Contemporary Moral Issues : Diversity and Consensus

Hinman provides a short, general introduction to ethical theory for students and also develops a self-test that allows them to determine their initial position on the specific moral issues to be discussed later in the book. Each chapter opens with one or more experiential accounts, which are selected in order to provide students with insight into the lived reality of the issue at hand. This is followed by Hinman's chapter introductions to the philosophical issues at stake in each moral issue. A number of philosophical articles follow, and these are intended to introduce students to the detailed philosophical argumentation that accompanies a well-thought-out position. Discussion questions follow each selection. Finally, each chapter concludes with an extensive bibliographical essay and a retest of the original self-test so that students can see the ways in which the readings have affected them. The book concludes with a guide to reading, analyzing, and constructing philosophical arguments, which contains numerous helpful suggestions for both reading articles and writing papers on contemporary moral problems. The author also provides updated material on these issues on the World Wide Web and at his site Ethics Updates.