Introduction to Applied Ethics
Published on 22. February 2018
Book
Hardback
546 pages
978-1-350-02980-4 (ISBN)
Description
How do you decide what is ethically wrong and right? Few people make moral judgments by taking the theory first. Specifically written with the interests, needs, and experience of students in mind, this textbook approaches thinking ethically as you do in real life - by first encountering practical moral problems and then introducing theory to understand and integrate the issues.
Built around engaging case studies from news media, court hearings, famous speeches and philosophical writings, each of the 15 chapters:
- explains and defines the moral problem dealt with
- provides excerpts of readings on all sides of the issue
- analyses the problem, using the relevant theory
The examples are recognizable ethical problems, including judgments about racism and sexism, controversial debates such as assisted suicide and the death penalty, and contemporary concerns like privacy and technology, corporate responsibility, and the environment.
The mission of the book is to assist you to engage in informed, independent, critical thinking and to enable you to enter into ethical discussions in the classroom and beyond. Supported by learning features, including study questions, key quotes, handy definitions and a companion website, this book is essential for any student of moral philosophy.
Built around engaging case studies from news media, court hearings, famous speeches and philosophical writings, each of the 15 chapters:
- explains and defines the moral problem dealt with
- provides excerpts of readings on all sides of the issue
- analyses the problem, using the relevant theory
The examples are recognizable ethical problems, including judgments about racism and sexism, controversial debates such as assisted suicide and the death penalty, and contemporary concerns like privacy and technology, corporate responsibility, and the environment.
The mission of the book is to assist you to engage in informed, independent, critical thinking and to enable you to enter into ethical discussions in the classroom and beyond. Supported by learning features, including study questions, key quotes, handy definitions and a companion website, this book is essential for any student of moral philosophy.
Reviews / Votes
Introduction to Applied Ethics is written in a clear and rigorous style, presenting and discussing the basic arguments in an exemplary way. * Ethical Perspectives * Written with exemplary clarity and astonishing erudition, this textbook will become a standard against which other texts in applied ethics must be measured for decades to come. -- Predrag Cicovacki, Professor of Philosophy, College of the Holy Cross, USA This is an excellent introduction to applied ethics: it is concise, rigorous and interestingly written. -- James Connelly, Professor of Political Theory, University of HullMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
London
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
Target group
College/higher education
Dimensions
Height: 234 mm
Width: 156 mm
Weight
948 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-350-02980-4 (9781350029804)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Robert L. Holmes
Introduction to Applied Ethics
E-Book
02/2018
1st Edition
Bloomsbury Academic
€32.99
Available for download
Person
Robert L. Holmes is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Rochester, USA. His main research is in philosophy of war, the ethics of nonviolence, and contemporary moral problems. He is the author of Pacifism (2016) Basic Moral Philosophy (2006) and On War and Morality (1989), co-author of Philosophical Inquiry (1968), and co-editor of Nonviolence in Theory and Practice (1990).
