Ethics In America - Source Reader,

by Newton, Lisa H., Ph.D.; CPB Annenberg, CPB; Columbia University Seminars on Media and Society, Columbia University

• ISBN13: 9780131826250
• ISBN10: 0131826255
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-04-25
• Publisher: Pearson

Summary

This volume contains a rich and varied selection of classic writings in philosophy and ethics through the ages.This volume features selections from Eastern religions, Native America, feminist perspectives, existentialism and environmentalism as well writing from Plato, Aristotle, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, John Rawls, Immanuel Kant, Adam Smith, John Stuart Mill and others.For anyone interested in learning about the evolution of ethics and ethical thought in America.

Table of Contents

Preface	vii
Introduction	ix
The Greek Tradition	1	(45)
Thucydides (Died ca. 401 B.C.)	1	(3)
Plato (427 B.C.--347 B.C.)	4	(26)
Aristotle (384--322 B.C.)	30	(16)
Religious Traditions	46	(41)
The Bible	46	(19)
Islam	65	(6)
Buddhism	71	(5)
Confucianism	76	(5)
Native Americans	81	(6)
The Moral Law	87	(58)
The Stoics	87	(3)
Thomas Aquinas (1225--1274)	90	(6)
Thomas Hobbes (1588--1679)	96	(5)
John Locke (1632--1704)	101	(9)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712--1778)	110	(9)
Thomas Jefferson (1743--1826)	119	(3)
Immanuel Kant (1724--1804)	122	(9)
A Note on Fiduciary Duty	131	(1)
Josiah Royce (1855--1916)	132	(5)
John Rawls (1921--2002)	137	(5)
Martin Luther King, Jr. (1939--1968)	142	(3)
Utilitarianism	145	(33)
Epicurus	145	(1)
Hedonists Ancient and Modern	146	(1)
Jeremy Bentham (1748--1832)	147	(6)
Adam Smith (1723--1790)	153	(7)
John Stuart Mill (1806--1873)	160	(17)
Conclusion, of a Sort	177	(1)
The Belmont Report	178	(10)
Doubts and Experiments	188	(43)
Fyodor Mikhailovic Dostoevsky (1821--1881)	189	(10)
Marxism	199	(9)
Jean-Paul Sartre (1905--1980)	208	(8)
Feminist Ethics	216	(6)
Environmentalism	222	(9)
Epilogue	231	(3)
Suggestions for Further Reading	234	(1)
Acknowledgments	235

Excerpts

The volume in your hands is greatly expanded from the first edition, published in 1989. The expansion was undertaken on request by many who have used the book in their courses, and the reason was something of a surprise to me. It seems that this text is occasionally used, not just for a companion volume for the telecourseEthics in America,but also on its own, as the text for an introductory level history of ethics course. But for that purpose, the selections were incomplete.In the first edition I included only those works which were appealed to, explicitly or implicitly, by the panelists on the various discussions, and that means only works in the Western tradition. Further, only those works were included that had suggestions to make about how to solve ethical problems, to help students follow the actual reasoning of the panelists. Where the panelists' reasoning appealed (usually silently) to an ethical tradition, that tradition was included in the selections and the selections referenced in theStudy Guide,the other companion volume. Only works so referenced were included in theSource Reader.Now, that is one very exclusive principle of selection. Omitted were all religious traditions but our own, all Eastern thought of any kind, the entire nineteenth- and twentieth-century literature of doubt and ethical restructuring, and the contemporary movements of feminism, environmentalism, and other forms of multiculturalism (all movements that change the center of ethical consideration). If the text is to be used for a complete course in ethics, surely some selections must at least entertain the possibility of taking these literatures into account.Accordingly, the second edition has expanded, to include selections from Islamic, Buddhist, and Confucian thought (attempts to put the Bhagavad Gita in some form that preserved the poetry were unsuccessful, so Hinduism is not included); also existentialism, feminism, and environmentalism. (A new selection on Fiduciary Duty, taken from the law, has also been added as a complement to the selection from Royce.) All the disclaimers that applied to the first edition still apply: you will get only a taste of these rich and fascinating authors, literature, and movements, the editor makes no claims to expertise on any of these authors in particular and certainly no claims to expertise on them all; you will be frustrated by the minimal selections provided; the only way you can relieve that frustration is by going in each case back to the original source. Go to it.