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 7
... ethical tradition, which, for the sake of convenience, I am calling liberalism.Although liberalism in recent decades usually signifies the milder forms of state socialism, and conservatism is used to refer to the ideology of ...
... ethical tradition, which, for the sake of convenience, I am calling liberalism.Although liberalism in recent decades usually signifies the milder forms of state socialism, and conservatism is used to refer to the ideology of ...
Page 10
... ethical discussion whose practitioners have included Aristotle, Cicero, and St. Thomas, as well as such prominent Protestant theologians as Jeremy Taylor and Richard Baxter. A genuine casuistry is based on two principles: first, that ...
... ethical discussion whose practitioners have included Aristotle, Cicero, and St. Thomas, as well as such prominent Protestant theologians as Jeremy Taylor and Richard Baxter. A genuine casuistry is based on two principles: first, that ...
Page 11
... ethical calculus could be devised from a few simple axioms, and, as a corollary, they have tended to reduce the complexities of human life to abstract formulas that override such everyday facts of life as kinship and friendship ...
... ethical calculus could be devised from a few simple axioms, and, as a corollary, they have tended to reduce the complexities of human life to abstract formulas that override such everyday facts of life as kinship and friendship ...
Page 28
... Macaulay's beggar to starve to death. 14. Macaulay, “Notes on the Indian Penal Code by the Indian Law Commissioners,”note M, 315–23 (see also 314). There is a growing literature on the ethical and legal 28 The Morality of Everyday Life.
... Macaulay's beggar to starve to death. 14. Macaulay, “Notes on the Indian Penal Code by the Indian Law Commissioners,”note M, 315–23 (see also 314). There is a growing literature on the ethical and legal 28 The Morality of Everyday Life.
Page 29
... ethical and legal aspects of Bad Samaritanism, and the arguments, however subtle and complex,gener- ally amount to no more than either the old liberal or new liberal understanding of liberty. Beginning with the assumption that ...
... ethical and legal aspects of Bad Samaritanism, and the arguments, however subtle and complex,gener- ally amount to no more than either the old liberal or new liberal understanding of liberty. Beginning with the assumption that ...
Contents
1 | |
18 | |
42 | |
Too Much Reality | 69 |
Growing Up Unabsurd | 94 |
Problems of Perspective | 135 |
The Myth of Individualism | 167 |
Goodbye Old Rights of Man | 194 |
Bibliography | 235 |
Index | 251 |
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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 |
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abstract American ancient argued argument Aristotle attachment authority become beginning believe better century charity child Christian Church citizens civil claims common concept cultural death decisions depends different duty early entire equal ethical example exist fact father feel first French friends give global Greek human ideal identity individual interests Italy John justice killed language later learned least less liberal liberty live loyalty matter means mind moral nationalist natural never object obligation once parents patriotism person perspective philosophers political poor practical Press principle problem question reason regard religion religious require responsibility Roman rules seems sense social society story strangers Studies tell theory things thought tion tradition turn United universal virtue women young