Silviya Serafimova
Papers of BAS, Humanities and Social Sciences
Vol. 2, No 3-4, 2015
PHILOSOPHY
KNUD LØGSTRUP’S THEORY OF ETHICAL DEMAND. ARE THERE ANY REASONS TO TALK ABOUT ONTOLOGICAL ETHICS WITHIN CHRISTIAN ETHICS?
Silviya Serafimova
Abstract: This paper aims to examine the origin of the dilemmas regarding the concept of ethical demand, as introduced by the Danish theologian and philosopher Knud Ejler Løgstrup. One of the main methodological problems concerns the question of what it means to clarify the role of ethical demand in defining in ‘strictly human terms’ the attitude towards the other person, which contains in the proclamation of Jesus. Questioning the ambiguity is grounded in analyzing why Løgstrup’s ethics can be justified as ontological ethics, as well as how the latter can contribute to outlining what he coins as ‘religiously colored ontology’.
Key words: ethical demand, ontological ethics, Christian ethics, dialectical theology, Knud Løgstrup