The Moral Life brings together an extensive and varied collection of 87 classical and contemporary readings on ethical theory and practice. Using literary works as touchstones, Pojman makes concrete the ethical theory or applied issue being addressed in each chapter. Literary works by Hugo, Hawthorne, Tolstoy, Ibsen, Huxley, Orwell, Camus, LeGuin, Golding, Styron, and many others lead students into philosophical concepts and issues. These ideas are developed further through readings by philosophers such as Aristotle, Kant, Sartre, Bernard Williams, and Mary Anne Warren.
Preface
Introduction: On the Nature of Morality
PART I. THE NATURE OF MORALITY: GOOD AND EVIL
1. What is the Purpose of Morality?
William Golding, Lord of the Flies: A Moral Allegory
Louis P. Pojman, On The Nature and Purpose of Morality: Reflections on William Golding's Lord of the Flies
Thomas Hobbes, On the State of Nature
2. Good and Evil
Herman Melville, Billy Budd
Fyodor Dostoevski, Why Is There Evil?
William Styron, Sophie's Choice
Philip Hallie, From Cruelty to Goodness
Stanley Benn, Wickedness
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
Richard Taylor, On the Origin of Good and Evil
3. Is Everything Relative?
Herodotus, Custom Is King
Ruth Benedict, The Case for Moral Relativism
Louis P. Pojman, The Case Against Moral Relativism
Jean Bethke Elshtain, Judge Not?
Henrick Ibsen, The Enemy of the People
PART II. MORAL THEORIES AND MORAL CHARACTER
4. Utilitarianism
Seaman Holmes and the Longboat of the William Brown, Reported by John William Wallace
Jeremy Bentham, Classical Utilitarianism
Kai Nielsen, A Defense of Utilitarianism
Bernard Williams, Against Utilitarianism
Ursula Le Guin, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
Aldous Huxley, The Utilitarian Social Engineer and the Savage (from Brave New World)
5. Deontological Ethics
Soren Kierkegaard, On Duty
Immanuel Kant, The Moral Law
W.D. Ross, Intuitionism
The Golden Rule
Richard Whatley, A Critique of the Golden Rule
Ambrose Bierce, A Horseman in the Sky
Charles Fried, The Evil of Lying
Thomas Nagel, Moral Luck
6. Virtue Ethics
Victor Hugo, The Bishop and the Candlesticks
Aristotle, Virtue Ethics
Bernard Mayo, Virtue and the Moral Life
Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Great Stone Face
William Frankena, A Critique of Virtue-Based Ethical Systems
Jonathan Bennett, The Conscience of Huckleberry Finn
7. Virtues and Vices
Jesus of Nazareth, The Sermon on the Mount; The Good Samaritan
Leo Tolstoy, How Much Land Does a Man Need? The Vice of Greed
Immanuel Kant, Jealousy, Malice, and Ingratitude
Martin Gansberg, Moral Cowardice
Helen Keller, Three Days to See: Gratitude
Vice Admiral James Stockdale, Courage and Endurance
The Story of David and Bathsheba, Lust
Leo Tolstoy, Where Love is, There is God
Bertrand Russell, Reflections on Suffering
Charles Colson, The Volunteer at Auschwitz: Altruism
PART III. MORAL ISSUES
8. Ethics and Egoism: Why Should We Be Moral?
Plato, The Ring of Gyges
James Rachels, Ethical Egoism
Louis P. Pojman, Egoism, Self-Interest, and Altruism
9. Does Life Have Meaning?
Epicurus, Hedonism
Epictetus and Others, Stoic Catechism
Albert Camus, Life Is Absurd
Lois Hope Walker, Religion Gives Meaning to Life
Viktor Frankl, The Human Search for Meaning: Reflections on Auschwitz
Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, The Four Noble Truths
Robert Nozick, The Experience Machine
10. Freedom, Autonomy, and Self-Respect
Martin Luther King, Jr., I Have a Dream
Stanley Milgram, An Experiment in Autonomy
Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism
Thomas E. Hill, Jr., Servility and Self-Respect
PART IV. APPLIED ETHICS
11. Sex, Love, and Marriage
John Barth, Pansexuality
Immanuel Kant, On the Place of Sex in Human Existence
The Vatican Declaration on Sexual Ethics
Raymond Angelo Belliotti, Sexual Intercourse Between Consenting Adults Is Always Permissible
Vincent Punzo, Sexual Intercourse Should Be Confined to Marriage
Burton Leiser, Is Homosexuality Unnatural?
John McMurty, Monogamy: A Critique
Michael D. Bayles, Marriage, Love, and Procreation: A Critique of McMurty
Bonnie Steinbock, What's Wrong With Adultery?
Hugh LaFollette, Licensing Parents
12. Is Abortion Really Permissible?
John T. Noonan, Jr., Abortion Is Not Morally Permissible
Mary Anne Warren, Abortion Is Morally Permissible
Jane English, The Moderate Position: Beyond the Personhood Argument
13. Substance Abuse: Drugs and Alcohol
John Stuart Mill, On Liberty
Gore Vidal, Drugs Should Be Legalized
William Bennett, Drugs Should Not Be Legalized
Yoshida Kenko, On Drinking
Bonnie Steinbock, Drunk Driving
14. Our Duties to Animals
George Orwell, Shooting an Elephant
Immanuel Kant, We Have Only Indirect Duties to Animals
Peter Singer, Animal Liberation: All Animals Are Equal
Carl Cohen, The Case Against Animal Rights
Mylan Engel, Jr., The Immorality of Eating Meat
15. Our Duties to the Environment
Sophocles, On Mankind's Power over Nature
Robert Heilbroner, What Has Posterity Ever Done for Me?
Garrett Hardin, The Tragedy of the Commons
David Watson, We All Live in Bhopal
William F. Baxter, People or Penguins: The Case for Optimal Pollution
Each chapter ends with Further Readings