Løgstrup: A Closer Look at the World-Famous Danish Philosopher

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Løgstrup, a renowned philosopher from Denmark, is well-respected in his homeland but relatively unknown outside Scandinavia. This article delves into his life, influences, works, and the key concept of the ethical demand, which he explores in a non-religious context. It raises questions about the essence of ethical outlook embodied in proclamations like "Love thy neighbor as thyself" and the implications of taking them seriously.

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World Famous in Denmark: The Thought of K E L gstrup and Its Place in the History of Philosophy Robert Stern 1

Lgstrup: World Famous in Denmark L gstrup very well known in his native Denmark, with major influence on philosophy, theology and broader culture there But virtually unknown outside Scandinavia Why? Will explain his life and work Will explain his place in Danish thought and culture Will try to explain why he is not better known elsewhere Will try to suggest why he should be better known elsewhere 2

Lgstrup? 1905-1981 Early reading influenced by Kant and phenomenological movement (Husserl, Scheler, Hans Lipps, Heidegger) and Kierkegaard, as well as Lutheran theology Spent most of his academic life at the University of Aarhus Lived through Nazi occupation of Denmark Publishes The Ethical Demand in 1956 (Eng trans NDUP, 1997) Publishes several later books and articles in ethics, theology and metaphysics (some of the later ethical writings translated in Beyond the Ethical Demand, University of Notre Dame Press, 2007, and extracts from his 4 volume Metaphysics translated by Marquette University Press, 1995) 3

The Ethical Demand Key idea: the ethical demand What does L gstrup mean by the ethical demand ? 5

The ethical demand Thinks it is the key idea underlying Jesus s proclamation : Love they neighbour as thyself But says he wants to make sense of this in a non-religious framework: If a religious proclamation is not understandable in the sense that it answers to decisive features of our existence, then accepting it is tantamount to letting ourselves be coerced whether by others or by ourselves for faith without understanding is not faith by coercion (p. 2) We took the proclamation of Jesus as the point of departure for our reflection on the ethical demand [and] we have tried to account [for it] in a purely human manner (p. 207) 6

The ethical demand Two questions: What ethical outlook does the proclamation embody? What does it require of us? What are the implications of taking it seriously, that make sense of the proclamation? And subsidiary question: what is the nature of these implications? factual? phenomenological? metaphysical/ontological? transcendental? religious? 7

Features of the ethical demand Radical demand: The radical demand says that we are to care for the other person in a way that best serves his or her interests (p. 55) Has certain key features: (1) It is unspoken or silent, in two senses: (i) what I am called upon to do may not be what I have been asked to do by the neighbour up to me to determine what is really required (pp. 21-22) (ii) I cannot consult the content of prevailing norms or laws to determine what I should do, as there is a difference between the radical demand and these norms or laws, so must use my own judgment (pp. 56-63) 8

Features of the ethical demand (2) It is radical, where this radicality consists in two features: (i) because it is silent = must determine for oneself what is required in the specific situation, and take responsibility for that (cf. morality and law, where this is largely settled already)(pp. 44, pp. 119-20, p. 243) (ii) it can only be fulfilled unselfishly and may well ask me to do things that are against my own good, so that it intrudes disturbingly into my own existence (p. 45); but this should not be confused with limitlessness (pp. 46-52) 9

Features of the ethical demand And this radicality manifests itself in various other ways: it is isolating: can t lose one s identity by just following what the other wants, but must remain distinct from them, and determine for oneself what is required (p. 44) the person has no right to make the demand, and it is non- contractual (cf. morality and law) (pp. 45-46) it does not involve reciprocity, but is one-sided (p. 115) a person s relation to the demand is invisible: can t know whether someone has followed it, and been correctly motivated by it, as only have their actions to go on (pp. 105- 108) it is unfulfillable (though again, this should not be confused with limitlessness: just that if you are following it as a demand, then not acting for the sake of the other) 10

The basis of the ethical demand? L gstrup hopes we will recognize that the ethical demand has the features he has suggested But: thinks we can only make sense of these features give a certain understanding of the world or ontology What ontology does the ethical demand require, if we are to make sense of it? One answer: we are dependent on one another (cf. MacIntyre s dependent rational animals ): If human beings were so independent of one another that the words and deeds of one were only a dispensable luxury in the life of another and my failure in the life of the neighbour could easily be made up later, then God s relation to me would not be as intimately tied up with my relation to the neighbour as the proclamation of Jesus declares it to be. In short, the intimate connection in which Jesus places our relation to God and our relation to the neighbour presupposes that we are, as Luther expressed it, daily bread in the life of one another. And this presupposition for the intimate connection in the proclamation of Jesus between the two great commandments in the law can indeed be described in strictly human terms (p. 5) But more to it than this, as need to explain the particular character of the ethical demand (e.g. Hobbesian could accept our inter-dependence, but still see ethical demand differently) So what else do we need to make sense of it? 11

Life is a gift Answer: life is a gift The ethical demand consists of two elements. First, it receives its content from a fact that, from a person to person relationship which can be demonstrated empirically, namely that one person s life is involved with the life of another person. The point of the demand is that one is to care for whatever in the other person s life that involvement delivers into his or her hands. Second, the demand receives its one-sidedness from the understanding that a person s life is an ongoing gift, so that we will never be in a position to demand something in return for what we do. That life has been given to us is something that cannot be demonstrated empirically; it can only be accepted in faith or else denied. (p. 123) Cf. also p. 171 note: To use the classical philosophical designation: The one-sided demand contains an ontology, a fundamental and constitutive definition of being, namely, that human life and the world that goes with it have been given to human beings as a gift . 12 But what does seeing life as a gift mean?

