Right Actions and Good Persons

Part 1 Morality in ancient and modern theories: the good and the moral good; morality and happiness in modern ethics; prudence and morality in ancient ethics; the good of others in ancient ethics; the notion of respect; the teleological view of human nature; human nature as a basis of modern moral theory. Part 2 Ethics and the good life: the cultivation of character as a prerequisite for morality; the necessary conditions of the good life; basic goods and the good life; Charles Taylor and the ethics of inarticulacy; the ethics of authenticity; morality and substantive conceptions of the good. Part 3 Contextual justification of morality: John Rawls's political liberalism; the scope and justification of liberal doctrine; from metaphysics to rhetoric - a rhetorical turn; comprehensive and partial forms of liberal doctrine; from principles of right to the conception of the good - a teleological turn; Rawls as a modus vivendi liberal?; ethics without metaphysics; rhetoric, metaphysics and modus vivendi-liberalism. Part 4 Moral obligation and the meaningful life: why distinguish between basic goods and the conceptions of the good life?; my life and the good of others; acts and agents.