The Laws of Life: An Exploration of Fundamental Problems in Ethics

An important 20th century work on ethics. Now available in English for the first time. Danish thinker Andreas Simonsen explores what he considers the three most fundamental problems in ethics: free will versus determinism, happiness versus duty, and humanism versus humility. ＂These problems have been pondered throughout history, often with great perspicacity and wit. However, every generation must take its own position on them so that new experiences are included in our understanding of life, not only directly but also indirectly through changing interpretations and practices of past wisdom.＂ Simonsen attempts to untangle the inevitable contradictions ＂attached to everything human and conditioned by a basic paradoxical duality in our essence and existence. ... ＂We must have a paradoxical understanding of humans as both free and conditioned; a paradoxical view of ethics as both duty and happiness; a paradoxical understanding of God as both immanent and transcendent.＂