Philosophical Essays concerning Human Families

By (author) Stanley Vodraska

Hardback - £92.00

Publication date:

01 August 2014

Length of book:

448 pages

Publisher

UPA

ISBN-13: 9780761864240

In Philosophical Essays concerning Human Families, Stanley Vodraska describes a principle of moral practice that he calls “the principle of familial preference.” In ordinary circumstances, a moral agent should persistently provide preferential treatment to members of his or her family and should not pursue the good of extra-familial persons to such an extent as to disadvantage or neglect his or her family. The essays uncover this principle in human practices of love or charity, mercy, justice, and prudence, and measure its weight in religion, moral philosophy, and the political order.

. . . Vodraska gathers together an important collection of [his] reflections on themes pertinent to what might be called "familial moral philosophy,". . . Although Vodraska is perhaps an unknown figure for many readers, I think his essays should be digested by the bro9ader community of those favorable to the natural law, for they represent the thoughtful and erudite reflections of. . . someone who quite clearly understands (and has well articulated) the importance of the irreducible order of family life in human morality.