ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to offer some clarification on different uses of 'ethics', and to address the issue of the contemporary ethical controversy by tracing the genealogy of the e-word in the discourse of American Literary and Cultural Studies. The notions of 'self-care' and aestheticization of life seem particularly relevant to the discussion of ethics in the context of American culture because through its Puritan legacy this culture evolved and sedimented around the ideas of self-examination and self-perfection, which are very close to the ancient concept of ethical practice. The Emmanuel Levinas claims, is philosophy's greatest error, because by privileging the self, philosophy remains blind to the violence inherent in the self's cognitive relation to the world. Standard Operating Procedure, Morris investigates the background narrative of the Abu-Ghraib scandal by conducting interviews with soldiers who had tortured Arab detainees and/or took pictures of the acts of torture and of their fatal consequences.