Life as a gift Most obvious interpretation: Life is gift from God, as our creator Cf. ED, p. 171: The demand which sets reciprocity aside cannot exist in the place to which it is assigned by antimetaphysical philosophy. Its one- sidedness presupposes a power which has given a person her life and her world and which at the same time presents itself as the ultimate authority of the demand. This power is invisible, and as ultimate authority it is silent because it is transcendent. 13

Life as a gift However, while L gstrup happy to accept this as a religious gloss on a metaphysicalclaim, he doesn t think we have to take it this way For, if the metaphysics requires this religious gloss, then how can his ethics be secular/humanistic how can this be an ethics that operates in a purely human manner ? But how else can life is a gift be taken, if not in religious terms? 14

Life as a gift What work does L gstrup need the idea of life as a gift to do? Two main jobs: (1) To explain the one-sidedness of the demand: I can t expect anything in return, or demand anything back from you In view of the fact that we possess nothing which we have not received, we cannot make counterdemands [T]he demand which makes void protest from the viewpoint of reciprocity does not arise exclusively from the fact that the one person is delivered over to the other. This demand makes sense only on the presupposition that the person to whom the demand is addressed possesses nothing which he or she has not received as a gift. Given that presupposition, the demand is the only thing which makes sense (p. 116). 15

Life as a gift (2) To explain why no one has the right to make the demand: The radical character [of the demand] manifests itself also in the fact that the other person has no right herself to make the demand, even though it has to do with the care of her life The fact out of which the demand arises, namely that her life is more or less in my hands, is a fact which has come into being independently of either her or me. Therefore, she cannot identify herself with this fact and assume that its demand is her own. (p. 46) 16

Life as a gift Seeing life as a gift contrasted with seeing oneself as sovereign over one s life What does sovereign here mean? Self-created individual, who enters into contractual relations with others from which norms derive Contrast life as a gift : See oneself on part of an always already existing world and set of norms, on which one is dependent and must rely So (1) Have no right to make counterdemands, because one is already indebted for what one possesses (2) Have no right to make demands oneself, as this is not a contractual situation in which one goes in with certain rights and entitlements, or prior authority 17

Life as a gift Cf. the following passages from ED: Trust is not of our own making; it is given. Our life is so constituted that it cannot be lived except as one person lays herself open to another person and puts herself into that person s hands either by showing or claiming trust. (ED, p. 18) Or, in spite of the fact that natural love has been received as a gift and that here more clearly than anywhere else life is seen to be a gift, we nevertheless regard natural love as our own achievement. We try to make ourselves masters of our own lives, and we live and reason as though we ourselves had produced our natural love./But the more natural love is viewed as testifying to our own superiority, the more it is in danger of being destroyed. The more that a sense of our own merits causes us to take credit for the works of natural love, the more externalized the relationship becomes. (ED, p. 132) 18

Life as a gift We are not sovereign individuals who willfully chose to make ourselves dependent on others, or to make demands on them based on our authority over them; rather, the form of life with its norms, into which we are always already given , itself makes us dependent on others and put us in their power, where the obligation on others to help arises from the norms that govern life; so while on the one hand this demand is not based on our claim over them, on the other hand precisely because we have not made ourselves vulnerable they cannot ignore us Cf. the suggestion of Hans Fink and Alasdair MacIntyre that L gstrup s argument relies on the idea of life being something given in the ordinary philosophical sense of being prior to and a precondition of all we may think and do (Hans Fink and Alasdair MacIntyre, Introduction , ED, p. xxxv) So now have a secular reading of both life as a gift and sovereign expressions of life , which gives life and our place within life a crucial normative role 19

The ethical demand So, two questions to ask re the ethical demand: (1) Has L gstrup characterised the ethical demand correctly? i.e. is there this one-sided, silent etc ethical relation between individuals? (2) If there is, does it require the commitments L gstrup says it does, of life as a gift? And what kind of commitment is this? Is it something we have proved, or just shown we must accept if we are to accept the ethical demand, or just something we actually assume without realizing it? 20

Lgstrup Now want to briefly consider L gstrup s place in Danish culture, focusing on three aspects: L gstrup s early influence on the Tidehverv moment ( turn of the time or epoch ) Influence in education Influence in nursing ethics 21

