ABSTRACT
Discourse ethics continues the European tradition of universal morality at a purified level; it integrates critically the two waves of Enlightenment European history has crossed. The basic principle of discourse ethics is related to the rational adjudication between conflicting interests and claims. Discourse ethics reconstructs and grounds the moral intuition of universal justice with reference to a consciousness of the fallibilistic status of scientific theories and the experience of cultural relativism. Discourse ethics responds to Enrique Dussel’s problem through its demand for practical discourses, where all concerned should solve consensually their conflicting claims and interests. Discourse ethics and the ethics of liberation share the intention to overcome monological universalization through real interactions. The material implications of discourse ethics are immediately obvious under totalitarian conditions. Discourse ethics and liberation ethics try to reconstruct the anticipations which are included in moral intuitions.
