Eudaimonia in America
232 First Things 25 (April 2013)
8 Pages Posted: 19 Mar 2013 Last revised: 30 Apr 2013
Date Written: March 1, 2013
Abstract
Responding to Patrick Deneen and Alasdair MacIntyre's attacks on America's liberal political system, I distinguish between philosophical liberalism, which supports liberal political institutions on the basis of a liberal political philosophy, and pragmatic liberalism, which supports liberal political institutions as reasonable and practical compromises among people with diverse interests and normative beliefs. I argue that someone who is an Aristotelian-Thomist in morals should, in our current pluralistic circumstances, be a pragmatic liberal in politics.
Keywords: eudaimonism, liberalism, aristotelianism, virtue theory, thomism
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