Virtues in a post-traditional society
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Date
2014
Authors
Giddy, Patrick
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of the Free State
Abstract
The shift from a customary, tradition-based society to a commercial and law-based
one issues in an oppositional dialectic that pits a reactionary conservatism against
a dogmatic individualism prioritising rights. Clark (2002) claims that the conditions
of the new impersonal bureaucracy fail the basic needs of the human psyche
for bonding and meaning. I argue, however, that the values associated with this
modern society, namely equality, fairness and individual autonomy, are the internal
goods of this particular “social practice” (in MacIntyre’s sense), and hence virtuous
participation in such a practice can be regarded as implicit in this outlook. What
prevents this being explicit is the blind spot about agency that characterises modern
global culture. A recent example of this can be seen in attempts to re-think ethics and
religion ‘naturalistically’.
Description
Keywords
Society, Social practice
Citation
Giddy, P. (2014). Virtues in a post-traditional society. Acta Academica, 46(2), 18-34.