Legal Theory Blog

The Legal Theory Bookworm recommends Life and Action: Elementary Structures of Practice and Practical Thought by Michael Thompson.  Here is a description:

Any sound practical philosophy must be clear on practical
concepts—concepts, in particular, of life, action, and practice. This
clarity is Michael Thompson’s aim in his ambitious work. In Thompson’s
view, failure to comprehend the structures of thought and judgment
expressed in these concepts has disfigured modern moral philosophy,
rendering it incapable of addressing the larger questions that should
be its focus.

In three investigations, Thompson considers life, action, and practice
successively, attempting to exhibit these interrelated concepts as pure
categories of thought, and to show how a proper exposition of them must
be Aristotelian in character. He contends that the pure character of
these categories, and the Aristotelian forms of reflection necessary to
grasp them, are systematically obscured by modern theoretical
philosophy, which thus blocks the way to the renewal of practical
philosophy. His work recovers the possibility, within the tradition of
analytic philosophy, of hazarding powerful generalities, and of
focusing on the larger issues—like “life”—that have the power to revive
philosophy.

As an attempt to relocate crucial concepts from
moral philosophy and the theory of action into what might be called the
metaphysics of life, this original work promises to reconfigure a whole
sector of philosophy. It is a work that any student of contemporary
philosophy must grapple with.

And from the reviews:

Thompson’s work does not build on the foundation of some given
literature. It lays the foundation. Of course, his thought rests on the
history of the subject, but not in the way that it takes something for
granted, treats something as established elsewhere. This explains the
stunning originality of Thompson’s work. Each of his essays reveals
possibilities for thought unknown to the contemporary literature. It is
not audacious to predict that Thompson will be the leading figure in moral philosophy over the next twenty years, and this far beyond the confines of Anglophone philosophy. 
–Sebastian Rödl, Universität Basel

Thompson
has developed a remarkably fresh and compelling account of three
fundamental concepts in practical philosophy–life, action, and
practice. Moreover, this account, in the manner in which it seeks to
explicate and display the contents of these concepts, implicitly
develops an original understanding of the nature and method of
philosophy–a methodological conception which is of great general
philosophical interest in its own right, apart from its local
application to topics in ethics. His work is that rare thing: a
contribution that stands a chance of transforming the subject. One
interesting feature of Thompson’s approach is that it is very difficult
to place with respect to the ongoing mainstream debate in contemporary
moral philosophy between naturalists and anti-naturalists. He has
managed to find an entirely novel angle at which to enter the
contemporary debate–one which places him in equal degrees within and
outside both camps at once. Thompson’s account is, in fact, a
resolutely naturalist one, but of such an unorthodox variety that it
helps to bring out the depth and character of the unquestioned
assumptions that are usually taken for granted by all parties in the
contemporary debate – assumptions regarding what any form of naturalism
in philosophy must look like. In philosophy, quantity cannot be judged
apart from quality. Some books are much longer than they appear; most
are much shorter than their length, measured in pages, would lead one
to suppose. The density of thought per page in this book is of a rarely
paralleled order: it both requires and repays many re-readings.
–James Conant, University of Chicago

Thompson
develops a modern version of an Aristotelian account of morality
through reflection on the category of the specifically human, in
contrast to the more prominent, broadly Kantian, focus on that of the
person. He makes the focus on the idea of the human much more
compelling, and much more difficult to escape, than anyone else has
managed to do. He raises and addresses profound and fascinating issues
about the sort of generality of which any approach to practical
philosophy must take account. It reframes central debates in the areas
it touches, and does so with a dazzling degree of depth.
–Arthur Ripstein, University of Toronto

Life and Action
is one of the most important books to appear in philosophy in a
generation. Thompson’s reflections on life-form, on action and
intention, and on social practices light up the field. Rarely does one
encounter thinking of this depth, rigor and originality. If the
philosophical understanding of human life matters to you, this book is
absolutely required reading.
–Jonathan Lear,  University of Chicago

Thompson
provides an original account of the fundamental character of the
concepts central to practical philosophy, which depends on a conception
of philosophical method which is itself of great general interest, over
and above its significance for practical philosophy. Michael Thompson
is a philosopher of the first importance.
–Cora Diamond, University of Virginia

I take special pleasure in recommending this book by Thompson–who was at UCLA in the late 70s/80s when I was there.  I rely heavily on his ideas in my own work.  My very highest recommendation.