The Modern Scholar: Ethics: A History of Moral Thought

By: Professor Peter Kreeft

Narrated by: Peter Kreeft

Length: 8 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

This course addresses some of the eternal questions that man has grappled with since the beginning of time. What is good? What is bad? Why is justice important? Why is it better to be good and just than it is to be bad and unjust?

Most human beings have the faculty to discern between right and wrong, good and bad behavior, and to make judgments over what is just and what is unjust. But why are ethics important to us?

This course looks at our history as ethical beings. We'll travel into the very heart of mankind's greatest philosophical dilemmas - to the origins of our moral values and the problem of ethics. Are ethics universal, absolute and unchanging - or are they culturally relative, changing, and man-made? Furthermore, we'll delve into the creation of ethical systems - not just for ourselves, but also for society at large. And we will consider the ongoing process of establishing ethical frameworks for society.

©2004 Peter Kreeft (P)2004 Recorded Books

PHILOSOPHERS OF MORAL THOUGHT

Professor Kreeft, in The Modern Scholar’ lectures, offers stories of interesting philosophers and what they think they know about moral thought. Ethics: A History of Moral Thought is a whirlwind tour of how philosophers define ethics. It begins in antiquity and continues through tomorrow. What one hears in these lectures may be accepted and practiced in life tomorrow or never; if never, one is seemingly confirming belief in free choice, but not much more. As a warning to the curious, the tour is circular. The tour ends as it begins.

Nearing the end of Krefft’s lectures, he addresses the attempts of science to define morality and ethics. Krefft acknowledges the idea of observational analysis, dating back to Machiavelli’s views of history but the scientific movement gains momentum with David Hume (1711-1776), Immanuel Kant (1724-1804), and John Stewart Mill (1806-1873). It seems these three users of the scientific method provide little light in their analysis of morality and ethics. Their contribution is in the use of scientific method to understand normative standards of society.

By the end of Professor Krefft’s lectures a listener returns to Socrates suggestion; i.e. “Know thyself” because “The unexamined life is not worth living”. What you believe is what you believe. Krefft suggests we should always seek to understand why we believe what we believe.

Great book.

Enjoyable, well arrayed, smooth listening notwithstanding the complexity of topics.

Comparison of the philosophers and ethics.

Well thought out and palatable. Kreeft's voice is easy to listen to as he helps us through the different philosophers. Feel free to argue and question their and your own beliefs.

Fantastic

I thought this was an excellent series of lectures on the history of ethics. The lecturer had a very pleasant voice and explained his ideas clearly. Although he recommends reading certain books and classic texts on ethics before each lecture, I didn't do so and I was still able to easily follow along and understand the ideas being discussed.

I'm an atheist and I didn't find a huge religious bias in this like some people apparently did; religion exists and has had a huge role in ethical philosophy, so it would be ridiculous if religious ethicists were not included and discussed.

Recommended absolutely to anyone who is interested in ethical philosophy. I think it would be a great starting point for someone unfamiliar with the subject.

A great refresher course

If you could sum up The Modern Scholar in three words, what would they be?

I have a BA in philosophy but it has been years since I have been in a classroom. This wonderful narrative brought all the passion back to me and also brought a lot of old dusty books back off my bookcase. Give it a shot!

Excellent!

Well written, informative and original in its approach overview of the history of ethics. Focuses mainly on Western thought

THE TITLE SAYS IT ALL

if you want a wonderful history on morals thought, Kreeft delivers hard. Absolutely essential for those getting into Ethics and wanting to know the Philosophers that paved the way.

Wonderful food for thought

I really loved listening to these lectures, as per usual, Dr Peter Kreeft does not disappoint. these lectures are witty, interesting, and a real joy to listen to. I think that I finished them in less than two days.

Surprisingly Good

I am in love with this author. Even though his voice is almost monotone, he is one of the most interesting authors I've ever read/heard.

Content: I also found the content to be quite stimulating and easy-to-learn. True, the author does attempt to cover Philosophy from Socrates all the way down to the 1900's. This is a daunting task. The author takes you as deep as he's allowed. As an "average joe" who knows next-to-nothing about the history of philosophy, I was utterly enthralled. When I go back to listen/read to everything a second time, I'm definitely going to take it more seriously and check out the recommended readings. (I listened passively and didn't put much effort.)

As far as the author's bais....yes, he is a Christian philosopher. Is this a bad thing? Jesus ISN'T a primary focus-though he did mention that Jesus and Socrates were the two most-influential people who had ever lived-and even Christian philosophers aren't a main focus. The only Christian philosopher-to my knowledge-that got any "talk time" was Thomas Aquinas, who was a very influential philosopher in regards to religion.

Nevertheless, any bias the author might have is shattered in the last lecture about conclusions. Through the last lecture-and even the end of the previous lectures-he starts to wrap up his main idea for the entire series. He doesn't talk about Christianity at all to my knowledge. He merely states the benefits of thinking through life by asking the right questions, and by learning from the great minds that have come before us.

The quality of this audiobook as a whole will lead me to more books by this author and more in the Modern Scholar series.

Another Gem by Kreeft

Would you consider the audio edition of The Modern Scholar: Ethics: A History of Moral Thought to be better than the print version?

I enjoy listening to Dr. Kreeft speak, so I'd say yes.

What other book might you compare The Modern Scholar: Ethics: A History of Moral Thought to and why?

Anything by Kreeft. He has written dozens of books, all of which I recommend.

What three words best describe Peter Kreeft’s performance?

Passionate. Informed. Brilliant.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I enjoyed the numerous comparisons of the many philosophers who shaped Western thinking. Even those with just a passing interest in philosophy have heard these names before, but maybe can't fully explain their concepts. Kreeft breaks down what the greatest thinkers believed and why they believed it - throwing in his opinions once in a while.

Any additional comments?

I'm addicted to Kreeft, so I probably came into this a little biased. He has a few dozen talks available for download on Amazon and I have purchased each one and listened to them numerous times. When I ran out of talks to buy on Amazon I started looking for videotaped speeches online and once I exhausted all that YouTube had to offer I eventually thought about Audible. This course was fantastic and I will be listening to it again as well as purchasing his other books/courses through Audible. Kreeft has a distinctly unapologetic Catholic slant and that could conceivably turn some people off. But he backs up each and every one of his own concepts with solid logical proof.

I gave the book 3 stars for Performance simply because for the first few hours the audio lagged in a really annoying way. My first instinct was, "that's not Kreeft," but then I realized it was just playing at the wrong speed. After a few hours the problem suddenly corrected itself and everything sounded right. But the first few hours are so odd sounding that I literally changed the speed to 1.5 just to keep from losing my mind..