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Undoing the Moral Empire
Moral Philosophy in Post-War Britain
Brief Description
After 1945, Britain wanted to be a new country. The authority of state and church were giving way, the Empire was dismantled, and it was no longer clear who was leading whom in matters of morals. Individuals were left to reinvent their ethical lives anew. The...
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See moreA fascinating profile of the leading moral thinkers of post-war Britain and how they both shaped and responded to the changing ethical face of public life in their era.
A fascinating profile of the leading moral thinkers of post-war Britain and how they both shaped and responded to the changing ethical face of public life in their era.
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Description
After 1945, Britain wanted to be a new country.
The authority of state and church were giving way, the Empire was dismantled, and it was no longer clear who was leading whom in matters of morals. Individuals were left to reinvent their ethical lives anew.
The lives and works of the philosophers discussed in this book were caught up in this sea-change. Bernard Williams, Philippa Foot, Iris Murdoch, Richard Wollheim, Charles Taylor and Alasdair MacIntyre were all characters in search of a moral England, with a particular vision of the good society.
From communitarianism to the swinging Sixtiesβ individualism, and radical theories of art β which understood questions of ambiguity, error and forgiveness more than the state ever could β this is the story of their sometimes convergent but often discrepant ideas on ethical life in the second half of the twentieth century.
Undoing the Moral Empire is a work of biography, social history and the history of ideas that masterfully reconstructs the shifting sentiments of the post-war era, reconfiguring enduringly relevant questions of freedom, virtue, and society.
Book Details
INFORMATION
ISBN: 9781350457744
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Format: Paperback / softback
Date Published: 11 June 2026
Country: United Kingdom
Imprint: Bloomsbury Academic
Audience: Tertiary education
DIMENSIONS
Spine width: 24.0mm
Width: 154.0mm
Height: 230.0mm
Weight: 340g
Pages: 272
About the Author
Lesley Chamberlain is a critic, novelist, and historian of ideas whose non-fiction work includes Nietzsche in Turin (1996), The Secret Artist: A Close Reading of Sigmund Freud (2000), Arc of Utopia: The Beautiful Story of the Russian Revolution (2017), and Rilke: The Last Inward Man (2023).
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