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 6
... responsibilities lie. In each of them (including Hamlet), people are forced to decide when it is right to take responsibility for the lives of strangers. The most common answer, which pro-life activists use to defend their protests and ...
... responsibilities lie. In each of them (including Hamlet), people are forced to decide when it is right to take responsibility for the lives of strangers. The most common answer, which pro-life activists use to defend their protests and ...
Page 7
... responsibility to save the lives of people whom they might never meet in the ordinary course of life? Not relatives, friends, and neighbors—people over whom they might have some influence— but total strangers, who may live on the other ...
... responsibility to save the lives of people whom they might never meet in the ordinary course of life? Not relatives, friends, and neighbors—people over whom they might have some influence— but total strangers, who may live on the other ...
Page 21
... to children, he reminded his readers, is to enable them to learn basic responsibilities: 22 The Morality of Everyday Life what is good and 03 Fleming ch1, p 18-41 1/23/04 12:29 PM Page 21 Allan S Johnson Al's G4 HD:Pxt jobs disk.
... to children, he reminded his readers, is to enable them to learn basic responsibilities: 22 The Morality of Everyday Life what is good and 03 Fleming ch1, p 18-41 1/23/04 12:29 PM Page 21 Allan S Johnson Al's G4 HD:Pxt jobs disk.
Page 22
... responsibilities — as opposed to “ duty ” in the abstract — is not exclusive to Plutarch : it is as common- place as proverbs and Mother Goose rhymes . “ Charity begins at home , ” “ The shoemaker should stick to his last , ” and ...
... responsibilities — as opposed to “ duty ” in the abstract — is not exclusive to Plutarch : it is as common- place as proverbs and Mother Goose rhymes . “ Charity begins at home , ” “ The shoemaker should stick to his last , ” and ...
Page 30
... responsibility ( as policemen , nurses , priests ) or when we have , by our own actions , put him at risk . We are not obliged to feed all the children in the world , only those we have produced or adopted or agreed to provide for ...
... responsibility ( as policemen , nurses , priests ) or when we have , by our own actions , put him at risk . We are not obliged to feed all the children in the world , only those we have produced or adopted or agreed to provide for ...
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