From Modern to Postmodern Individualism: A Critical Analysis of Universal Ethics and Bauman’s Concept of Morality Without Ethics

Abstract

This paper analyzes the transition from modern to postmodern individualism, focusing on the profound crisis of philosophical, ethical, and political reflection that accompanies this historical transition. Through an extensive and deconstructive analysis of critical modernist authors and moral philosophers, the paper examines in detail the failure of the universal projects of the Enlightenment and rational ethics. In the field of research, special attention is paid to the analysis of the two main pillars of modern morality, kantian deontological ethics and utilitarian consequentialist ethics, arguing how the replacement of religious authority with universal rational codes resulted in the stripping of the individual from authentic moral responsibility and his alienation into external institutional structures.At the heart of this paper is the analysis of Zygmunt Bauman’s regressive model, which proposes the concept of a “morality without ethical codes”. According to this approach, morality precedes ontology, while authentic human responsibility is essentially asymmetrical and one-sided. In this way, it avoids the modern criteria of teleology, contractual reciprocity and ethical normativity. The paper examines the way in which Bauman argues that the foundations of morality do not rest on the certainty of reason or on codified systems of norms, but stem from the original moral impulse and the existential anxiety of the individual in the confrontation with the Other.Finally, the paper critically addresses the structural limitations of this postmodern conception, pointing out the danger of a continuously improvised behavior in the absence of an axis of regularity. Particular attention is paid to the great practical-institutional challenge that this autonomous morality poses for the sphere of legal norms, arguing how an ethics based on asymmetry and unpredictability comes into conflict with the principles of the social contract, which historically has partially sacrificed freedom to guarantee security and reciprocity through universal written law. As a conclusion, the paper emphasizes the need for a slow moral evolution that aims at a synthesis between the individual impulse and the need for social stability.   Received:  27 June   2026 / Accepted: 31  August 2026 / Published: September 2026