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 1
... friend , how would we advise him ? The advice would probably depend on the moral and religious traditions in which we 1 2 The Morality of Everyday Life were brought up. His. 02 Fleming intr , p 1-17 1/23/04 12:28 PM Page 1 Allan S ...
... friend , how would we advise him ? The advice would probably depend on the moral and religious traditions in which we 1 2 The Morality of Everyday Life were brought up. His. 02 Fleming intr , p 1-17 1/23/04 12:28 PM Page 1 Allan S ...
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... friend Horatio, who studied with Hamlet in Wit- tenberg, has become (let us imagine) a quietistic Anabaptist—a sort of ... friends. Although, as a medieval Catholic, he is not supposed to seek revenge, that is exactly what is on his mind ...
... friend Horatio, who studied with Hamlet in Wit- tenberg, has become (let us imagine) a quietistic Anabaptist—a sort of ... friends. Although, as a medieval Catholic, he is not supposed to seek revenge, that is exactly what is on his mind ...
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... friends would have reasons for regarding him as foolish and immoral, but Hamlet might easily reply to them: “You be- lieve in your traditions, on no better evidence than I have for believing in mine, 1,500 years of the Church's moral ...
... friends would have reasons for regarding him as foolish and immoral, but Hamlet might easily reply to them: “You be- lieve in your traditions, on no better evidence than I have for believing in mine, 1,500 years of the Church's moral ...
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... friends and allies , the talk is all of the human rights of the unborn , but the young mother has learned from her Cal- abrian grandmother that it is often better to mind your own business and do whatever good you can in the sphere of ...
... friends and allies , the talk is all of the human rights of the unborn , but the young mother has learned from her Cal- abrian grandmother that it is often better to mind your own business and do whatever good you can in the sphere of ...
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... friends, and neighbors—people over whom they might have some influence— but total strangers, who may live on the other side of the globe? Liberal Consensus There is a strange convergence in the style of reasoning employed by ...
... friends, and neighbors—people over whom they might have some influence— but total strangers, who may live on the other side of the globe? Liberal Consensus There is a strange convergence in the style of reasoning employed by ...
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