Abstract

The need would seem to arise periodically in every discipline to turn to a new interpretation, an amendment of its basic notions, its starting premises. The fact that such a situation has now taken shape in ethics is testified to by the disagreements among professionals on what would appear to be the most fundamental questions: What is ethics? What is its status, its bounds, its object, its position among the other disciplines? What is morality? Is it necessary to distinguish between morality and ethics? What is the sphere of existence of ethics — is it purely the ideal sphere, or the material as well? Some of the debates are terminological in character, and can be eliminated by simple agreement on the use of words. But there are also significant disagreements over positions, probably associated with the approach of our ethics to its new "paradigm."