Discourse ethics

Discourse ethics is a philosophical theory of morality, attempting to update Kantian ethics for modern egalitarian intuitions and social epistemology. The theory originated with German philosophers Jürgen Habermas and Karl-Otto Apel, and variations have been used by Frank Van Dun and Habermas' student Hans-Hermann Hoppe.

Kant extracted moral principles from the necessities forced upon a rational subject reflecting on the world. Habermas extracted moral principles from the necessities forced upon individuals engaged in the discursive justification of validity claims, from the inescapable presuppositions of communication and argumentation.

The simplest form of discourse ethics is Habermas' "Principle of Universalization", which holds that

a moral norm "is valid just in case the foreseeable consequences and side-effects of its general observance for the interests and value-orientations of each individual could be jointly accepted by all concerned without coercion."

Discourse ethics is a possible grounding for critical theory. In that context, it argues that immoral social ills arise through stymied discourse, wherein certain participants cannot or do not submit their views for rational deliberation.

It is also a possible approach to the management of science. That approach is primarily popular in Europe, in part because Europeans prefer rule-based social adaption to technological progress, whereas Americans prefer utilitarian approaches.