Tidehverv Tidehverv is a journal and social and theological movement, begun in 1926 It was inspired by the German theologian Rudolf Bultmann and the Swiss theologian Karl Barth Emphasized the absolute divide between God and man as the core of Christianity Let to a revival of interest in Kierkegaard, and his battle with Christendom , the absolute paradox etc Like Kierkegaard, it is directed against Grundtvigianism Leading followers were the priest and Kierkegaard interpreter Kristoffer Olesen Larsen (1899-1964) and Aarhus professor Johannes Sl k (1916-2001) 22

Tidehverv L gstrup was part of the movement early on in 1930s But in the 1950s became more critical of Kierkegaard and Larsen, who in turn responded to L gstrup L gstrup seen as taking philosophy in a more humanistic, ultimately anti-religious direction Cf. Larsen s reponse to L gstrup s ethics: If there is no question other than the ethical one, then Jesus s proclamation makes no sense. For Jesus, the crucial question is not what a person is to do, but why he is to do what he is to do, and the only reason is the one inherent in the command. Jesus did not radicalize the demand in the sense that he made it infinite, but in the sense that he denied any purpose to fulfilling it, every in addition , every both-and . Therefore he demanded that man should renounce his own life, abandon seeking his own, give up every desire to have anything other than God as his god, any desire to be anything other than being God's creature and servant. This of course means that Jesus wants to liberate man from the world, from his life, from his achievements, from his desires and concerns by binding him to God's demand on him. 23

Heretica After break with Tidehverv, L gstrup became associated with the journal Heretica, with which he published work in 1950s Heretica was a literary journal, which attracted writers and artists looking for a new direction for cultural values after the war L gstrup wrote widely on art and the importance of art, and championed the use of literary examples in his work In 1961 was elected to Danish Academy 24

Education Some of L gstrup s key ideas have a relation to education and educational policy (and cf. also tradition from Grundtvig) He himself was interested in psychological studies of education, and e.g. the role of discipline in upbringing And his idea of life as a gift and of our fundamental interdependence (especially involving trust) has implications for education: To see life as a gift is to see life as good, and so to have a zest for life or courage to be : and one aspect of the ethical demand is that one not take this away from people Children naturally have this zest for life, but it can be destroyed through the wrong upbringing Children also naturally trust, which is part of this positive view of life, and which we can destroy 25

Education L gstrup wrote explicitly about education: 1972: Opdragelse og etik [Upbringing and Ethics], P dagogik, 2, pp. 9-27 1981: Skolens form l [The Purpose of School], in his Solidaritet og k rlighed To the school belongs enlightenment of the existence we have with and against each other, education about the way society is organised, and the course of history, and about the nature we are put into with our breath and metabolism, about the universe we are put in with our senses. 26

Education L gstrup s ideas have had an influence on subsequent discussion and policy, particularly in RE Has also led to some criticism for use in educational setting: too tied to Christianity/Lutheranism too tied to religious presuppositions too anti-enlightenment anti-scientific/naturalist But more positively, provides a corrective to value free purely instrumentalist view of education, while tying this to broader social issues? Issue raises fundamental questions for interpretations of L gstrup s thought itself, as we have seen e.g. over relation to religion, life as a gift etc 27

Health care L gstrup s ideas have also had an influence on medical ethics and training, particularly in nursing Connection is made through the ethical demand, and the requirement to care for the other person in a way that best serves his or her interests Cf. care ethics ? L gstrup himself didn t write explicitly on medical issues, but he has exercised an influence through the work of Kari Martinsen (1943-), who is widely read in Norway and Denmark and has published a lot of material that draws on L gstrup s ideas, and she is frequently cited in textbooks and training manuals 28

Health care This appropriation of L gstrup also raises interesting interpretative and critical issues: Religious question again Generality/vagueness of the ethical demand How can it be applied? Ethical demand only between two people, no good in more complex social setting like hospital etc? Clash with central issues in health care, such as patient rights and autonomy: for L gstrup, have no right to make the demand, and also must respond with what is best for the other, and not necessarily what they want so paternalistic? 29

Why just Denmark? So, have briefly looked at L gstrup s main ideas, and how they have had a significant influence in Scandinavian context But why not elsewhere? In fact, not quite true: some uptake in Germany, helped by early translations by L gstrup s German wife, Rosemarie But still impact relatively meager made all the more surprising by his similarities to Levinas? But Levinas also a relatively recent discovery, initially overshadowed by existentialism, marxism and Heideggerianism Anglo-American world particularly slow to catch on: Ethical Demand first partially translated in 1971 Some mention in work by MacIntrye, Bauman, Critchley 30

Why just Denmark? Answer is that L gstrup work was untimely: When he was writing his main works in 1950s and 60s, many of his key ideas were completely out of favour in Anglo-American philosophy: Fact/value distinction is/ought distinction Queerness of morality Reductive naturalism Kantian universalism or utilitarianism Secularism Anti-phenomenology, and general suspicion of continental philosophy Cf. marginal philosophical status of other thinkers at the time who did not work with these assumptions, such as Iris Murdoch and Simone Weil 31

Why just Denmark? But all these assumptions would be questioned by prominent contemporary philosophers, such as Bernard Williams, Alasdair MacIntyre, Philippa Foot, Michael Thompson, John McDowell and many others 32