The Morality of Everyday Life: Rediscovering an Ancient Alternative to the Liberal TraditionFleming offers an alternative to enlightened liberalism, where moral and political problems are looked at from an objective point of view and a decision made from a distant perspective that is both rational and universally applied to all comparable cases. He instead places importance on the particular, the local, and moral complexity, advocating a return to premodern traditions for a solution to ethical predicaments. In his view, liberalism and postmodernism ignore the fact that human beings by their very nature refuse to live in a world of abstractions where the attachments of friends, neighbors, family, and country make no difference. Fleming believes that a modern type of "casuistry" should be applied to moral conflicts, using examples from history, literature, and religion to explain this moral ecology that refuses to divorce organisms from their interactions with each other and with their environment. |
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Page 9
... Aristotle and St. Thomas (to say nothing of Moses and St. Paul) are far closer in spirit and outlook to the common sense of ordinary people than they are to the thought of most modern philoso- phers. As the liberal tradition has ...
... Aristotle and St. Thomas (to say nothing of Moses and St. Paul) are far closer in spirit and outlook to the common sense of ordinary people than they are to the thought of most modern philoso- phers. As the liberal tradition has ...
Page 10
... Aristotle and Cicero and by rabbinical commentators on the Torah.3 Hard Cases Since the Middle Ages , the case - by - case analysis of such dilemmas has been called casuistry , a sophisticated tradition of ethical discussion whose ...
... Aristotle and Cicero and by rabbinical commentators on the Torah.3 Hard Cases Since the Middle Ages , the case - by - case analysis of such dilemmas has been called casuistry , a sophisticated tradition of ethical discussion whose ...
Page 13
... Aristotle repeat- edly reminds us of our humanity and the folly of any effort to rise above our nature . Justice cannot be reduced to simple universals , because different kinds of virtue are required of different people . One cannot be ...
... Aristotle repeat- edly reminds us of our humanity and the folly of any effort to rise above our nature . Justice cannot be reduced to simple universals , because different kinds of virtue are required of different people . One cannot be ...
Page 14
... Aristotle , laws are , by their nature , universal statements that cannot comprehend every contingency . For human beings , at least , fairness and reasonableness ( epieikeia ) are better adapted to the needs of justice than the kind of ...
... Aristotle , laws are , by their nature , universal statements that cannot comprehend every contingency . For human beings , at least , fairness and reasonableness ( epieikeia ) are better adapted to the needs of justice than the kind of ...
Page 19
... Aristotle noticed that privately owned property was taken better care of than property that was owned in common . “ The tragedy of the commons , " so well known to modern environmentalists , was summed up by Macaulay in a famous ...
... Aristotle noticed that privately owned property was taken better care of than property that was owned in common . “ The tragedy of the commons , " so well known to modern environmentalists , was summed up by Macaulay in a famous ...
Contents
1 | |
18 | |
42 | |
Too Much Reality | 69 |
Growing Up Unabsurd | 95 |
Problems of Perspective | 135 |
The Myth of Individualism | 167 |
Goodbye Old Rights of Man | 194 |
Bibliography | 235 |
Index | 251 |
Other editions - View all
The Morality of Everyday Life: Rediscovering an Ancient Alternative to the ... Thomas Fleming No preview available - 2004 |
The Morality of Everyday Life: Rediscovering an Ancient Alternative to the ... Thomas Fleming No preview available - 2004 |
Common terms and phrases
abstract Alasdair MacIntyre American ancient Antigone argued argument Aristotle Athenian Carol Gilligan casuistry Catholic century charity child Christian Church citizens civil claims common concept Creon cultural depends Descartes divine duty ethical European evil example fact father feel French friends friendship G. K. Chesterton global Goodbye Greek Growing Up Unabsurd happiness hero human rights ideal identity impartial Jefferson Jews John Johnson justice justify killed Kohlberg Kosovo language Lawrence Kohlberg liberal liberty live loyalty ment modern moral development Morality of Everyday mother Myth of Individualism nation-state nationalist natural neighbor Neoptolemus object obligation Old Rights one’s parents patriotism person Philoctetes philosophers Plato Plutarch political poor principle Problems of Perspective question reality reason regard religion religious responsibility Roman rules Samuel Johnson sense Serbs social society Stoic story strangers theory things Thomas tion tradition University Press virtue Voltaire women