Anarchisms, Postanarchisms and Ethics by Benjamin Franks

Author:Benjamin Franks [Franks, Benjamin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Philosophy, History & Theory, Anarchism, Political Ideologies, Political Science, Political
ISBN: 9781783488315
Google: 7eLaDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 50339494
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Published: 2019-11-05T00:00:00+00:00

The Meta-Ethics of Anarchist Virtue Theory

A fully developed, coherent and defensible meta-ethics is not essential for anarchist practice. Most activists and critical practitioners do not focus on meta-ethical debates, preferring to concentrate on resolving or mitigating more immediate social problems. Nonetheless, activist deliberations usually have an assumed meta-ethical position, such as appeals to pragmatism, and these can redirect and structure norms and forms of practical enquiry, for instance, in assuming a common account of what constitutes the practical—rather than utopian—goal.

Practice-based virtue theory avoids both universalist claims and the pitfalls of subjectivism. It regards values as being inherent to a social practice. These values are not universal, nor are they culturally relative. Consistent with the virtue of modesty, practice-based virtue theory recognises that there are necessarily different epistemologies for different practices. The generation of knowledge for a climate scientist is different to the forms of knowledge required for a social historian or for understanding the needs and worldview of a child. So, any account of meta-ethics must be sensitive to the ontological assumptions that structure different social practices and traditions.

The critical materialism identifiable in practice-based virtue ethics is observable, though not always explicit, in many anarchist approaches. It regards values as necessary and intrinsic to any social practice, but rejects any single value as being dominant or universal. The values involved in, for example, autonomous healthcare are in a different order of priority to those generated in cycling clubs, and these differ from the constellation of virtues found in syndicalist activism like strike-support. Because there are stable, although not fixed, norms for each of these practices, there can be grounds for evaluation which do not rely on individual conscience alone. For instance, in autonomous healthcare, interventions that undermine their dignity and autonomy of the patient can be identified as corrupting that practice. Similarly, while practitioners are in the best position to assess what makes good practice, no practice is discrete, but overlaps with others, such that it is possible for those in aligned activities to make meaningful contributions and engage in evaluative dialogue. Practices and the identities and discourses they generate provide a basis for solidarity and ‘union’. Radical action is based on shared (inter-subjective) values of ‘justice’, ‘dignity’ and ‘solidarity’. Shared ethical discourses enable critiques of dominant powers. As Herbert Marcuse (1984) points out in his notion of one-dimensionality, the function of techno-capitalist instrumental power is to deny evaluation and, thus, make imagining alternatives impossible. Aesthetic and moral values open up critical thinking.

The values and norms of a practice and its tradition are not fixed. It is possible for people to challenge and transcend them. Anarchists argue that practices need to be challenged to resist forms of domination in order to generate the greatest inherent goods and produce sustainable external benefits. Thus, unlike with fixed universals, there is not the limit on freedom and creativity.

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