The Virtues of Limits

by David McPherson

Human beings seek to transcend limits. This is part of our potential greatness, since it is how we can realize what is best in our humanity. However, the limit-transcending feature of human life is also part of our potential downfall, as it can lead to dehumanization and failure to attain important human goods and to prevent human evils. Exploring the place of limits within a well-lived human life this work develops and defends an original account of limiting virtues , which are concerned with recognizing proper limits in human life. The limiting virtues that are the focus are humility, reverence, moderation, contentment, neighborliness, and loyalty, and they are explored in relation to four kinds of existential limits, moral limits, political limits, and economic limits. These virtues have been underexplored in discussions about virtue ethics, and when they have been explored it has not been with regard to the general issue of the place of limits within a well-lived human
life. The account of the limiting virtues provided here, however, is intended as a counter to other prominent approaches to namely, autonomy-centered approaches and consequentialist (or maximizing) approaches. This account is also used to address a number of important contemporary issues such as genetic engineering, distributive justice, cosmopolitanism vs. patriotism, and the ethical status of growth-based economics.

Genres: Philosophy

187 pages, Hardcover

Published March 15, 2022

About the author

Ever since attending his first rock concert in 1989 (The Who) and buying his first LP (Freeze Frame by The J. Geils Band), music has been “the elixir of his life.” With more than 18,000 songs on his iPod, and an ever-growing vintage vinyl collection, it’s a joy for him to discover new music. He loves sharing these discoveries with his wife and two children. David watched his first show [the Old 97’s] at the Horseshoe Tavern more than twenty years ago; immediately, he was hooked. A regular contributor to Words & Music, Hamilton Magazine, and No Depression, over the years his writing on music has also appeared in Paste, American Songwriter, Bluegrass Unlimited, Exclaim! and Canadian Musician. As president and chief creative officer of McPherson Communications, David helps clients get their words right. He lives in Waterloo, Ontario.

Reviews

[Benjamin Lipscomb · Rating 4 out of 5]

I recently finished Jordan Peterson's Twelve Rules. Maybe I'll write up a review eventually. It was a wild mixture of the useful and the maddening. But one of the principal things I want to say about McPherson's slim, lucid book is that it makes a compelling case for one of Peterson's recurring but under-explained emphases: the affirmation of Being. That was Peterson's way of putting it. McPherson writes instead of an accepting/appreciating stance. Besides this shared point--that it is a basic human task to find a way of being at home in the world, surrounded on all sides by frailty and fallibility (including one's own)--McPherson is especially concerned with the habits that help us recognize and respect our limits. Clear and practicable (as philosophy goes), The Virtues of Limits can be recommended to scholars and non-scholars alike.