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 8
... seem inevitably to produce a sterile idealism that is abstract without being noble, banal without having the charm of provincialism. Idealists have appeared in many nations, but America has excelled in producing idealists unable to ...
... seem inevitably to produce a sterile idealism that is abstract without being noble, banal without having the charm of provincialism. Idealists have appeared in many nations, but America has excelled in producing idealists unable to ...
Page 9
... seem con- tent to point out the shortcomings of liberalism; they have been reluc- tant, for the most part, to take the final step of recommending some form of premodern ethics as a positive alternative. Human societies are, it goes ...
... seem con- tent to point out the shortcomings of liberalism; they have been reluc- tant, for the most part, to take the final step of recommending some form of premodern ethics as a positive alternative. Human societies are, it goes ...
Page 14
... seems to be discussing actual legisla- tion , his strictures apply with equal force to the moral laws proposed by philosophers . Contemporary ethics is in even greater need of a casuistry that would restore some sense of reality to the ...
... seems to be discussing actual legisla- tion , his strictures apply with equal force to the moral laws proposed by philosophers . Contemporary ethics is in even greater need of a casuistry that would restore some sense of reality to the ...
Page 16
... seem to need a nontechnical casuistry that accords . the real problems of everyday life the serious attention they deserve , an attention that is often ( though certainly not always ) denied them by academic philosophy . Even if readers ...
... seem to need a nontechnical casuistry that accords . the real problems of everyday life the serious attention they deserve , an attention that is often ( though certainly not always ) denied them by academic philosophy . Even if readers ...
Page 20
... seem to know , by common sense or intui- tion , that murder is murder and that it is never right to violate a “ thou shalt not ” command in order to carry out a virtuous or charitable im- pulse . It cannot be right to rob Peter to pay ...
... seem to know , by common sense or intui- tion , that murder is murder and that it is never right to violate a “ thou shalt not ” command in order to carry out a virtuous or charitable im- pulse . It cannot be right to rob Peter to pay ...
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