Moral Wisdom and Good LivesCornell University Press, 1995 - 237 páginas In this profound and yet accessible book, John Kekes discusses moral wisdom: a virtue essential to living a morally good and personally satisfying life. He advances a broad, nontechnical argument that considers the adversities inherent in the human condition and assists in the achievement of good lives. The possession of moral wisdom, Kekes asserts, is a matter of degree: more of it makes lives better, less makes them worse. Exactly what is moral wisdom, however, and how should it be sought? Ancient Greek and medieval Christian philosophers were centrally concerned with it. By contrast, modern Western sensibility doubts the existence of a moral order in reality; and because we doubt it, and have developed no alternatives, we have grown dubious about the traditional idea of wisdom. Kekes returns to the classical Greek sources of Western philosophy to argue for the contemporary significance of moral wisdom. He develops a proposal that is eudaimonistic--secular, anthropocentric, pluralistic, individualistic, and agonistic. He understands moral wisdom as focusing on the human effort to create many different forms of good lives. Although the approach is Aristotelian, the author concentrates on formulating and defending a contemporary moral ideal. The importance of this ideal, he shows, lies in increasing our ability to cope with life's adversities by improving our judgment. In chapters on moral imagination, self-knowledge, and moral depth, Kekes calls attention to aspects of our inner life that have been neglected because of our cultural inattention to moral wisdom. He discusses these inner processes through the tragedies of Sophocles, which can inspire us with their enduring moral significance and help us to understand the importance of moral wisdom to living a good life. |
Dentro del libro
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... injustice . One source of injustice is the familiar fact of immorality . But this kind of injustice does not call into question the very ideal of justice itself ; on the contrary , it provides a good reason for reaffirming the ideal ...
... injustice in mind , so the inappropriateness of our emotional reactions to it will emerge . These reactions direct our outrage either outward or inward . We seek someone who could be blamed , and the choice is between other people and ...
... injustice . Injustice may be caused by human irrationality or immorality , but it may also be due to permanent adversities . In the latter case , injustice occurs because not even perfect rationality and morality could bring it about ...
Contenido
A Eudaimonistic Conception of Good Lives | 16 |
The Socratic Ideal and Its Problems | 31 |
Permanent Adversities | 51 |
Derechos de autor | |
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