Abstract
When life changes in major way, new moral territories open up that challenge our ‘ordinary ethics’. In her chapter, Eriksen investigate the ethical normativity of such liminal spaces by looking at the phenomenon of care in homeless life, testimonies from World War II and the post-transformation life of Gregor Samsa in Franz Kafka’s short story The Metamorphosis. She does so in dialogue with Jarret Zigon’s concept of ‘a moral breakdown’, Jonathan Lear’s work on ‘ironic experiences’ and Anne O’Byrne’s idea of ‘an end of ethics’. The conversation throws a light on some of the resources, which can help people to recreate a moral world after radical changes and concludes that in human life there are no ethical voids.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Title of host publication | New Perspectives on Moral Change |
| Subtitle of host publication | Anthropologists and Philosophers Engage with Changing Lifeworlds |
| Place of Publication | Oxford |
| Publisher | Berghahn Books |
| ISBN (Electronic) | 978-1-80073-598-9 |
| ISBN (Print) | 978-1-80073-597-2 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2022 |
Keywords
- moral change
- moral progress
- moral anthropology
- Liminality
- Normativity