ABSTRACT

Ethics or moral theory is the philosophical discipline that most frequently appears in public discussion. The concepts of moral theory, its thought models, considerations and ideas are currently enjoying particular favour. This chapter focuses to cover some of the criticisms from the discourse ethics perspective. Against the moral theoretical programme of discourse ethics and the concept of 'practical discourse', reproaches are often heard of'apartness from the praxis' or the 'impossibility of application'. At the same time, criticisms refer to already existing models of applied ethics that seem to work and presumably have no problems. It is therefore fitting to raise some basic problems that, in the form of dilemmas, emerge in every attempt at applied ethics, and then go on to analyse how discourse ethics might face up to them. The chapter discusses most important dilemmas can essentially be synthesised into three types referring respectively, to theoretical architectonics, to the problems of grounding and to ideological content.