Justice, equality, and righteousness--these are some of our greatest
moral convictions. Yet in times of social conflict, morals can become
rigid, making religious war, ethnic cleansing, and political purges
possible. Morality, therefore, can be viewed as pathology-a rhetorical,
psychological, and social tool that is used and abused as a weapon.
An expert on Eastern philosophies and social systems theory, Hans-Georg
Moeller questions the perceived goodness of morality and those who claim
morality is inherently positive. Critiquing the ethical "fanaticism" of
Western moralists, such as Immanuel Kant, Lawrence Kohlberg, John Rawls,
and the utilitarians, Moeller points to the absurd fundamentalisms and
impracticable prescriptions arising from definitions of good. Instead he
advances a theory of "moral foolishness," or moral asceticism, extracted
from the "amoral" philosophers of East Asia and such thinkers as Ludwig
Wittgenstein and Niklas Luhmann. The moral fool doesn't understand why
ethics are necessarily good, and he isn't convinced that the moral
perspective is always positive. In this way he is like most people, and
Moeller defends this foolishness against ethical pathologies that
support the death penalty, just wars, and even Jerry Springer's crude
moral theater. Comparing and contrasting the religious philosophies of
Christianity, Daoism, and Zen Buddhism, Moeller presents a persuasive
argument in favor of amorality.
