Ethically Structured Processes

1The Possible and the Necessary

To proceed by “withdrawal” means to go back upstream from objects that are given as fixed structures and to restore them to the possible where they are constantly formed in open processes. We do not encounter fixed objects, nor do we define them once and for all. But in the encounter the conventionality of what is encountered takes on meaning. This restitution of objects to their contingency, to their very possibility, which provides continuity for an efficient process, is a responsibility. But such an attitude requires a distance from any “ontological” approach. It requires thinking about the possible and the necessary outside ontology, otherwise it will fall back into the trap of irreconcilable theoretical/practical duality. This attitude only becomes intelligible and relevant, as such, through prior theoretical marking. But this marking must be a theoretical thought that undoes a univocal consistency of the theoretical, which too often separates it from ethics. It is therefore appropriate to start by setting up some definitions in this mode.

1.1. The formal and the transcendental, or the logical point of view

A “logic” links, in a coherent way and according to their structure, “terms”, or defined units of meaning that can be stated. Or, a logic is the articulation and setting in motion of a given set of conditions for effective purposes: to achieve a desired result, theoretical or practical. These terms, or conditions, each constitute the ...