THE MORALLY DECENT HR MANAGER 271If he had formulated nothing else, Kant would remain the greatest genius of modern
philosophy. He found the fundamental maxim (or imperative) from which all others
spring. One can fully subscribe to this formula without knowing anything at all about
Kant’s philosophy. One need not understand its philosophical foundations in order to
endorse the simplest, the most radical, the clearest and most sublime universal one can
dream of, which prescribes that one should never use another person as a mere means
but also an end. (1990: 105)
In applauding this maxim, however, Heller is not supporting or adopting
Kant’s broader philosophical approach. Her argument is that the means–ends
formula was not invented by Kant so much as found by him. It is a historically
devised, communally shared norm to which Kant provided his philosophical
support.
In adopting a more communitarian perspective, Heller does not argue that
morality can be understood only within the borders of particular commu-
nities. She claims that some moral norms do transcend communities and
that there are universals to which all modern and decent people attend. Here
Heller is somewhat in accord with writers such as Bok (1995), Walzer (1994),
and Young (1990). However, she does not go so far as to ground her moral
theory in the existence of universal moral norms and values that cover the
community of humankind. Rather, for Heller it is the existence of decent
people, who in modern societies must live with contingency, that grounds
morality. Decency survives here and now not because it meets teleological
ends, nor because it accords with reason, nor because we all blindly accept
certain norms and values. It survives due to the existence of decent people
who prefer to follow moral norms rather than break them and, indeed, would
prefer to suffer wrong than breach norms. It is in the existence of such decent
people that Heller grounds morality: morality survives because decent people
exist.
ForHelleritisbettertosuffer wrong rather than commit wrong. For Heller
this is a confession of faith for which the decent person does not require
any proof. Here, she comes close to articulating the more postmodern theme
articulated by writers such as John Caputo (1993). However, she goes further
by discussing the notion of an ‘existential choice’ that authentic moderns must
make.
For Heller (see particularly 1993 and 1990) people in modern societies
face a historico-social contingency. While everybody is born with a bundle
of genetic capacities contingent upon who their parents are, people born into
modern societies do not face a preset social role ortelosalready marked out for
them by their parents’ location in society. The situation into which a person is
thrown conditions their chances of successfully choosing a particular pattern
of life but nonetheless in modern societies no child is born into a socially
predetermined role.