The Possibility of a Moral Life without Religion in the Light of the Ethical Writings of Tadeusz Kotarbiński

Abstract

In ethics much attention has already been paid to a dispute concerning the issue of autonomic ethics. Yet it is still worthy to look again at least at some of Tadeusz Kotarbiński's arguments. Their way of reasoning is being used today for defending the position of the autonomic ethics. The autonomic ethics proclaims a complete independence of the field of human morality from the realm of religion. If it is so then a polemic with Kotarbiński's views (which is led from the perspective of Christian ethics) will still be able to become a useful instrument in contemporary discussion with supporters of ethics independent from religion. For this reason the problem undertaken in this paper is still up-to-date. This problem can be summed up in the questions as follow: How to present Kotarbiński's arguments by which he justifies his thesis about the possibility of a law-abiding life on the high moral level without reference to the realm of religion? How can one argue with those arguments? Relying upon the analyzed texts by Kotarbiński and Styczeń mainly one can say that the differences between materialistic approach represented by the Student of Lvov-Warsaw School and views of personalistic ethics were shown. They show-up especially in the field of methodology of ethics and axiology. It is noticeable that the differences in views that cause the polemic cited and discussed in this article are based more on a variety of starting points. They are based also on goals of speculations that were undertaken by various ethicists and in groups of issues that should be the domain of ethics.