Impossibility of Perfection

Aristotle, Feminism, and the Complexities of Ethics
1. Auflage 2011
ISBN: 978-0-19-979082-1
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 184 Seiten, Format (B × H): 145 mm x 222 mm, Gewicht: 363 g

Most people think that the difficulty of balancing career and personal/family relationships is the fault of present-day society or is due to their own inadequacies. But in this major new book, eminent moral philosopher Michael Slote argues that the difficulty runs much deeper, that it is due to the essential nature of the divergent goods involved in this kind of choice. He shows more generally that perfect human happiness and perfect virtue are impossible in
principle, a view originally enunciated by Isaiah Berlin, but much more thoroughly and synoptically defended here than ever before.

Ancient Greek and modern-day Enlightenment thought typically assumed that perfection was possible, and this is also true of Romanticism and of most recent ethical theory. But if, as Slote maintains, imperfection is inevitable, then our inherited categories of virtue and personal good are far too limited and unqualified to allow us to understand and cope with the richer and more complex life that characterizes today's world. And The Impossibility of Perfection argues in particular that
we need some new notions, new distinctions, and even new philosophical methods in order to distill some of the ethical insights of recent feminist thought and arrive at a fuller and more realistic picture of ethical phenomena.

Zielgruppe

Philosophers and their students as well as general readers interested in the intersection of ethics and feminism.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Slote, Michael

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Moderne Philosophische Disziplinen Feministische Philosophie, Gender Studies
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Geschichte der Westlichen Philosophie Antike Philosophie
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Klassische Literaturwissenschaft Klassische Griechische & Byzantinische Literatur
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Ethik, Moralphilosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Introduction
1. Feminism and Partial Values
2. The Impossibility of Perfection
3. Alternative Views
4. Perfection, Moral Dilemmas, and Moral Cost
5. Connections with Care Ethics and Romanticism
6. Relational Profiles of Goods and Virtues
Conclusion
Appendix: Men's Philosophy, Women's Philosophy

Über Autor(innen)

Slote, Michael
Michael Slote is Professor of Philosophy, University of Miami. He is the author of Morals From Motives, Moral Sentimentalism, Selected Essays, Essays in the History of Ethics, and From Morality to Virtue among others.