Morality is not a recipe for a happy and trouble-free life: Interview with Zygmunt Bauman and Aleksandra Jasińska-Kania

Abstract

The following text is a transcript of a conversation I had with Prof. Zygmunt Bauman and Prof. Aleksandra Jasińska-Kania in the spring of 2014. At that time I was finishing writing my doctoral dissertation on Karl Popper’s social theory. I was just grappling with one of the most serious objections raised against it when – quite by accident – I came across Bauman’s Liquid Modernity and quickly realized that a number of arguments formulated in it by Bauman, could be used in defense of Popper’s theory. Without thinking too much, I wrote a letter to Professor Bauman asking whether my intuitions were correct. Just a few hours later, I received a comprehensive reply, along with an invitation to the professor’s home in Leeds for an interview, a transcript of which I present below. During the conversation we discussed topics including moral choice, the relationship between freedom and safety, distinction between ethics and morality and animal rights. Although almost a decade has passed since the following conversation was conducted, I firmly believe that the thoughts contained in this talk are of such a universal nature that they will interest the reader also, and perhaps especially today.