Between Facts and Norms - Contributions to a ... - Blogs Unpad

116Chapter 3tainty about action guided by known principles. This is absorbedby the facticity of the law's enforcement. To the extent that moralcognition is not sufficiently anchored in the motives and attitudesof its addressees, it must be supplemented by a law that enforcesnorm-conformative behavior while leaving motives and attitudesopen. Coercive law overlays normative expectations with threats ofsanctions in such a way that addressees may restrict themselves tothe prudential calculation of consequences.The problem of weakness of will also gives rise to the furtherproblem of what can be reasonably expected (Zumutbarkeit) . Aprincipled morality directs individuals to examine the validity ofnorms under the presupposition that everyone in fact observes, orat least externally complies with, valid norms. However, if preciselythose norms are valid that deserve the rationally motivated agreementof all under the condition that actual compliance with thenorm is universal, then no one can reasonably be expected to abide byvalid norms insofar as this condition is not fulfilled. Each must beable to expect (erwarten) that everyone will observe valid norms.Valid norms represent reasonable expectations only if they canactually be enforced against deviant behavior.(c) A third problem, that of the imputability of obligations, oraccountability, results from the universalistic character ofpostconventional morality. This problem arises especially in regardto positive duties, which often-and increasingly so, as a societybecomes more complex-require cooperation or organization.For example, the unmistakable duty to preserve even anonymousneighbors from starvation conspicuously contrasts with the factthat millions of inhabitants of the First World allow hundreds ofthousands in poverty-stricken areas of the Third World to perish.Even charitable aid can be transmitted only along organized paths;the convoluted route taken by food, medicine, clothing, andinfrastructures far exceeds the initiative and range of individualaction. As many studies have shown, a structural improvementwould require no less than a new economic world order. Similarproblems that can only be managed by institutions arise in one'sown region, and even in one's very neighborhood. The more thatmoral consciousness attunes itself to universalistic value orientations,the greater are the discrepancies between uncontested