The Virtues of Limits

David McPherson enables us to see the deep human need for limits, and how it runs through our life. This is a book of great importance in the face of contemporary understandings of ethics and the great challenges that human beings confront. * Cora Diamond, Kenan Professor of Philosophy Emerita, University of Virginia * If philosophy is about how one should live one's life, McPherson's The Virtues of Limits is exemplary. It shows how human flourishing, individual and collective, depends on accepting our limits, and on cultivating the virtues associated with this attitude, such as humility, reverence, neighbourliness, and loyalty ... This book is of great appeal in showing the life-affirming but often unremarked and under-stated appeal of a life lived within its proper limits. * Anthony O'Hear, Professor of Philosophy, University of Buckingham, and former Director, Royal Institute of Philosophy * McPherson's book calls us to recognize the importance of an objective view of the good, one that deserves our recognition and respect and that imposes limits on the ways in which we navigate the world. As such, it is a contribution to an important strand of ethical thought. * Todd May, Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews * McPherson's simplest yet most profound message is that limits, although often expressed in negative terms ('thou shalt not'), are not just negations. On the contrary, they exist to protect things that are positively, intrinsically good ... By teaching this lesson, The Virtues of Limits also serves as a warning. If limits are not just negations, then the lack of limits is not, contrary to what many seem to think, necessarily a form of liberation. On the contrary, a lack of limits can in fact limit us - limit our moral capacities and therefore stunt the development of our very being. * Carson Holloway, Law & Liberty * An original contribution to the field of virtue ethics, [McPherson's] book offers a compelling image of a humane society in which people embrace limits (existential, moral, political, economic), are rooted in their communities, and are not adrift in life without anchor ... The Virtues of Limits is a powerful rebuttal of the modern drive to mastery and self-creation that often leads to nihilism and self-destruction. * Aurelian Craiutu, Society * This is an excellent book, both clear and concise. It is not overburdened with references, but engages sufficiently with the relevant literature, allowing an interested reader to explore further. And at a time when so much of our culture regards any limits as abhorrent, and keeps telling us that we can ""have it all,"" it is also a very timely work. * Gene Callahan, The University Bookman *