Ritröð Guðfræðistofnunar - 01.01.2007, Page 27

tion of liberal theory, not unlike the critique we have seen from communitar-
ian thinkers such as Alasdair Maclntyre and others. Logstrup rejects two basic
ideas in a liberal model of the social, viz. the primacy of the individual and the
social contract. The very foundation of his ethics is a feature of human life that
is opposite to the kind of individualism as we find it e.g. in Immanuel Kant.
The original position of humans is not, Logstrup claims, that of isolated indi-
viduals. On the contrary, we are from the outset placed in relationships with
others. This again means that ethical normativity is not based on a contract
between individuals, but is rather rooted in the structure of interpersonality.
This is the main idea in what Logstrup calls ‘ontological ethics’.2
If social life cannot be understood in a contractarian way, what then is its
structure? Logstrup’s answer is, I think, a reformulation of Martin Luther’s
concept of creation ordinances. This idea entails that with the very creation
of human life God has built some structures into it such as marriage and po-
litical authority. Logstrup reconstructs the Lutheran theory by distinguishing
between three aspects of social forms:
... (1) the biological phenomena; (2) the psychic and particularly the emo-
tional content whereby the biological phenomena are experienced and to
which they give rise; (3) the legally, morally and conventionally sanctioned
cultural form and institution in which the biological phenomena and the psy-
chic content exists. (Logstrup 1997, 74).
We can illustrate this tripartition with Logstrup’s analysis of marriage. Mar-
riage is based on sexuality as a biological phenomenon. In addition, it is al-
ways marked by a certain interpretation, which for example could be based
on the romantic ideal of love or a traditional idea of marriage of convenience
(forced marriage). And finally, marriage is framed as an institution defined by
law. Even if Logstrup develops this reconstruction in relation to marriage, I
think that he would think similarly about political authority. Like marriage
the political system is, first, based upon some given facts of human life such
as the scarcity of resources, violence and hence the necessity of using coercive
2 Logstrups exposition of his position is included in the American version of the book in an Appendix entitled
”Ethics and Ontology”. A Danish version can be found in Logstrup 1996, which again is Logstrup’s contribu-
tion to the Nordic textbook Wingren 1971.