Il confronto di Abbà con l’etica moderna e l’opzione per la via degli antichi

This essay first reports Abbà’s characterization of the main moral conceptions: ethics as research on the best life for man, as research on the moral law to be observed, as research on the rules for social collaboration, as explanation of psychological processes, as maximization of the positive consequences of action (and also adds some hints on Abbà’s examination of ethical non-cognitivism). Except for the first one, their common denominator is the 'utilitarian subject' and the shift from the first person point of view to the third person point of view in the elaboration of moral philosophy. Then the essay exposes Abbà’s comparison between the previous figures of ethics mentioning the problems of third person ethics (e.g. about the complex gestation of actions) and of their anthropology, their misrecognition of the role of virtues, of love and of the ordo ad Deum. For Abbà, ethics as a search for the best life for man is capable of incorporating the just demands of the other conceptions.