The Morality of Everyday Life

The Morality of Everyday Life PDF Author: Thomas Fleming
Publisher: University of Missouri Press
ISBN: 0826262503
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
Fleming 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.

The Morality of Everyday Life

The Morality of Everyday Life PDF Author: Thomas Fleming
Publisher: University of Missouri Press
ISBN: 0826262503
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 280

Get Book

Book Description
Fleming 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.

Friendship and the Moral Life

Friendship and the Moral Life PDF Author: Paul J. Wadell
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Family & Relationships
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
Wadell (ethics, Catholic Theological Union, Chicago) reconceptualizes moral theology, establishing friendship as central to the moral purpose of life, and integral to Christianity. In this connection he examines Aristotole, Augustine, Karl Barth, Thomas Aquinas, and others. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Rediscovering the Moral Life

Rediscovering the Moral Life PDF Author: James Gouinlock
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 356

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Book Description
Periodically, someone must remind philosophers of just how far removed they are from the all-too-real and vital human concerns that affect people's lives. Someone has to point the way to a philosophy that returns to these concerns with both depth and realism. James Gouinlock has deftly accomplished both tasks in Rediscovering the Moral Life. With trenchant reference to such contemporary philosophical luminaries as Alasdair MacIntyre, John Rawls, Jurgen Habermas, Michael Walzer, and Richard Rorty (among others), Gouinlock demonstrates that the abstractions produced by these writers fail to engage the very subject matter that gives pertinence to ethical theory and offers direction to moral conduct. Gouinlock shows how current thinkers produce elaborate but lifeless and impractical conceptual schemes devoid of meaning for those of us who live in the real world. Of vital importance is the moral life itself: the actual values, conflicts, ambiguities, and resources resident in human life. Here we find the sources of moral direction and aspiration. With learning, wit, and lively analysis Gouinlock carries out the project of discerning and appropriating these resources, and in so doing returns philosophy to the fundamental character of human perplexities and ambitions. Only in reference to the conditions of ordinary everyday living - with all of its confusion, frustration, and anxiety - can philosophy regain the vitality and pertinence to rescue it from the ivory tower. The ideas from that tiresome tower oscillate between forms of absolutism and relativism. Finding no warrant for either in the moral life itself, Gouinlock presents a moral pluralism, warranted by the very nature of the moral life and implemented not by invariant rules, but by remarkably simple and effective virtues determined in reference to the moral condition. Although they cannot give absolute certification to moral judgement, the virtues provide a foundation for thought and action in real circumstances. Gouinlock begins his discussion by presenting some of the most fateful traits of existence, from which he proceeds to more specific analyses. He presents the problems of fact and value in a new and vivid light while giving moral discourse original and refreshingly constructive attention. In addition, there is penetrating analysis of the origins of moral values in the conditions of the moral life. Drawing from research in the behavioural sciences, Gouinlock points out the multiple uses of knowledge of human nature in moral reflection and action. He then sets forth the nature of the virtues that are most suitable for contending with these generic conditions. Throughout, Gouinlock draws upon many sources of wisdom in the history of philosophy while laying bare the futilities of contemporary theories. With courage and candour Gouinlock confronts the nature of the moral life and its prospects for both suffering and fulfilment. Rediscovering the Moral Life stands in the great tradition of synoptic works in philosophy that have the boldness to challenge prevailing academic conventions and the insight to reveal the best lessons of moral experience.

Living the Catholic Faith

Living the Catholic Faith PDF Author: Charles J. Chaput
Publisher: Servant Books
ISBN: 9781569551912
Category : Christian life
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
The archbishop of Denver addresses the difficult question of what it means to be a Catholic in the twenty-first century.

Moral Reasoning: Rediscovering the Ethical Tradition: Moral Reasoning

Moral Reasoning: Rediscovering the Ethical Tradition: Moral Reasoning PDF Author: Louis Groarke
Publisher: OUP Canada
ISBN: 9780195425611
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Every day we are faced with moral dilemmas in both our personal and professional lives. The choices we make, the ways in which we behave, and our responses to these dilemmas are grounded in our personal understandings of ethics and morality. But this understanding is not black and white: What is deplorable to one person may be perfectly acceptable to another. In Moral Reasoning: Rediscovering the Ethical Tradition, author Louis Groarke guides readers through a honing of their critical skills in moral analysis by providing a rich, deep, and far-reaching overview of the discipline. He offers a careful, in-depth introduction to the many schools of moral thought that have contributed to Western philosophy and to the teachings of great moral thinkers such as Confucius, Socrates, Epicurus, Aristotle, Jesus, Epictetus, Aquinas, Hobbes, Kant, Mill, and Kierkegaard. This wide-ranging text considers these many different perspectives on morality with the goal of building up one coherent, larger view. Text-wide inclusion of contemporary examples drawing on these classical ideas fosters critical reflection about today's important moral questions and encourages readers to develop their own considered views that go beyond peer pressure and ideology.

