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 9
... rules reducible to a mathematical formula, Aristotle and the writers of the Old Testament discerned an intricate network of peculiar obligations arising from specific circumstances and experiences. Where modern philosophers (from Kant ...
... rules reducible to a mathematical formula, Aristotle and the writers of the Old Testament discerned an intricate network of peculiar obligations arising from specific circumstances and experiences. Where modern philosophers (from Kant ...
Page 11
... rules are as fixed as the points of the compass or the overtone series, but applying them to the imper- fections of human life is a messy and sometimes dangerous business. Many counselors and advice columnists would concede as much, at ...
... rules are as fixed as the points of the compass or the overtone series, but applying them to the imper- fections of human life is a messy and sometimes dangerous business. Many counselors and advice columnists would concede as much, at ...
Page 28
... rule. It is easy for a passerby to throw a rope to a drowning man, but other cases are less simple. Should a mother or father of small children attempt to rescue a person drowning in a dangerous river, when in all likelihood the only ...
... rule. It is easy for a passerby to throw a rope to a drowning man, but other cases are less simple. Should a mother or father of small children attempt to rescue a person drowning in a dangerous river, when in all likelihood the only ...
Page 29
... Rule and the Categorical Imperative . An indi- vidual's only duty , he would say , is to himself , and just as he would reject charitable assistance of any kind as degrading , he would refuse to give it . His ultimate justification is ...
... Rule and the Categorical Imperative . An indi- vidual's only duty , he would say , is to himself , and just as he would reject charitable assistance of any kind as degrading , he would refuse to give it . His ultimate justification is ...
Page 34
... rule remains the Golden Rule: Mind your own business, or someone else might decide to mind yours. As Hank Williams put it: “If you mind your business, then you won't be mindin' mine.” Some Christian busybodies have apparently not read ...
... rule remains the Golden Rule: Mind your own business, or someone else might decide to mind yours. As Hank Williams put it: “If you mind your business, then you won't be mindin' mine.” Some Christian busybodies have apparently not read ...
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