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The Social Ethics of Agnes Heller

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Heller's trilogy developing a theory of social ethics is grounded in the decisive question ofhow good persons are possible. She disavows an abstract ethics of rules, so she does notbuild an ethical system but observes the lives of good persons. She focuses on healthyeveryday lives rather than constructing an essentialist human nature. The key issue insocial ethics is dynamic justice with three dimensions: (a) optimal possibility for developingnatural capacities to the maximum, (b) active involvement as a citizen, and (c) emotionalintensity in close personal attachments. She refuses to discount the rational andradical and contributes a fresh understanding of emancipatory praxis to social justice.

Key Words: social justice • good persons • Marxist ethics • contingency • everyday life

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