Content
Introduction
I
RACE, GENDER AND ETHNICITY
Chapter 1. RACISM
1.1 Basic Questions about Racism
1.2 What is Racism?
1.3 What is a Racist?
1.4 A Racist Philosophy
1.5 The Racist's Burden of Proof
1.6 Is there such a Thing as "Race"?
1.7 Are Some "Races" Superior to Others?
1.8 Ought Innately Superior "Races" to dominate Inferior "Races"?
1.9 Race, Rights and Utility
1.10 Racism and Universalizability
1.11 Conclusion
Chapter 2. SEXISM
2.1 Basic Questions about Sexism
2.2 What is Sexism?
2.3 What is a Sexist?
2.4 The Sexist's Burden of Proof
2.5 Is One Sex Innately Superior to the Other?
2.6 Ought One Sex to Dominate the Other?
2.7 Conclusion
Chapter 3. HISPANIC/LATINO ISSUES
3.1 Hispanics in America
3.2 Are Hispanics a "Race" or an Ethnic Group?
3.3 Naming
3.4 What Terms to Use and Who Should Decide?
3.5 Can "Hispanic" Be Defined?
3.6 Anti-Hispanic Discrimination
3.7 Hispanics, School Segregation, and Distributive Justice
3.9 Conclusion
Chapter 4. AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AND DIVERSITY
4.1 What is Affirmative Action?
4.2 The Evolution of Affirmative Action
4.3 Diversity to the Forefront
4.4 Affirmative Action and the University of Michigan
4.5 A Definition of Affirmative Action.
4.6 The Moral Issue.
4.7 Reparations?
4.8 Affirmative Action Distinguished from Reparations
4.9 Justice for Groups or for Individuals?
4.10 Is Affirmative Action Fair?
4.11 Diversity or Compensation for Past Injustice?
4.12 Conclusion
Chapter Five. SEXUAL HARASSMENT
5.1 What is Sexual Harassment?
5.2 The Potential for Misunderstanding
5.3 Sexual Harassment and Sex Discrimination
5.4 Is Sexual Harassment the Same as Sex Discrimination?
5.5 Sexual Harassment and Sexism
5.6 Sexual Harassment, Sexual Misconduct and Gender Harassment
5.7 Sexual Harassment and Privacy
5.8 Sexual Harassment and the University
5.9 Conclusion
II
PROFIT AND THE PLIGHT OF OTHERS
Chapter 6. CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
6.1 The Problem
6.2 What are Corporations?
6.3 Liberal and Conservative Positions on Corporate Social Responsibility
6.4 What is the Basic Obligation of Corporations?
6.5 Possible Objections to Corporate Responsibility
6.6 What Social Responsibilities?
6.7 Non-maleficence
6.8 Corporations and Distributive Justice
6.9 Corporations and the Making of Moral judgments
6.10 Conclusion
Chapter 7. POVERTY AND WORLD HUNGER
7.1 What is Poverty?
7.2 Is Poverty Always Bad? Voluntary and Involuntary Poverty
7.3 How Serious a Problem is Poverty?
7.4 Are We Obligated Individually to Fight Poverty?
7.5. Are We Obligated Collectively to Fight Poverty?
7.6 Are Efforts to Fight Poverty Futile Under Present Socio-economic Conditions?
7.7 Conclusion
Chapter 8. CAPITALISM AND SOCIALISM
8.1 What are Capitalism and Socialism?
8.2 Freedom, Liberty and Rights
8.3 Natural Rights
8.4 Anarchism, Libertarianism, Conservatism and Liberalism
8.5 Liberty and Equality
8.6 Marxism
8.7 Historical Materialism
8.8 Surplus Value
8.9 A Capitalist Conception of Distributive Justice
8.10 Are There Contradictions within Capitalism?
8.11 Conclusion
III
ANIMALS AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Chapter 9. CARING FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
