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
... least one of the ques- tions . Shakespeare's muddleheaded Danish prince was trying to make up his mind what to do about a serious domestic problem . Hamlet had several options : He could kill his uncle Claudius , who had murdered the ...
... least one of the ques- tions . Shakespeare's muddleheaded Danish prince was trying to make up his mind what to do about a serious domestic problem . Hamlet had several options : He could kill his uncle Claudius , who had murdered the ...
Page 2
... least well-off. Guildenstern, on the other hand, has studied with the predecessors of John Locke and Ayn Rand, and, as a budding anarcho-individualist liberal, asks the prince to consider what is in it for himself, deriding all ...
... least well-off. Guildenstern, on the other hand, has studied with the predecessors of John Locke and Ayn Rand, and, as a budding anarcho-individualist liberal, asks the prince to consider what is in it for himself, deriding all ...
Page 3
... least my moral sense comes (so I believe) as a divine revelation from God and his Church, while you do not even pretend to believe that. Our way of life in Denmark and Europe rests upon my moral tradition, but if any of yours were ...
... least my moral sense comes (so I believe) as a divine revelation from God and his Church, while you do not even pretend to believe that. Our way of life in Denmark and Europe rests upon my moral tradition, but if any of yours were ...
Page 11
... least in principle, but, since the time of Descartes, philosophers have been acting more and more as if a moral algebra or an ethical calculus could be devised from a few simple axioms, and, as a corollary, they have tended to reduce ...
... least in principle, but, since the time of Descartes, philosophers have been acting more and more as if a moral algebra or an ethical calculus could be devised from a few simple axioms, and, as a corollary, they have tended to reduce ...
Page 13
... least not with- out kicking everyone he loved in the face . While a Northern Puritan might have argued with Huck's Southern Puritan Sunday - school teacher , saying that it was Huck's duty to sacrifice his own life to free a slave ...
... least not with- out kicking everyone he loved in the face . While a Northern Puritan might have argued with Huck's Southern Puritan Sunday - school teacher , saying that it was Huck's duty to sacrifice his own life to free a slave ...
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