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. |
From inside the book
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Page 5
... different traditions of faith often entail important moral and political distinctions . Some traditions require human sacrifice , while Christian- ity has always maintained a respect for innocent life . When an abortion clinic opens in ...
... different traditions of faith often entail important moral and political distinctions . Some traditions require human sacrifice , while Christian- ity has always maintained a respect for innocent life . When an abortion clinic opens in ...
Page 11
... Different casuists, whether philosophers or novelists, will come to different conclusions, because ethics is not (as St. Alphonsus acknowl- edged) an abstract science; it is more like the art of tuning a piano or tacking a sailing ship ...
... Different casuists, whether philosophers or novelists, will come to different conclusions, because ethics is not (as St. Alphonsus acknowl- edged) an abstract science; it is more like the art of tuning a piano or tacking a sailing ship ...
Page 13
... different kinds of virtue are required of different people . One cannot be just to one's children , for example , because they are so much a part of oneself . “ A father's or a master's justice are not the same as that of the citizens ...
... different kinds of virtue are required of different people . One cannot be just to one's children , for example , because they are so much a part of oneself . “ A father's or a master's justice are not the same as that of the citizens ...
Page 14
... different from an adultery committed out of envy , revenge , or mere covetousness , and he is not morally guilty of adultery if he was not aware that the woman is married . According to Aristotle , laws are , by their nature , universal ...
... different from an adultery committed out of envy , revenge , or mere covetousness , and he is not morally guilty of adultery if he was not aware that the woman is married . According to Aristotle , laws are , by their nature , universal ...
Page 24
... different race, or even species, from the lower orders. India's caste system may be the most famous example, but in early Rome patricians were forbidden to marry plebeians, on religious grounds: The patricians had divine blood that ...
... different race, or even species, from the lower orders. India's caste system may be the most famous example, but in early Rome patricians were forbidden to marry plebeians, on religious grounds: The patricians had divine blood that ...
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