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This book is the foundation of my worldview. The message I took away from it is that there is a skill of being good at being a person, and that goodness in term
by hkt 7y ago
This book is the foundation of my worldview. The message I took away from it is that there is a skill of being good at being a person, and that goodness in terms of what we now consider to be ethics will follow from that.
Worthy of note in particular is eudaimonia as a concept, especially the debate between whether it is happiness or goodness. I read it (somewhat loosely) as being the process by which a person's behaviours engender virtuous cycles in their communities and themselves.
It's been a long time since I read it but I'd recommend it to anyone. Maybe I'll revisit it before lockdown is out.
- mbrock 7y agoHave you also read Alasdair MacIntyre's "After Virtue" from 1981? As I understand it basically revived Aristotelian virtue ethics as a viable philosophical theory, indeed by thoroughly criticizing modern (post-Enlightenment) justifications of morality. It's probably my favorite book of modern philosophy.
- hkt 7y agoI have not, but that sounds awesome. Recommending in turn "natural goodness" by Philippa Foot, also a revival of virtue ethics.
- VSerge 7y agoThanks for the recommendations. I would in return suggest Braintrust by Patricia Churchland. It looks at how morality and ethics arise from the needs of social animals such as ourselves to exist within a group that won't tear itself apart, and at the neurochemistry of it. The material is very accessible, and if the writing can be a bit stuffy at times, the points are solid and well worth the read.