Synopses & Reviews
A comprehensive and provocative collection of both classical and contemporary voices in perennial ethical debates, VICE AND VIRTUE has established itself as one of the truly outstanding anthologies for Introduction to Ethics Courses. In contradistinction to many other introduction to ethics books that focus on the application of moral theories to various institutionally based social dilemmas, VICE AND VIRTUE is unabashedly committed to the exploration of private, individual virtue and responsibility. This book provides both an overview of seminal ethical theories as well as many stimulating readings chosen to encourage students' own reflection on how these abstract theories impact decisions they face individually in their everyday lives.
About the Author
Christina Hoff Sommers is Affiliate Associate Professor of Philosophy, Clark University and a Resident Scholar at the American Enterprise Institute. Her recent books include THE WAR AGAINST BOYS (New York Times Notable Book of the Year) and ONE NATION UNDER THERAPY.Fred Sommers is professor emeritus at Brandeis University. His latest article,"On the Nature of Belief," appeared in the Spring edition of the AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL QUARTERLY. MIT Press recently published a book of essays called THE OLD NEW LOGIC ( April 2005) that honors Sommers' distinctive contributions to 20th century philosophy.
Table of Contents
Preface. Introduction. 1. GOOD AND EVIL. Phllip Hallie: From Cruelty to Goodness. Jonathan Bennett: The Conscience of Huckleberry Finn. Phillip Hallie: The Evil that Men Think--And Do. Martin Gansberg: 38 Who Saw Murder Didn't Call Police. Josiah Royce: The Moral Insight. Herman Melville: Billy Budd. Friedrich Nietzsche: Beyond Good and Evil. 2. MORAL DOCTRINES AND MORAL THEORIES. The Judeo-Christian Tradition. Robert C. Mortimer: Morality is Based on God's Commands. John Arthur: Why Morality Does Not Depend on Religion. David Hume: Of Benevolence. John Stuart Mill: Utilitarianism. Bernard Williams: A Critique of Utilitarianism. Ursula Le Guin: The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas. Fyodor Dostoyevsky: Why Not Murder? Immanuel Kant: Good Will, Duty, and the Categorical Imperative. Fred Sommers: The Holocaust and Moral Philosophy. James Rachels: Kant and the Categorical Imperative. 3. IS IT ALL RELATIVE? Herodotus: Morality as Custom. Ruth Benedict: A Defense of Moral Relativism. William Graham Sumner: A Defense of Cultural Relativism. Carolyn Fluehr-Lobban: Cultural Relativism and Universal Rights. Jane Perlez: Uganda's Women: Children, Drudgery, and Pain. Louis Pojman: Who's to Judge? Thomas Nagel: The Objective Basis of Morality. R.M. MacIver: The Deep Beauty of the Golden Rule. Martin Luther King, Jr.: I Have a Dream. The United Nations Charter: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights. 4. VIRTUE. Aristotle: Happiness and the Virtues. Saint Augustine: Of the Morals of the Catholic Church. Bernard Mayo: Virtue or Duty? Alasdair MacIntyre: Tradition and the Virtues. James Rachels: The Ethics of Virtue. Adam Smith: Of Justice and Beneficence. Charles Darwin: The Origin of the Moral Sense. Christina Sommers: Filial Morality. 5. VICE. Plutarch: Vice. Saint Augustine: The Depths of Vice. Jonathan Edwards: Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. Dante Alighieri: The Hypocrites. Samuel Johnson: Self-Deception. Bishop Butler: Upon Self-Deceit. Immanuel Kant: Jealousy, Envy, and Spite. 6. MORALITY AND SELF-INTEREST. Plato: The Ring of Gyges. Thomas Hobbes: Of the State of Men without Civil Society. David Hume: Of Self-Love. Harry Browne: The Unselfishness Trap. James Rachels: Egoism and Moral Skepticism. Ayn Rand: The Virtue of Selfishness. Louis Pojman: Egoism, Self-Interest, and Altruism. Colin McGinn: Why Not Be a Bad Person? Peter Singer: Why Act Morally? 7. CHARACTER, DIGNITY, AND SELF-RESPECT. Epictetus: The Art of Living. Vice Admiral James Stockdale: The World of Epictetus. Nancy Sherman: Educating the Stoic Warrior. Immanuel Kant: Dignity and Self-Respect. Joan Didion: On Self-Respect. John Stuart Mill: A Crisis in My Mental Life. Anthony Quinton: Character and Culture. 8. MORAL EDUCATION. Aristotle: Habit and Virtue. Laurence Kohlberg: The Child as Moral Philosopher. George Sher and William J. Bennett: Moral Education and Indoctrination. Carol Gilligan: In a Different Voice. George Sher: Other Voices, Other Rooms? Women's Psychology and Moral Theory. Sidney B. Simon, Leland W. Howe, and Howard Kirschenbaum: The Values Clarification Approach. Charles Sykes: The 'Values' Wasteland. Christina Sommers: How Moral Education is Finding its Way Back into America's Schools". 9. MORALITY AND SOCIAL POLICY. Peter Singer: Famine, Affluence, and Morality. John Arthur: World Hunger and Moral Obligation: The Case Against Singer. Garrett Hardin: Lifeboat Ethics: The Case Against Helping the Poor. William W. Murdoch and Allan Oaten: Population and Food: Metaphors and the Reality. Gerald O'Driscoll, Kim Holmes, and Melanie Kirkpatrick: Unfree, Hence Poor. Leon Kass: The Wisdom of Repugnance: The Case Against Human Cloning. Ranaan Gillon: Human Reproductive Cloning: A Look at the Arguments Against It and A Rejection of Most of Them. Cass R. Sunstein: The Constitution and the Clone. James Rachels: A Moral Defense of Vegetarianism. Aldo Leopold: The Land Ethic. Dennis Prager: Is God in Trees? Gregg Easterbrook: The Case Against Nature. 10. THE MEANING OF LIFE. Tao Ch'ien: Substance, Shadow and Spirit. Bhagavad-Gita, Selection. Leo Tolstoy: My Confession. Bertrand Russell: A Free Man's Worship. Albert Camus: The Myth of Sisyphus. Thomas Nagel: The Meaning of Life. Joel Feinberg: Absurd Self-Fulfillment: An Essay on the Perversity of the Gods. The Book of Job, Selection.