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 6
... example usually given is that of a neighbor drowning in a bath- tub. Surely, one has the right—the obligation—to break into the neigh- bor's house to save his life. Perhaps, but real-life dilemmas are rarely that simple. In the first ...
... example usually given is that of a neighbor drowning in a bath- tub. Surely, one has the right—the obligation—to break into the neigh- bor's house to save his life. Perhaps, but real-life dilemmas are rarely that simple. In the first ...
Page 10
... example , when a poor man must provide food for his starving children . A severe casuist like Baxter would ask hard questions : Has the poor man tried begging ? Has he tried to get work , or is he stealing because he is lazy ? Even if ...
... example , when a poor man must provide food for his starving children . A severe casuist like Baxter would ask hard questions : Has the poor man tried begging ? Has he tried to get work , or is he stealing because he is lazy ? Even if ...
Page 13
... 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 " ( Arist . Ethica Nicomachea 1134b ) . The casuists , in their sub- tle fashion , went even further ...
... 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 " ( Arist . Ethica Nicomachea 1134b ) . The casuists , in their sub- tle fashion , went even further ...
Page 22
... examples of extreme cruelty prac- ticed against outsiders by otherwise moral people . The Greeks at Troy were said to have killed the child of Hector to prevent him from Hell and Other People 23 growing up to seek revenge 03 Fleming ch1 ...
... examples of extreme cruelty prac- ticed against outsiders by otherwise moral people . The Greeks at Troy were said to have killed the child of Hector to prevent him from Hell and Other People 23 growing up to seek revenge 03 Fleming ch1 ...
Page 24
... example, but in early Rome patricians were forbidden to marry plebeians, on religious grounds: The patricians had divine blood that ought not to be contaminated. Similarly, the poems of Theognis made a sharp distinction between the ...
... example, but in early Rome patricians were forbidden to marry plebeians, on religious grounds: The patricians had divine blood that ought not to be contaminated. Similarly, the poems of Theognis made a sharp distinction between the ...
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