About this product

Product Identifiers

PublisherCambridge University Press

ISBN-101108745199

ISBN-139781108745192

eBay Product ID (ePID)18050092806

Product Key Features

Number of Pages231 Pages

LanguageEnglish

Publication NameVirtue and Meaning : a Neo-Aristotelian Perspective

Publication Year2021

SubjectPersonal Growth / Happiness, Language, Ethics & Moral Philosophy, History & Surveys / Ancient & Classical

TypeTextbook

AuthorDavid Mcpherson

Subject AreaPhilosophy, Self-Help

FormatTrade Paperback

Dimensions

Item Height0.5 in

Item Length9 in

Item Width6 in

Additional Product Features

Intended AudienceScholarly & Professional

LCCN2019-042189

Dewey Edition23

Reviews'This book is strikingly excellent. It is beautifully argued, fair-minded, and a pleasure to read. It is also the most authentically neo-Aristotelian account of ethics and the moral life that I have read. In making a case for a higher, more noble, more meaningful form of life, it deserves to be widely considered, and I would not be surprised if people someday spoke of it alongside works by G.E.M. Anscombe, Alasdair MacIntyre, Charles Taylor, and a few others.' Stephen R. Grimm, Fordham University, New York

IllustratedYes

Dewey Decimal171/.3

Table Of ContentIntroduction: toward re-enchantment; 1. The human form of life; 1.1 Neo-Aristotelian ethical naturalism: the disenchanted version; 1.2 The human difference: rationality; 1.3 The standpoint from within our human form of life: the space of meaning; 1.4 Strong evaluative meaning; 1.5 Going further: the way forward; 2. Virtue, happiness, and meaning; 2.1 The instrumentalist account; 2.2 The constitutive account: strong evaluative version; 2.3 The constitutive account: weak evaluative version; 2.4 Virtue apart from happiness?; 2.5 Virtue, loss, and the meaning of life; 3. Other-regarding concern; 3.1 MacIntyre on other-regarding concern; 3.2 Intrinsic worth: dignity and sanctity; 3.3 Fully amongst us: solidarity with the severely afflicted and other marginalized humans; 3.4 Moral absolutes; 3.5 Spheres of other-regarding concern: universal and particular; 4. Cosmic outlooks; 4.1 Hursthouse's three theses and Williams' challenge; 4.2 Identifying what is noblest and best; 4.3 Against quietism: the need for a moral ontology; 4.4 Rival cosmic outlooks; 4.5 A poker-faced universe?; 5. Homo Religiosus; 5.1 What is spirituality?; 5.2 What kind of naturalism?; 5.3 Human beings as Homo Religiosus; 5.4 The contemplative life; 5.5 Theistic spirituality; 5.6 Objections and replies; Conclusion.

SynopsisVirtue and Meaning argues that any adequate neo-Aristotelian virtue ethic must account for our distinctive nature as the meaning-seeking animal. This book is intended for philosophers and other readers who have an interest in virtue ethics and the perennial question of the meaning of life., The revival of Aristotelian virtue ethics can be seen as a response to the modern problem of disenchantment, that is, the perceived loss of meaning in modernity. However, in Virtue and Meaning, David McPherson contends that the dominant approach still embraces an overly disenchanted view. In a wide-ranging discussion, McPherson argues for a more fully re-enchanted perspective that gives better recognition to the meanings by which we live and after which we seek, and to the fact that human beings are the meaning-seeking animal. In doing so, he defends distinctive accounts of the relationship between virtue and happiness, other-regarding demands, and the significance of linking neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics with a view of the meaning of life and a spiritual life where contemplation has a central role. This book will be valuable for philosophers and other readers who are interested in virtue ethics and the perennial question of the meaning of life.

LC Classification NumberB105.M4M387 2020