Nicholas Gruen, “The Unbearable Slightness of Altruism: Why We Need the Virtues”; ABC Religion & Ethics (28 Augustus 2020).
“Today, however, the virtues seem old-fashioned; they are alien to much modern ethical thinking. Instead, we talk about 'altruism.' But altruism is a new-fangled fiction, like 'the ether' in nineteenth-century physics and cosmology – it’s a 'filler' concept which enters our mind because it seems to be implied by the way we’re thinking. Its presence in our lives is experienced, if at all, only dimly. My argument is that we rely far too much on this particular window into our ethical life.”
Read the article here.