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Homo religiosus: does spirituality have a place in neo-Aristotelian virtue ethics?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 August 2015

DAVID MCPHERSON
DAVID MCPHERSON*
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, Creighton University, Omaha, Nebraska 68178, USA e-mail: davidmcpherson@creighton.edu
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Abstract

In this article I seek to show the importance of spirituality for a neo-Aristotelian account of ‘the good life’. First, I lay out my account of spirituality. Second, I discuss why the issue of the place of spirituality in the good life has often either been ignored or explicitly excluded from consideration by neo-Aristotelians. I suggest that a lot turns on how one understands the ‘ethical naturalism’ to which neo-Aristotelians are committed. Finally, I argue that through a deeper exploration of the evaluative standpoint from within our human form of life as ‘meaning-seeking animals’ we can come to better appreciate the importance of spirituality for human beings throughout recorded history up to the present and why we can be described as homo religiosus.

Type
Articles
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 51 , Special Issue 3: Religious Studies at 50 , September 2015 , pp. 335 - 346
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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