Abstract

The significance of tradition for moral life seems at the same time to be obvious and controversial. Both evaluations refer to the meaning of tradition as the rule that reigns with the force of self-evidence. The first section of the article elaborates a philosophical basis for the significance of tradition. Human life is characterised by logos, which is interpreted as the capacity to understand and communicate meaning. Meaning does not exist outside tradition, taken as the conversation or controversy among different interpretations. The second section of the article concentrates on the ethical meaning of tradition. With the help of Nietzsche, tradition is suggested to be the name for the adequate realization by human beings of their own historicality