Eros and the Good

Eros and the Good PDF Author: James S. Gouinlock
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1615928251
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 363

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Book Description
[Gouinlock] has succeeded in naturalizing the moral life more reliably and coherently than the generation of Dewey, Santayana, and their heirs. . . . may well prove to be a landmark for the philosophical understanding of the moral conception of life in our times. - John P. Anton, University of South Florida. . . No one has done as much as Gouinlock has to tell us how our lives can be made worth living. - Peter H. Hare, State University of New York at Buffalo. . . Must reading for those interested in understanding our current problems. - John Lachs, Vanderbilt UniversityPlato defined eros as the yearning for things beautiful and good. It is on this original sense that philosopher James Gouinlock bases this insightful study of ethics and wisdom. Gouinlock argues that the only fruitful way to evaluate the norms of social life is to understand them as natural forces, not as arbitrary matters of convention or derivatives of some abstract theory. The good life and the meanings of life consist in the recognition and pursuit of values that are already resident in natural experience. Successful pursuit of them requires teaching, the accumulation of wisdom, and the cultivation of virtue. Above all is eros, the motivating force that drives us to search for life's most precious goods. In so doing we acquire a wisdom according to nature.Inspired by Greek philosophy, Gouinlock's approach avoids the pitfalls of moral systems that evolve out of abstract theorizing and tend to ignore well-established practice and conviction. Gouinlock makes the important point that social practices, like natural forces, though subject to change in varying degrees, are rarely amenable to radical overhaul. The real values of common life occur in a difficult, demanding, and often-perilous environment. This is not a context in which anything goes, for it possesses inherent constraints as well as opportunities. As Gouinlock shows in detail, there is much wisdom to be gained from understanding the distinctive functions of nature in the conduct of life.Written with clarity and eloquence, this original and fully developed philosophy of life makes fundamental philosophical arguments accessible to educated lay readers as well as to professional philosophers.James S. Gouinlock (Atlanta, GA) is professor emeritus of philosophy at Emory University and the author or editor of six books, including Rediscovering the Moral Life: Philosophy and Human Practice and The Moral Writings of John Dewey.

Rediscovering Values

Rediscovering Values PDF Author: Jim Wallis
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1439183171
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
When we start with the wrong question, no matter how good an answer we get, it won’t give us the results we want. Rather than joining the throngs who are asking, When will this economic crisis be over? Jim Wallis says the right question to ask is How will this crisis change us? The worst thing we can do now, Wallis tells us, is to go back to normal. Normal is what got us into this situation. We need a new normal, and this economic crisis is an invitation to discover what that means. Some of the principles Wallis unpacks for our new normal are . . . • Spending money we don’t have for things we don’t need is a bad foundation for an economy or a family. • It’s time to stop keeping up with the Joneses and start making sure the Joneses are okay. • The values of commercials and billboards are not the things we want to teach our children. • Care for the poor is not just a moral duty but is critical for the common good. • A healthy society is a balanced society in which markets, the government, and our communities all play a role. • The operating principle of God’s economy says that there is enough if we share it. • And much, much more . . . In the pages of this book, Wallis provides us with a moral compass for this new economy—one that will guide us on Wall Street, Main Street, and Your Street. Embracing a New Economy Getting back to "the way things were" is not an option. It is time we take our economic uncertainty and use it to find some moral clarity. Too often we have been ruled by the maxims that greed is good, it’s all about me, and I want it now. Those can be challenged only with some of our oldest and best values—enough is enough, we are in it together, and thinking not just for tomorrow but for future generations. Jim Wallis shows that the solution to our problems will be found only as individuals, families, friends, churches, mosques, synagogues, and entire communities wrestle with the question of values together.

Rediscovering the Natural Law in Reformed Theological Ethics

Rediscovering the Natural Law in Reformed Theological Ethics PDF Author: Stephen J. Grabill
Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
ISBN: 0802863132
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 321

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Book Description
Is knowledge of right and wrong written on the human heart? Do people know God from the world around them? Does natural knowledge contribute to Christian doctrine? While these questions of natural theology and natural law have historically been part of theological reflection, the radical reliance of twentieth-century Protestant theologians on revelation has eclipsed this historic connection. Stephen Grabill attempts the treacherous task of reintegrating Reformed Protestant theology with natural law by appealing to Reformation-era theologians such as John Calvin, Peter Martyr Vermigli, Johannes Althusius, and Francis Turretin, who carried over and refined the traditional understanding of this key doctrine. Rediscovering the Natural Law in Reformed Theological Ethics calls Christian ethicists, theologians, and laypersons to take another look at this vital element in the history of Christian ethical thought.

Entrepreneurs and Capitalism Since Luther

Entrepreneurs and Capitalism Since Luther PDF Author: Ivan Light
Publisher: Lexington Books
ISBN: 9781793621313
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
This book studies the history of business, capitalism, and entrepreneurship to examine the values of social and cultural capital and trace the moral legitimations of capitalism from the reformation to today.

God and Morality

God and Morality PDF Author: R. Keith Loftin
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
ISBN: 0830863451
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
Is morality dependent upon belief in God? Is there more than one way for Christians to understand the nature of morality? Is there any agreement between Christians and atheists or agnostics on this heated issue? In God and Morality: Four Views four distinguished voices in moral philosophy ariticulate and defend their place in the current debate between naturalism and theism. Christian philosophers, Keith Yandell and Mark Linville and two self-identified atheist/agnostics, Evan Fales and Michael Ruse clearly and honestly represent their differing views on the nature of morality. Important differences as well as areas of overlap emerge as each contributor states their case, receives criticism from the others and responds. Of particular value for use as an academic text, these four essays and responses, covering the naturalist moral non-realist, naturalist moral realist, moral essentialist and moral particularist views, will foster critical thinking and contribute to the development of a well-informed position on this very important issue.