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 13
... virtue are required of different people . One cannot be just to one's children , for example , because they are so much a part of oneself . “ A father's or a master's justice are not the same as that of the citizens " ( Arist . Ethica ...
... virtue are required of different people . One cannot be just to one's children , for example , because they are so much a part of oneself . “ A father's or a master's justice are not the same as that of the citizens " ( Arist . Ethica ...
Page 17
... virtues. “Talk not to me of blasphemy,” Ahab retorts to Starbuck, who accuses him of taking “vengeance on a dumb ... virtue itself—is, in fact, a vice. Ahab destroys his ship, himself, and all of his crew except the man who lives to ...
... virtues. “Talk not to me of blasphemy,” Ahab retorts to Starbuck, who accuses him of taking “vengeance on a dumb ... virtue itself—is, in fact, a vice. Ahab destroys his ship, himself, and all of his crew except the man who lives to ...
Page 20
... virtue , ” observes Philippa Foot , “ and a virtue which dictates attachment to the good of others , does not , then , give morality a universal end or goal . ” 4 Before his conversion to the religion of philanthropy , Scrooge is not an ...
... virtue , ” observes Philippa Foot , “ and a virtue which dictates attachment to the good of others , does not , then , give morality a universal end or goal . ” 4 Before his conversion to the religion of philanthropy , Scrooge is not an ...
Page 22
... virtue and vice : " For there is no part of life — neither in our public nor private affairs , neither at home nor in the marketplace , neither if you conduct some business with yourself nor if you make an arrangement with an- other ...
... virtue and vice : " For there is no part of life — neither in our public nor private affairs , neither at home nor in the marketplace , neither if you conduct some business with yourself nor if you make an arrangement with an- other ...
Page 24
... virtue; interfering has to be justified. According to Pericles (in Thucydides 2.20), it was an Athenian pecu- liarity to consider the man who stayed apart from public affairs not as a Hell and Other People 25 non-busybody (apragmon) but ...
... virtue; interfering has to be justified. According to Pericles (in Thucydides 2.20), it was an Athenian pecu- liarity to consider the man who stayed apart from public affairs not as a Hell and Other People 25 non-busybody (apragmon) but ...
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