The Phenomenon of Reciprocity: Communicative and Normative Prerequisites of Morality in its Historical Geneses

The genesis of thinking according to the type and the spirit of the Golden Rule (and conjugated with it Lex Talionis and the Commandment of Love) is considered as a pattern of historical formation of morality in general. Moral thinking was shaped by understanding and mastering the experience of particular communicative situations. Prior to normative generalizations and universal prescriptivity the logic of moral thinking was gradually growing up of the expectations of agents of communicative situations as logic of reciprocity and mutuality. The analysis is based on the material of Homer's poems.

genealogy of morality, the Golden Rule, reciprocity, retaliation, gratitude, benevolence, Homer