sensus communis,” or common sense, that we carry with us on account of being a peculiar kind of sociable being who is also deeply unsocial; and, on the other side, ethics is the necessity of using our rational powers to recognize those rules and imperatives which conform our wills to our duty. This is just the sort of thing that led Bowie to write in his very first single with The Lower Third, that he had to leave home, head bowed in shame because he brought dishonor on the family name and the neighbors are talking, so he’ll just start walking. This is a relentless wedding of morality and ethics that leaves him trembling in his bed every Sunday night after church. He hates it.

But morality and ethics, are actually fitted to one another, Kant claimed, and they encourage our “autonomy” as moral actors in the world. We give ourselves the moral law and conform, conform, conform. Sounds like Hell doesn’t it? Kant also recognized the inevitability of conflict. He saw the conflicts, especially wars and the like, as engines of human moral progress, regrettable but needed, as our common sense gradually rises to the level of our rational understanding.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.