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 22
... French leave and French pox , Dutch courage and Dutch treat — or , to give the French and the Dutch equal time , perfidious Albion and “ Only Yankees and fools predict the weather . ” “ Be slow when strangers haste to give ” is an ...
... French leave and French pox , Dutch courage and Dutch treat — or , to give the French and the Dutch equal time , perfidious Albion and “ Only Yankees and fools predict the weather . ” “ Be slow when strangers haste to give ” is an ...
Page 24
... French, and English aristocracies.9 Early Greek morality is not universal but particular: “It may be said in broad terms ... that an Athenian felt his first duty was to his par- ents ... , his second to his kinsmen, and his third to his ...
... French, and English aristocracies.9 Early Greek morality is not universal but particular: “It may be said in broad terms ... that an Athenian felt his first duty was to his par- ents ... , his second to his kinsmen, and his third to his ...
Page 36
... French lit- erary and intellectual life, although few of the productions on which his fame rested—his poems and tragedies—can be read today without impatience. Wildly successful and honored throughout Europe, Voltaire remained ...
... French lit- erary and intellectual life, although few of the productions on which his fame rested—his poems and tragedies—can be read today without impatience. Wildly successful and honored throughout Europe, Voltaire remained ...
Page 46
... French history—the civil war between Catholics and Protestants—and his and other schemes for a federal Europe were designed not to eliminate states but to reduce the horrors of war. Certainly, in the period between the two world wars ...
... French history—the civil war between Catholics and Protestants—and his and other schemes for a federal Europe were designed not to eliminate states but to reduce the horrors of war. Certainly, in the period between the two world wars ...
Page 47
... French emperors , and Prussian kaisers , who adopted the language and ceremonies of their Roman and Holy Roman predeces- sors . The dream of international order , in other words , could also be made to serve the ends of a national state ...
... French emperors , and Prussian kaisers , who adopted the language and ceremonies of their Roman and Holy Roman predeces- sors . The dream of international order , in other words , could also be made to serve the ends of a national state ...
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