Moral Tradition and Individuality

John Kekes

• Publisher: Princeton University Press
• Year: 2021
• Print ISBN:
  9780691023489
  9780691078137
• eBook ISBN:
  9780691223025
• Topic: Philosophy
• Subtopic: Political Philosophy

In this study, John Kekes develops the view that good lives depend on maintaining a balance between one's moral tradition and individuality. Our moral tradition provides the forms of good lives and the permissible ways of trying to achieve them. But to do so, the author argues, we must grow in self-knowledge and self-control to make our characters suitable for realizing our aspirations. In addressing general readers as well as scholars, Kekes makes these philosophical views concrete by drawing on a rich variety of literary sources, including, among others, the works of Sophocles, Henry James, Tolstoy, and Edith Wharton.


The first half of the work concentrates on social morality, establishing the conditions all good lives must meet. The second discusses personal morality, the sphere of individuality. Its development enables us to discover what is important to us and how we can fit our personal aspirations into the forms of life our moral tradition provides. Kekes's argument derives its inspiration from Aristotle's objectivism, Hume's emphasis on custom and feeling, and Mill's concentration on individuals and their experiments in living. This book is a nontechnical yet closely reasoned attempt to provide a contemporary answer to the age-old question of how to live well.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Half-title Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication Page
• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Chapter One: Objectivity and Horror in Morality
• Chapter Two: Beyond Choice: The Grounds of Moral Disapproval
• Chapter Three: The Great Guide of Human Life
• Chapter Four: Decency
• Chapter Five: A Defense of Social Morality: Intuition of Simple Moral Situations
• Chapter Six: Self-Direction in Complex Moral Situations
• Chapter Seven: Good Judgment
• Chapter Eight: Moral Reflection and Conflict
• Chapter Nine: Moral Perspectives
• Chapter Ten: The Goods of Good Lives
• Chapter Eleven: The Justification of Eudaimonism
• Chapter Twelve: The Integrity and Purity of Good Lives
• Works Cited
• Index