Husserl on personal aspects of moral normativity

Abstract

The present article deals with the tension between so-called objective values that somehow originate from valuable objects, and the subjective values, which have their source in a loving subject who gives certain objects their par- ticular value through his or her loving act that is directed toward the said objects. The latter values are important for introducing individuality into the discipline of ethics, which is an objective science. These issues emerged in Husserl’s later writings on ethics where he considers it possible, in some way, to regard the individuality of the agent as a source of normativity without, as a result, ‘dissolving’ ethics into a catalogue of individual experiences. The article endeavours to present the main elements of Husserl’s view on the possibility of taking an agent’s individuality into account in explaining his moral ideal.