Emplotting virtue : a narrative approach to environmental virtue ethics / Brian Treanor.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Treanor, Brian, author.

Series:

SUNY series in environmental philosophy and ethics

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Virtue.

Ethics.

Environmental ethics.

Narration (Rhetoric).

Physical Description:

xi, 246 pages ; 23 cm.

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, [2014]

Summary:

Despite its ancient roots, virtue ethics has only recently been fully appreciated as a resource for environmental philosophy. Other approaches dominated by utilitarian and duty-based appeals for sacrifice and restraint have had little success in changing behavior, even to the extent that ecological concerns have been embraced. Our actions often do not align with our beliefs. Fundamental to virtue ethics is an acknowledgment that neither good ethical rules nor good intentions are effective absent the character required to bring them to fulfillment. Brian Treanor builds on recent work on virtue ethics in environmental philosophy, finding an important grounding in the narrative theory of philosophers like Paul Ricoeur and Richard Kearney. Character and ethical formation, Treanor argues, are intimately tied to our relationship with the narratives through which we view the human place in the natural world. By reframing environmental questions in terms of individual, social, and environmental narratives about flourishing, Emptotting Virtue offers a powerful vision of how we might remake our character so as to live more happily, more sustainably, and more virtuously in a diverse, beautiful, wondrous, and fragile world. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 Just What Sort of Person Would Do That? 1

Introduction 1

Moral Reasoning in Contemporary Ethics 5

Virtue Ethics 15

2 Virtue Ethics and Environmental Virtue Ethics 25

Virtue and Flourishing 26

The Middle Way 31

Emotion and Action 34

Virtue and the Environment 37

3 Virtue: A Constellation of Concerns 45

Virtue and Living Well 45

A Typology of Virtue: Individual, Social, and Environmental 54

4 A Story of Simplicity: A Case Study in Virtue 63

The Scope of Simplicity: More Than Material Restraint 64

The Scope of Simplicity: A 'Comprehensive' Virtue 71

Thoreau's Narrative 85

5 The Challenge of Postmodernity 87

The Imprecision and Variability of Virtue Ethics 87

The Postmodern Condition 89

Postmodern Temptations: Hamlet's Indecision and Meursault's Indifference 94

"Postmodern" Virtue Ethics 99

6 Narrative Theory: Stories and Our Lives 109

Paul Ricoeur and Narrative Identity 110

Richard Kearney and Narrative Epiphanies 116

Martha Nussbaum and the Judicious Spectator 122

Wayne Booth and Coduction 131

Objections: The Return of Relativism and the Excesses of Imagination 137

7 Narrative Environmental Virtue Ethics 155

Introduction: Ethical Formation and Reformation 155

Ethical Education: Motivation and Transmission 161

Ethical Experimentation: Discernment and Understanding 169

Ethical Formation: Application and Cultivation 175

8 Epilogue: The "Narrative Goodness" Approach 185

The Need for Virtue Ethics and the Need for Narrative 185

Three Important Clarifications 191

The Literature of Life: A Life Worth Living, a Story Worth Telling 196.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9781438451176

1438451172

9781438451183

1438451180

OCLC:

855491696