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 21
... once a year to the United Way or give a series of lectures, as Michael Milken has done, on the ethics of business. Scrooge could continue to mistreat his employees and relatives, while at the same time acquiring a reputation for ...
... once a year to the United Way or give a series of lectures, as Michael Milken has done, on the ethics of business. Scrooge could continue to mistreat his employees and relatives, while at the same time acquiring a reputation for ...
Page 29
... once their counterintuitive premises ( that is , that moral obligations are universal and that human beings can be individualists ) are accepted . But if we consider the case of a nursing mother who will not spare a drop of the milk ...
... once their counterintuitive premises ( that is , that moral obligations are universal and that human beings can be individualists ) are accepted . But if we consider the case of a nursing mother who will not spare a drop of the milk ...
Page 31
... once the principle of a gen- eralized in loco parentis responsibility or moral conscription is granted. If individuals do not have such a responsibility, however, where would the state get it from? And if the state wishes to deputize us ...
... once the principle of a gen- eralized in loco parentis responsibility or moral conscription is granted. If individuals do not have such a responsibility, however, where would the state get it from? And if the state wishes to deputize us ...
Page 36
... once he had to flee Paris to avoid im- prisonment. Possessed of a forgiving conscience, he was also quarrel- some and did not shrink from libeling friends and benefactors, once he felt himself provoked. He could almost in the same ...
... once he had to flee Paris to avoid im- prisonment. Possessed of a forgiving conscience, he was also quarrel- some and did not shrink from libeling friends and benefactors, once he felt himself provoked. He could almost in the same ...
Page 38
... once in the anthill.” It is not pity that reduces suffering men and women to ants in a hill. With the advantage of perspective, the philoso- pher can reduce suffering humanity to insects—or worse, to ammuni- tion in his war against the ...
... once in the anthill.” It is not pity that reduces suffering men and women to ants in a hill. With the advantage of perspective, the philoso- pher can reduce suffering humanity to insects—or worse, to ammuni- tion in his war against 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