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 4
... poor but deserv- ing nephew go to college and writing a check to the Red Cross to help the Albanian refugees from Kosovo. Broadening our scope still further, imagine that another ethnic civil war has broken out in Eastern Europe, this ...
... poor but deserv- ing nephew go to college and writing a check to the Red Cross to help the Albanian refugees from Kosovo. Broadening our scope still further, imagine that another ethnic civil war has broken out in Eastern Europe, this ...
Page 10
... 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 he must steal , he ...
... 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 he must steal , he ...
Page 12
... poor individuals, and even between rich and poor nations, condemn the favoritism we show our friends and countrymen as so much selfishness and greed. To each of these absurd conclusions, the best response is often not to deny what may ...
... poor individuals, and even between rich and poor nations, condemn the favoritism we show our friends and countrymen as so much selfishness and greed. To each of these absurd conclusions, the best response is often not to deny what may ...
Page 19
... poor would rather die than go to the workhouses and prisons supported by his taxes . When Scrooge professes that he doesn't know what the poor might wish and the gentlemen inform him that he might know it , he replies : “ It's not my ...
... poor would rather die than go to the workhouses and prisons supported by his taxes . When Scrooge professes that he doesn't know what the poor might wish and the gentlemen inform him that he might know it , he replies : “ It's not my ...
Page 20
... poor alone that Scrooge is asked to care . When he praises his late partner , Marley , as a good man for business , Marley's ghost admonishes him : “ Mankind was my business . ” At this point , Scrooge would be justified in throwing up ...
... poor alone that Scrooge is asked to care . When he praises his late partner , Marley , as a good man for business , Marley's ghost admonishes him : “ Mankind was my business . ” At this point , Scrooge would be justified in throwing up ...
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