Doc. dr Duška Franeta
Fakultet za pravne i poslovne studije dr Lazar Vrkatić, Novi Sad

UDK 341.123

Ideal of Impartiality in Ethics and Law
 

Summary: The idea of impartiality has always had a particular importance for morality and law. Yet, its prospects have been differently assessed in various philosophy schools from the ancient times. Simultaneously with the rise of the awareness of the importance which the idea of impartiality has for the world of praxis, grew the insight that its absolutization brings about considerable problems. Particular importance and status got the idea of impartiality in the modern era. In the ethics of Immanuel Kant it became a pure regulative ideal due to his removal of passions, emotions and happiness from the field of morality. In the domain of law, the idea of imapartiality has been often projected into the mystified ideal of the neutrality of modern law. Twentieth century philosophy yielded a skepticism towards pure and absolute rationality and the ideals of impartiality and neutrality as its derivatives. At the end of the last century intense debates have been developed considering the limits of impartiality understood as the pure essence of morality and law, especially in relation to its compatibility with the deepest human relations as well as regarding the issues of patriotism and cosmopolitanism. Following the development of this idea, its transformations and effects, the author concludes that the idealization of impartiality, as well as its refusal, result from the reduction of the complexity of moral consciousness into one of its inevitable aspects: passions or reason. Such narrow views upon morality and the field of praxis bring forth an unrealistic comprehension of human action, interpersonal relationships and the society in general and often end up with different social pathologies.