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
Utgave
1. utgave
Utgiver
Bloomsbury USA
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter