Beyond the Ethical Demand

“The University of Notre Dame Press is to be congratulated for publishing . . . [this book] . . . as well as The Ethical Demand. . . . Løgstrup's work remains mostly unknown among Anglophone moral philosophers. It is, however, filled with significant moral psychological and ethical insights. Løgstrup is especially incisive in noting and analyzing matters of moral phenomenology, and the overall thrust of his view has great interest as well. Moreover, . . . Løgstrup was himself engaged with mid-twentieth-century British moral philosophers like Nowell-Smith and Hare. Twenty-first-century Anglophone ethical philosophy would engage him to its profit.” —Notre Dame Philosophical Review

“This collection of essays by the late Danish philosopher and theologian Logstrup presents his theory of using phenomenology in understanding our ethical decisions. According to Logstrup, phenomenology not only provides an understanding of human existence but also of ethics, through examination of the phenomena of ethical concepts. . . . These essays will be valuable to scholars and students in philosophy and ethics.” —Library Journal

“The publication of an English translation of Knut Eljert Løgstrup's later works in ethics provides a wider readership with the opportunity to better understand his important contribution to ethics in the second half of the last century. With his notion of the Sovereign Expressions of Life Løgstrup articulates his rejection of moral atomism that has become influential in recent times. The introduction and annotation by Kees van Kooten Niekerk are very helpful to see how Løgstrup's thought developed beyond The Ethical Demand.” —Hans S. Reinders, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam

“Making a large part of Knud Løgstrup’s legacy accessible to the English-speaking public is an event of enormous cultural, philosophical and political importance—and we are all in debt to his disciple, Kies van Kooten Niekerk, and the University Press of Notre Dame, for making it happen. Løgstrup, alongside few other giants of 20th Century ethical thought, like Emmanuel Levinas or Hans Jonas, anticipated and articulated all the major challenges and urgent tasks with which the coming century is likely to confront the moral self. Our ethical discourse was all the poorer so far for being barred access to his findings and proposition. This will no longer be the case.” —Zygmunt Bauman, emeritus, University of Leeds

“K. E. Løgstrup’s work undoubtedly made in his time an original contribution to the field of moral philosophy and philosophy of religion. This translation makes extracts from his later publications on moral philosophy accessible to an English-speaking audience. I am again impressed by the depth of his ideas, which are certainly not outdated and still relevant for contemporary debates in moral philosophy.” —Bert Musschenga, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam