On the Decline of the Genteel Virtues

This innovative book proposes that what we think of as moral conscience is essentially the exercise of reflective judgment on the goods and ends arising in interpersonal relations, and that such judgment constitutes a form of taste. Through an historical survey Mitchell shows that the constant pendant to taste was an educational and cultural ideal, namely, that of the gentleman, whether he was an ancient Greek citizen-soldier, Roman magistrate, Confucian scholar-bureaucrat, Renaissance courtier, or Victorian grandee. Mitchell argues that it was neither an ethical doctrine nor methodology that provided the high cultures with moral and political leadership, but rather an elite social order. While the gentry in the traditional sense no longer exists, it nevertheless made significant historical contributions, and insofar as we are concerned to understand the present state of human affairs, we need to grasp the nature and import ofsaid contributions.

Brings together a wealth of diverse material to document the rise and fall of gentility Draws an original link between what we think of as 'moral conscience' and the 'ethos of good taste' Proposes the elite social order of gentility as an important but often overlooked influence behind moral philosophy

Autorentext
Jeff Mitchell is Professor of Philosophy at Arkansas Tech University, USA. The author of 'Individualism and Moral Character: Karen Horney's Depth Psychology' (2014), Mitchell's research interests lie primarily in the fields of ethics, psychoanalysis and sociology.

Inhalt
Chapter 1. Introduction: On the Ethos of Good Taste or Gentility.- Chapter 2. On the Origins of Aristocracy.- Chapter 3. The Ethos of Gentility in Greco-Roman Antiquity.- Chapter 4. The Ethos of Gentility in Early Confucianism.- Chapter 5. The Ethos of Gentility from the Italian Renaissance to Victorian England.- Chapter 6. American Meritocracy and the Rise of Specialized Elites.- Chapter 7. Conservatism and the Genteel Heritage.