9.1 Why Care for the Environment?
9.2 Basic and Derivative Moral Considerations
9.3 Who or What Warrants Basic Moral Consideration?
9.4 Anthropocentrism
9.5 Sentientism
9.6 Biocentrism
9.7 Does Nature as a Whole Warrant Basic Moral Consideration?
9.8 An Argument for Giving Nature Basic Moral Consideration
9.9 An Anthropocentric Objection
9.10 Intended and Foreseeable Consequences of Environmental Impacts
9.11 Conclusion
Chapter 10. MORAL CONSIDERATION FOR ANIMALS
10.1 Kinds of Moral Consideration
10.2 Speciesism
10.3 Animals and Discrimination
10.4 Ought Humans to Dominate Animals?
10.5 Are Humans Naturally Superior to Animals?
10.6 What Extrinsic Value Does Human Intelligence Have?
10.7 Superiority and Dominance
10.8 Conclusion
IV
AUTONOMY AND THE INDIVIDUAL
Chapter 11. PRIVACY
11.1 Why is Privacy Important?
11.2 Philosophical and Legal Foundations of Privacy
11.3 The Definition of Privacy
11.4 Personal Autonomy
11.5 The Paradox of Privacy
11.6 Setting Boundaries
11.7 The Prima Facie Right to Privacy
11.8 Violating Privacy for Political, Social or Personal Ends
11.9 Privacy and Conflicting Values
11.10 Privacy and Technology
11.11 Conclusion
Chapter 12. ABORTION
12.1 Is There Neutral Language With Which to Discuss Abortion?
12.2 What is It That is Aborted?
12.3 A Medical Perspective
12.4 Whose Interests Warrant Moral Consideration in the Abortion Issue?
12.5 Roe v. Wade (1973)
12.6 A Woman's "Right to Choose."
12.7 Do Men Have Rights in the Abortion Issue?
12.8 Do the Unborn Have Rights?
12.9 Human Beings and Persons
12.10 Abortion and the Killing of the Innocent
12.11 What Precisely is Abortion?
12.12 Hare's Golden Rule Argument
12.13 Toward a New Perspective on Abortion
12.14 The Basic Issue of Unwanted Pregnancy
12.15 Conclusion
Chapter 13. PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED SUICIDE
13.1 Suicide
13.2 Is There a Right to Die?
13.3 Active and Passive Euthanasia
13.4 The Quinlan, Cruzan and Schiavo Cases
13.5 Consciousness, Coma and Persistent Vegetative States
13.6 Killing and Letting Die
13.7 Is There a Moral Difference Between Killing and Letting Die?
13.8 Is There a Slippery Slope from Suicide to Assisted Suicide to Euthanasia?
13.9 The Case for a Logically Slippery Slope
13.10 Conclusion
V
THE NONCONSENSUAL TAKING OF HUMAN LIFE
Chapter 14. THE DEATH PENALTY
14.1 The Death Penalty in America
14.2 What is Punishment?
14.3 Deterrence and Retribution
14.4 What is Retributivism?
14.5 Objection to the Retributivist Justification of the Death Penalty
14.6 Is the Death Penalty a Deterrent?
14.7 Conclusion
Chapter 15. TERRORISM AND WAR
15.1 The Problem
15.2 What is Terrorism?
15.3 The Rationalization of Terrorism
15.4 Who Are Terrorists?
15.5 How Some Terrorists View Themselves
15.6 Terrorism and the Killing of Innocents
15.7 What is War?
15.8 Can War Be Morally Justified?
15.9 The Just War Theory
15.10 War and the Killing of Innocents
15.11 War and the Killing of Soldiers
15.12 Are Soldiers Morally Expendable?
15.13 Is There an Absolute Right to Kill in Self-Defense?
15.14 The Paradox of the Moral Expendability of Soldiers
15.15 Pacifism
15.16 Conclusion
I
RACE, GENDER AND ETHNICITY
Chapter 1. RACISM
1.1 Basic Questions about Racism
1.2 What is Racism?
1.3 What is a Racist?
1.4 A Racist Philosophy
1.5 The Racist's Burden of Proof
1.6 Is there such a Thing as "Race"?
1.7 Are Some "Races" Superior to Others?
1.8 Ought Innately Superior "Races" to dominate Inferior "Races"?
1.9 Race, Rights and Utility
1.10 Racism and Universalizability
1.11 Conclusion
Chapter 2. SEXISM
2.1 Basic Questions about Sexism
2.2 What is Sexism?
2.3 What is a Sexist?
2.4 The Sexist's Burden of Proof
2.5 Is One Sex Innately Superior to the Other?
2.6 Ought One Sex to Dominate the Other?
2.7 Conclusion
Chapter 3. HISPANIC/LATINO ISSUES
3.1 Hispanics in America
3.2 Are Hispanics a "Race" or an Ethnic Group?
3.3 Naming
3.4 What Terms to Use and Who Should Decide?
3.5 Can "Hispanic" Be Defined?
3.6 Anti-Hispanic Discrimination
3.7 Hispanics, School Segregation, and Distributive Justice
3.9 Conclusion
Chapter 4. AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AND DIVERSITY
4.1 What is Affirmative Action?
4.2 The Evolution of Affirmative Action
4.3 Diversity to the Forefront
4.4 Affirmative Action and the University of Michigan
4.5 A Definition of Affirmative Action.
4.6 The Moral Issue.
4.7 Reparations?
4.8 Affirmative Action Distinguished from Reparations
4.9 Justice for Groups or for Individuals?
4.10 Is Affirmative Action Fair?
4.11 Diversity or Compensation for Past Injustice?
4.12 Conclusion
Chapter Five. SEXUAL HARASSMENT
5.1 What is Sexual Harassment?
5.2 The Potential for Misunderstanding
