Robert Gibbs presents here an ambitious new theory of ethics. Drawing on
a striking combination of intellectual traditions, including Jewish
thought, continental philosophy, and American pragmatism, Gibbs argues
that ethics is primarily concerned with responsibility and is not--as
philosophers have often assumed--principally a matter of thinking about
the right thing to do and acting in accordance with the abstract
dictates of reason or will. More specifically, ethics is concerned with
attending to others' questions and bearing responsibility for what they
do.
Gibbs builds this innovative case by exploring the implicit
responsibilities in a broad range of human interactions, paying
especially close attention to the signs that people give and receive as
they relate to each other. Why Ethics? starts by examining the simple
actions of listening and speaking, reading and writing, and by focusing
on the different responsibilities that each action entails. The author
discusses what he describes as the mutual responsibilities implicit in
the actions of reasoning, mediating, and judging. He assesses the
relationships among ethics, pragmatics, and Jewish philosophy. The book
concludes by looking at the relation of memory and the immemorial,
emphasizing the need to respond for past actions by confessing, seeking
forgiveness, and making reconciliations.
In format, Gibbs adopts a Talmudic approach, interweaving brief
citations from primary texts with his commentary. He draws these texts
from diverse thinkers and sources, including Levinas, Derrida, Habermas,
Rosenzweig, Luhmann, Peirce, James, Royce, Benjamin, Maimonides, the
Bible, and the Talmud. Ranging over philosophy, literary theory, social
theory, and historiography, this is an ambitious and provocative work
that holds profound lessons for how we think about ethics and how we
seek to live responsibly.
