Memoir Ethics: Good Lives and the Virtues is a philosophical study of
moral themes in memoirs, exploring how memoirists present and defend
perspectives on good lives. It pays particular attention to the
interplay of the virtues, including their interplay with additional
(non-moral) types of values in good lives. More generally, it explores
the relevance of memoir to moral philosophy, and in turn how moral
philosophy enters into elucidating and critiquing memoirs. Memoirs are
understood as non-fiction narratives written by oneself and
significantly about oneself (including full-life autobiographies).
Mike W. Martin explores perspectives on good lives as they are
expressed in memoirs written by both philosophers and
non-philosophers. Most of the chapters focus on one of the generic
aspects of good lives: moral goodness, authenticity, meaningfulness,
happiness, health, and self-fulfillment. The book clarifies how
memoirists often employ life-based arguments in defending value
perspectives, and it includes a discussion of whether philosophers’
memoirs are distinctive, compared to memoirs by non-philosophers and
also compared to other forums for doing philosophy. Martin highlights
some parallels between features of good lives and features of memoirs;
for example, both can be said to be meaningful, authentic, and having
virtues such as wisdom and courage. Demonstrating how memoirs are rich
resources in exploring the good lives and exploring ways in which
philosophical ethics provide tools for interpreting memoirs, Memoir
Ethics will be of interest to a broad audience of students, scholars,
and general readers, including anyone interested in ethics or the
connections between literature and philosophy.
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Good Lives and the Virtues
Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9781498533669
Publisert
2017
Utgiver
Vendor
Lexington Books
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter