Our Common Post-Covid-19 Pandemic Future: A Return to “Normal” or a Creation of the New “Normal”?

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to reflect on our common post-Covid-19 future. To do so, we first examine our present pandemic situation in terms of the pairs of the correlated concepts: peace and war, and the normal and the abnormal. We then proceed to analyze the dual aspect of the concept of normal: its descriptive as well as its normative side. In doing so, we consider the ethical views of Immanuel Kant, Nicolai Hartmann, Fritz Jahr, and Paul Ricoeur; their views help but do not lead to the solution we find satisfactory. Upon further examination, we come to the realization that our problems with understanding our present and with anticipating our future seem to be ultimately related to our struggle to establish a ground on which both the descriptive and normative aspects of the concept of “normal” can be satisfactorily founded. Our suggestion is that this problem may be solved by understanding what is normal in terms of health, understood as balance and as finding a proper measure in everything we do. Our common post-Covid-19 future should be centered on our renewed commitment to the promotion of physical and mental, as well as individual, social, and environmental health. We thus set a stage for further development of an ethics of health.