5.3 Sexual Harassment and Sex Discrimination
5.4 Is Sexual Harassment the Same as Sex Discrimination?
5.5 Sexual Harassment and Sexism
5.6 Sexual Harassment, Sexual Misconduct and Gender Harassment
5.7 Sexual Harassment and Privacy
5.8 Sexual Harassment and the University
5.9 Conclusion
II
PROFIT AND THE PLIGHT OF OTHERS
Chapter 6. CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY
6.1 The Problem
6.2 What are Corporations?
6.3 Liberal and Conservative Positions on Corporate Social Responsibility
6.4 What is the Basic Obligation of Corporations?
6.5 Possible Objections to Corporate Responsibility
6.6 What Social Responsibilities?
6.7 Non-maleficence
6.8 Corporations and Distributive Justice
6.9 Corporations and the Making of Moral judgments
6.10 Conclusion
Chapter 7. POVERTY AND WORLD HUNGER
7.1 What is Poverty?
7.2 Is Poverty Always Bad? Voluntary and Involuntary Poverty
7.3 How Serious a Problem is Poverty?
7.4 Are We Obligated Individually to Fight Poverty?
7.5. Are We Obligated Collectively to Fight Poverty?
7.6 Are Efforts to Fight Poverty Futile Under Present Socio-economic Conditions?
7.7 Conclusion
Chapter 8. CAPITALISM AND SOCIALISM
8.1 What are Capitalism and Socialism?
8.2 Freedom, Liberty and Rights
8.3 Natural Rights
8.4 Anarchism, Libertarianism, Conservatism and Liberalism
8.5 Liberty and Equality
8.6 Marxism
8.7 Historical Materialism
8.8 Surplus Value
8.9 A Capitalist Conception of Distributive Justice
8.10 Are There Contradictions within Capitalism?
8.11 Conclusion
III
ANIMALS AND THE ENVIRONMENT
Chapter 9. CARING FOR THE ENVIRONMENT
9.1 Why Care for the Environment?
9.2 Basic and Derivative Moral Considerations
9.3 Who or What Warrants Basic Moral Consideration?
9.4 Anthropocentrism
9.5 Sentientism
9.6 Biocentrism
9.7 Does Nature as a Whole Warrant Basic Moral Consideration?
9.8 An Argument for Giving Nature Basic Moral Consideration
9.9 An Anthropocentric Objection
9.10 Intended and Foreseeable Consequences of Environmental Impacts
9.11 Conclusion
Chapter 10. MORAL CONSIDERATION FOR ANIMALS
10.1 Kinds of Moral Consideration
10.2 Speciesism
10.3 Animals and Discrimination
10.4 Ought Humans to Dominate Animals?
10.5 Are Humans Naturally Superior to Animals?
10.6 What Extrinsic Value Does Human Intelligence Have?
10.7 Superiority and Dominance
10.8 Conclusion
IV
AUTONOMY AND THE INDIVIDUAL
Chapter 11. PRIVACY
11.1 Why is Privacy Important?
11.2 Philosophical and Legal Foundations of Privacy
11.3 The Definition of Privacy
11.4 Personal Autonomy
11.5 The Paradox of Privacy
11.6 Setting Boundaries
11.7 The Prima Facie Right to Privacy
11.8 Violating Privacy for Political, Social or Personal Ends
11.9 Privacy and Conflicting Values
11.10 Privacy and Technology
11.11 Conclusion
Chapter 12. ABORTION
12.1 Is There Neutral Language With Which to Discuss Abortion?
12.2 What is It That is Aborted?
12.3 A Medical Perspective
12.4 Whose Interests Warrant Moral Consideration in the Abortion Issue?
12.5 Roe v. Wade (1973)
12.6 A Woman's "Right to Choose."
12.7 Do Men Have Rights in the Abortion Issue?
12.8 Do the Unborn Have Rights?
12.9 Human Beings and Persons
12.10 Abortion and the Killing of the Innocent
12.11 What Precisely is Abortion?
12.12 Hare's Golden Rule Argument
12.13 Toward a New Perspective on Abortion
12.14 The Basic Issue of Unwanted Pregnancy
12.15 Conclusion
Chapter 13. PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED SUICIDE
13.1 Suicide
13.2 Is There a Right to Die?
13.3 Active and Passive Euthanasia
13.4 The Quinlan, Cruzan and Schiavo Cases
13.5 Consciousness, Coma and Persistent Vegetative States
13.6 Killing and Letting Die
13.7 Is There a Moral Difference Between Killing and Letting Die?
13.8 Is There a Slippery Slope from Suicide to Assisted Suicide to Euthanasia?
13.9 The Case for a Logically Slippery Slope
13.10 Conclusion
V
THE NONCONSENSUAL TAKING OF HUMAN LIFE
Chapter 14. THE DEATH PENALTY
14.1 The Death Penalty in America
14.2 What is Punishment?
14.3 Deterrence and Retribution
14.4 What is Retributivism?
14.5 Objection to the Retributivist Justification of the Death Penalty
14.6 Is the Death Penalty a Deterrent?
14.7 Conclusion
Chapter 15. TERRORISM AND WAR
15.1 The Problem
15.2 What is Terrorism?
15.3 The Rationalization of Terrorism
15.4 Who Are Terrorists?
15.5 How Some Terrorists View Themselves
15.6 Terrorism and the Killing of Innocents
15.7 What is War?
15.8 Can War Be Morally Justified?
15.9 The Just War Theory
15.10 War and the Killing of Innocents
15.11 War and the Killing of Soldiers
15.12 Are Soldiers Morally Expendable?
15.13 Is There an Absolute Right to Kill in Self-Defense?
15.14 The Paradox of the Moral Expendability of Soldiers
15.15 Pacifism
15.16 Conclusion