Ritröð Guðfræðistofnunar - 01.01.2007, Page 29

An important argument in Logstrup is to the effect that the fact of our
knowledge about the changeability and hence relativity of social norms does
not threaten their binding force. We are, Logstrup claims, formed in our very
identity by the social structures to which the norms belong, so that we are
simply unable to regard them as not-binding.
The Role of the Demand
It seems, then, that Logstrup actually leaves social ethics to the changing
norms and gives a quite different domain to the ethical demand. But this
impression is not adequate. The ethical demand does have a role to play in
the field of the social norms:
... the social norms are simply not adequate. The guidance they afford does
not remove the tension between them and the radical demand. (62).
As an example, Logstrup mentions norms for raising children. If the process
of upbringing is to succeed, it is not enough to follow a rule in an external
way. One’s motive for treating a child in a certain way is crucial, and the mo-
tive is the motive of the demand: unselfishly to further the best of the child, to
protect the life of the child that is surrendered into the parents’ hand. I think
the situation in the professional life of, say, a nurse is similar: often it is not
enough just to follow the norms of the code of nursing ethics. The motive can
be crucial for a nursing act to really benefit the patient; and it is the ethical
demand that prompts the motive.
Logstrup gives a second reason for regarding the social norms as insuffi-
cient. Exactly because social life changes, the social norms may become inad-
equate, so that “we may be doing great harm if we continue to defend them”.
Without saying it explicitly, I think Logstrup claims that in such a situation
of transition, the ethical demand serves as an inspiration for the development
of new norms.
But if the demand has a necessary role in the field of social norms, an im-
portant question arises: how can a radical and unfulfdlable demand motivate
concrete social actions?