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 3
... feel uneasy, knowing that, despite his drug use, he is an otherwise responsible parent. Or perhaps you are a law-abiding citizen who wonders about the limits of his civic duty. You go to bed early, because you have to leave for work by ...
... feel uneasy, knowing that, despite his drug use, he is an otherwise responsible parent. Or perhaps you are a law-abiding citizen who wonders about the limits of his civic duty. You go to bed early, because you have to leave for work by ...
Page 12
... feeling bad and low, because I knowed very well I had done wrong.” Huck is all too aware of his inadequate moral training, but the thought occurs to him that he would be just as unhappy if he gave Jim up: “Well, then, says I, what's the ...
... feeling bad and low, because I knowed very well I had done wrong.” Huck is all too aware of his inadequate moral training, but the thought occurs to him that he would be just as unhappy if he gave Jim up: “Well, then, says I, what's the ...
Page 36
... Feeling), in which hypersensitive heroes and heroines are constantly meeting beggars and victims of oppression with whom they immediately sympathize and endeavor to assist, usually to the accompaniment of copious tears.21 Hell and Other ...
... Feeling), in which hypersensitive heroes and heroines are constantly meeting beggars and victims of oppression with whom they immediately sympathize and endeavor to assist, usually to the accompaniment of copious tears.21 Hell and Other ...
Page 37
... feeling surely had a noble ancestry , a noble upbringing , and like Shelley , he was sure that he acted always from the highest motives . And yet , as he abandoned him- self to what he thought was his complete humanity .. . he became ...
... feeling surely had a noble ancestry , a noble upbringing , and like Shelley , he was sure that he acted always from the highest motives . And yet , as he abandoned him- self to what he thought was his complete humanity .. . he became ...
Page 39
... feel, nor injure life by misrepresentations. I cannot bear that querulous elo- quence which threatens every city with a siege like that of Jerusalem. ... On necessary and inevitable evils, which overwhelm kingdoms at once, all ...
... feel, nor injure life by misrepresentations. I cannot bear that querulous elo- quence which threatens every city with a siege like that of Jerusalem. ... On necessary and inevitable evils, which overwhelm kingdoms at once, all ...
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