Britain, Europe and the United States are decadent states in a special sense of that word. They have traded in an old morality that served them well throughout their civilisation for a new, experimental quasi-morality. The old morality had well known virtues: courage, love, fairness, honesty and prudence. The new ‘virtues’ are equality, anti-discrimination, environmental concern, self-affirmation, a ‘caring’ attitude, and a critical mindset.

In this collection twelve commentators survey the decline of the old morality and examine the rise of the new.

Contents:

Introduction and summary by Digby Anderson

Prudence: the orchestration of the virtues by Kenneth Minogue

Courage: a classical virtue by David Womersley
Love: a christian virtue by Digby Anderson

Thrift: a victorian virtue with Calvinist origins by Theodore Malloch

Disinterest: an administrative virtue by Alexander Evans

The family virtues: authority and obedience; stewardship and succession by Simon Green

Distributive justice or social justice by Nicholas Capaldi

The environmental virtues by Christie Davies

The caring virtues by Peter Mullen

Help-seeking and the therapeutic virtues by Frank Furedi

The business virtues: transparency and accountability by Elaine Sternberg

The intellectual virtues: being critical by Roger Kimball

2005, Published by the Social Affairs Unit, ISBN 1 904863 04 3, 240pp, HB


See Also:

The Dictionary of Dangerous Words by Digby Anderson