Originally published: Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 1962. With new pref. and annotated bibliography.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 161-164) and index.
In quest of ethical knowledge -- The examined life: back to Socrates and Aristotle -- Why not regard morals and ethics as simply an art of living? -- Why morals and ethics are not simply an art of living -- Failure and unhappiness: are they our own responsibility? -- Bad luck and the force of circumstances as the causes of failure -- But what if God is dead? -- Existentialism and the claims of irrational man.
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"Rational Man introduces readers to Aristotle's thoughts on ethics, interweaving questions and answers, reaching back to previous remarks and anticipating what is yet to come in the argument. Veatch uses literature, especially Jane Austen, to illustrate how vice is destructive and virtue is perfective of human flourishing and how ethics concern human character: Virtue and vice are quite real, and Veatch fortifies the reader to use both heart and intellect in absorbing the qualities of each. Rational Man offers a middle ground between existentialist and analytical ethics and anticipates the arguments of current virtue ethicists."--BOOK JACKET.