On Ethics, Politics and Psychology in the Twenty-First Century

John Rist is Professor Emeritus of Classics and Philosophy at the University of Toronto, Canada. He has published extensively on the Presocratics, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Plotinus and Neoplatonism, as well as Ethics, Patristics and Augustine. He is the author of fifteen books, including Real Ethics: Reconsidering the Foundations of Morality (2001), What is Truth? From the Academy to the Vatican (2008) and Plato’s Moral Philosophy. The Discovery of the Presuppositions of Ethics (2012).

• Introduction: Before AugustineChapter 1: The Principles of Augustine's Moral Empiricism: Love, Truth and SinChapter 2: Scientific Philosophy and First-Person ConfessionChapter 3: Augustine against Kantian Autonomy: ‘Ought does not imply “Can”’Chapter 4: Augustine on the Possibility of Justice and the Necessity of RegretChapter 5: Augustine against godless ‘Augustinians’: Machiavelli and HobbesChapter 6: Augustine against Political Panaceas: the Example of Sir Thomas MoreChapter 7: Augustine against Utilitarianism and ConsequentialismChapter 8: Augustine and Rights TheoryChapter 9: Impersonality and HomogenizationChapter 10: Augustine against Religious and Theological ReductionismChapter 11: Augustine's Brag: Against Conventionalism and NihilismBibliographyIndex

An extremely enjoyable read, another product of the author's brilliance ... After devouring this book cover to cover, I had a much better idea of Augustine's implicit political inclinations, explained through his more well-known theological doctrines, and not in the least, through his refreshing, liberating complaints of today's modern Western world.