ETHICAL HERMENEUTICS GUIDED BY THE GOLDEN RULE AND THE COPPER RULE; DEFENSE OF A PLATINUM RULE OF MORALITY

ABSTRACT

In this article I follow arguing for a face of ethical hermeneutics related to the vision and posture of those who understand the other, be it a person, be it culture, be it nature. This project was developed based on Hans-Georg Gadamer. To carry out this scope, I initially made explicit his criticism of modern rationality – which reifies the other – as well as his recommendation to treat them as another being. Next, I substantiate the proposal of an ‘ Hermeneuticus I’ that understands the other under the Kantian imperative that, namely, says ‘not to treat the other as an object, but as an end in themselves’ and also guided by the Golden Rule of morality, according to which one must ‘treat others as he/she would like to be treated themselves’. In this article, I will incorporate – within the project of an ethical hermeneutics – the proposal of a Copper Rule of morals as developed by Yong Huang, according to which we must understand and ‘treat the other as the other would like to be treated’, that is, from their expectation as recipient and from their respective ethos embodied in the formulation “do unto others as they would have you do unto them”. Having done that, I propose the interweaving of both in what I call the Platinum Rule where the ‘self treats the other as the self would like to be treated’ and, at the same time, ‘treats the other as the other would like to be treated’.

Keywords:
Hermeneutics; Ethics; Golden Rule; Copper Rule; Platinum Rule; Gadamer; Yong Huang