Moral Soundings Readings on the Crisis of Values in Contemporary Life

by Furrow, Dwight; Borgmann, Albert; Rorty, Richard; Fesmire, Steven; Sommers, Christina Hoff; Said, Edward W.; Kurtz, Stanley; Ehrenreich, Barbara; Walls, Jerry L.; Weinberger, Jerry; Kass, Leon; Smiley, Jane; Gornick, Janet C.; Elshtain, Jean Bethke; Pogge

• ISBN13: 9780742533707
• ISBN10: 0742533700
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-04-02
• Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers

Summary

This topically organized, interdisciplinary anthology provides competing perspective on the claim that western culture faces a moral crisis. Using clearly written, accessible essays by well-known authors in philosophy, the social sciences, and the humanities, the book introduces students to a variety of perspectives on the current cultural debate about values that percolates beneath the surface of most of our social and political controversies.

Table of Contents

Preface	xi
Introduction	xiii
Part I: Morals and Money	1	(48)
1 The Spirit of Capitalism 2000	3	(22)
David Bosworth
Study Questions	23	(1)
Interventions: Autonomy, Humility, and Self-Direction	24	(1)
2 Markets and the Social Structure of Morality	25	(12)
David Marsland
Study Questions	33	(2)
Interventions: Autonomy as Self-Sufficiency	35	(2)
3 Two Cheers for Capitalism	37	(12)
James B. Twitchell
Study Questions	45	(2)
Interventions: Does Capitalism Subvert or Support Autonomy?	47	(2)
Part II: The Promise of Equality	49	(46)
4 Nihilism in Black America	51	(8)
Cornel West
Study Questions	58	(1)
5 Life, Liberty, Property	59	(8)
Richard Pipes
Study Questions	66	(1)
6 Still the Land of Opportunity?	67	(16)
Isabel V. Sawhill
Study Questions	79	(1)
Interventions: Are We Equal in Our Capacity to Make Our Own Decisions?	80	(3)
7 The Moral Demands of Global Justice	83	(12)
Thomas Pogge
Study Questions	91	(3)
Interventions: Is Personal Autonomy Compatible with Justice for All?	94	(1)
Part III: Where Love Meets Obligation:The Family in Turmoil	95	(40)
8 Philosophical Reflections on the Family at Millennium's Beginning	97	(10)
Jean Bethke Elshtain
Study Questions	106	(1)
9 Reconcilable Differences: What It Would Take for Marriage and Feminism to Say "I Do."	107	(10)
Janet C. Gornick
Study Questions	115	(2)
10 Why Marriage?	117	(18)
Jane Smiley
Study Questions	129	(1)
Interventions: Negotiating Dependence and Independence	130	(5)
Part IV: Coping with Hi-Tech Cowboys	135	(40)
11 The Age of Genetic Technology Arrives	137	(18)
Leon Kass
Study Questions	152	(3)
12 What's at the Bottom of the Slippery Slope: A Post-Human Future?	155	(20)
Jerry Weinberger
Study Questions	171	(2)
Interventions: Can We Control Technology?	173	(2)
Part V: In God We Trust-or Do We?	175	(20)
13 Can We Be Good without Hell?	177	(8)
Jerry L. Walls
Study Questions	183	(2)
14 Everything I Like about Religion I Learned from an Atheist	185	(10)
Barbara Ehrenreich
Study Questions	189	(2)
Interventions: Is Obedience to God Compatible with Making My Own Decisions?	191	(4)
Part VI: Global Conflict	195	(30)
15 The Future of "History": Francis Fukuyama vs. Samuel P. Huntington	197	(18)
Stanley Kurtz
Study Questions	212	(3)
16 The Clash of Ignorance	215	(10)
Edward W. Said
Study Questions	220	(1)
Interventions: Hybrid Identities and Autonomy	221	(4)
Part VII: It's All Good: Life among the Relativists	225	(26)
17 Are We Living in a Moral Stone Age?	227	(8)
Christina Hoff Sommers
Study Questions	233	(2)
18 Of Cave Dwellers and Spirits: The Trouble with Moral Absolutes	235	(16)
Dwight Furrow
Study Questions	246	(1)
Interventions: Autonomy and Objectivity	247	(4)
Part VIII: Renewals	251	(42)
19 Ecological Humanism: A Moral Image for Our Emotive Culture	253	(8)
Steven Fesmire
Study Questions	259	(2)
20 American National Pride	261	(12)
Richard Rorty
Study Questions	269	(4)
21 Society in the Postmodern Era	273	(20)
Albert Borgmann
Study Questions	283	(2)
Interventions: How to Reconcile Moral Freedom and Moral Responsiveness	285	(8)
Suggestions for Further Reading	293	(2)
Index	295