Synopses & Reviews
How do we decide whether an action is right or wrong? Recently, moral philosophers have moved away from the claim that we can find one definite solution to every moral problem by means of clearly established moral rules. While sympathetic to their critiques of modern moral theories, Porter questions whether these critiques go far enough in offering a positive alternative to a modern view of the moral act. Instead, she returns to Aquinas, and seeks to reclaim his understanding of the moral act as a product of interdependent moral virtues.
Review
'\"...make[s] a significant contribution to the contemporary philosophical debate going on within moral theology, and it suggests once again the perennial value of Aquinas.\" Theological Studies\"...make[s] a significant contribution to the contemporary philosophical debate going on within moral theology, and it suggests once again the perennial value of Aquinas.\" Theological Studies\"Recasting the virtues to take into account contemporary understanding of psychological development, she enters into conversation with feminists, narrative ethicists like MacIntyre and Hauerwas, and epistemologists like Wittgenstein and Anscombe. Jean Porter has written a major modern book...\" First Things\"In the academic community, the wall between theological and philosophical concerns has risen to heights rivaling the political divide between church and state. Jean Porter removes several rows of bricks from the former wall....The general reader will find the first and last chapters quite accessible....The intermediate chapters are tightly argued, and the whole book is richly enough footnoted to satisfy the demanding scholar.\" Books and Culture\"University of Notre Dame\'s Jean Porter is doing the most substantial work in American Catholic moral theology today....We can be greatful for the depth of Porter\'s book....Porter\'s is the most intellectually coherent and deep work in a contemporary American Catholic morality sorely needing coherence and depth.\" William McDonough, New Theology Review\"...she skillfully addresses the perennial debate between Christian legalists and antinomians by sketching a Thomistic ethical theory in which both rules (negative prohibitions) and practical wisdom (good judgement) play an irreducible part.\" Books And Culture\"The ambition of this book is both complex and worthwhile....Likely to be of most interest to post-graduate students and specialists in moral philosophy and theology.\" Nigel Biggar, Religious Studies Review\"...gives a cogent account of moral reasoning that leaves scope for the making of moral judgements....to show how much the ethic of Aquinas has to contribute to such accounts....Aquinas\'s theory of the virtues so as to incorporate certain insights of modern psychology.\" Nigel Biggar, Religious Studies Review\"There is much that is illuminating in her analysis, especially her determination in defending the on-going, open-textured character of practical reasoning.\" Christopher J. Thompson, The Thomist'
Review
"...make[s] a significant contribution to the contemporary philosophical debate going on within moral theology, and it suggests once again the perennial value of Aquinas." Theological Studies
Table of Contents
General editor's preface; Preface; Introduction; 1. The moral act, moral theory, and the logical limits of rules; 2. The meaning of morality; 3. Moral judgement in context; 4. Moral acts and acts of virtue; 5. The virtues reformulated; Notes; Bibliography; Index.