Kierkegaard and the Aesthetic/Ethical Life-View: The Issue of Money Laundering

Abstract

In Either, Or as well as in the Stages on Life’s Way, Kierkegaard defined the various stages of moral reasoning, mainly the pre-ethical stage, the aesthetic stage, the ethical stage, and the religious stage. The pre-ethical stage is focusing of social acceptability, so that personal morality must be in accordance with the prevailing social standards of good/evil (cf. David Hume). The aesthetic stage is focusing on self-interest (cf. philosophical egoism: Smith, Hobbes, Spinoza), and thus on private morality (excluding any public morality). The ethical stage puts the emphasis on public morality (universal ethical principles, social values) and could give birth to moral universalism (Kant). The religious stage implies a deep relationship with the Infinite (God), so that every ethical issue is interpreted out of the decision-maker’s faith. In this chapter, we will use Kierkegaard’s notions of ethical/aesthetic life in order to unveil various ways to morally assess the phenomenon of money laundering. Morally assessing the phenomenon of money laundering requires to grasp the inner structure of the phenomenon itself. We could have various attitudes (aesthetic vs ethical) toward money launderers, given that the money they get from drug trade, smuggling and extortion is introduced in the national (legitimate) economy.