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postliberal politics has to combine scepticism with hopefulness: a healthy sceptical attitude towards all utopian projects with their dystopian consequences, while being hopeful that realistic, viable alternatives anchored in the nurturing of social virtue and mutual obligations might emerge. It is what we owe ourselves and generations past, presen
... See moreAdrian Pabst • Postliberal Politics: The Coming Era of Renewal
Aristotle also felt strongly that virtue requires action; mere noble intentions are not enough. We are social creatures; a solitary life is not worth living. Our personal happiness, then, was linked to the welfare of the community. With a population consisting of individuals engaged with thinking and discriminating and working out for themselves th
... See moreDerren Brown • Happy: Why More or Less Everything is Absolutely Fine
What is ‘the function of human beings’? Aristotle approaches an answer to this question by analogies. What makes a good flute-player? Skill at playing the flute. A good carpenter? One good at making things from wood. Each is ‘good’ because he performs his particular function, his work (ergon), well. To do his work well is the virtue or excellence (
... See moreA. C. Grayling • The History of Philosophy
But virtue is different: virtue isn’t acquired intellectually but affectively.
James K. A. Smith • You Are What You Love: The Spiritual Power of Habit
The conception involved here is that of organism: a hand, when the body is destroyed, is, we are told, no longer a hand. The implication is that a hand is to be defined by its purpose—that of grasping—which it can only perform when joined to a living body. In like manner, an individual cannot fulfil his purpose unless he is part of a State. He who
... See moreBertrand Russell • History of Western Philosophy
Liberalism’s old hegemony has ended but not yet been replaced by a new worldview. To command majority support, politics has to start with what most people value: family, friendship, locality, community and country.
Adrian Pabst • Postliberal Politics: The Coming Era of Renewal
Aristotle considers ethics a branch of politics, and it is not surprising, after his praise of pride, to find that he considers monarchy the best form of government, and aristocracy the next best.
Bertrand Russell • History of Western Philosophy
my strategy is “Schaefferian” in the sense that my primary audience is not just philosophers but practitioners—more specifically, Christians engaged in ministry in a postmodern world, as well as searching inhabitants of this postmodern world. As such, these essays are not an academic project per se.
James K. A. Smith • Who's Afraid of Postmodernism? (The Church and Postmodern Culture): Taking Derrida, Lyotard, and Foucault to Church
Accordingly, welfare benefits rested on the notion of rewards received for contribution to society