The Moral Of The Story with Free Ethics PowerWeb

by Rosenstand, Nina

• ISBN13: 9780072833461
• ISBN10: 0072833467
• Edition: 4th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2002-07-17
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages

Summary

This popular text uses examples from fiction and film to show how ethical theories can be applied. By linking abstract theory to "real life" through storytelling and story analysis, Rosenstand offers a remarkably effective way of helping students understand and evaluate moral issues.

Table of Contents

PART I: The Story as a Tool of Ethics

1. Thinking About Values

After September 11

Morals, Values, and Ethics

Why be Moral?

Debating Moral Issues

Stories and Morals

Reading: Martha Nussbaum, Love's Knowledge

Narratives: Smoke Signals / Haroun and the Sea of Stories

2. Learning Moral Lessons from Stories

Didactic Stories

The New Interest in Stories

The Value of Stories

Stories Past and Present

Stories to Live and Die By

Seeing Your Life as a Story

Living in the Narrative Zone

Readings: Plato, The Republic / Aristotle, Poetics / Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose / Tristine Rainer, Your Life as Story

Narratives: Medea / The Sorrows of Young Werther / Pulp Fiction / Lord Jim

PART II: What Should I Do? Theories of Conduct

3. Ethical Relativism

How to Deal with Moral Differences

The Lessons of Anthropology

Is Tolerance all We Need?

Refuting Ethical Relativism

Readings: Ruth Benedict, "Anthropology and the Abnormal" / Bhiku Parekh, "The Concept of Multicultural Education"

Narratives: Possessing the Secret of Joy / Sideshow / Do the Right Thing

4. Myself or Others?

Psychological Egoism

Ethical Egoism

Altruism: Ideal and Reciprocal

Readings: Plato, The Republic / Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan / Ayn Rand, "The Ethics of Emergencies"

Narratives: Friends episode: "The One Where Phoebe Hates PBS" / Return to Paradise / Madame Bovary / Atlas Shrugged

5. Using Your Reason, Part 1: Utilitarianism

Jeremy Bentham and the Hedonistic Calculus

John Stuart Mill: Another Utilitarian Vision

Act and Rule Utilitarianism

Readings: Jeremy Bentham, Of the Principle of Utility / John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism

Narratives: "The Blacksmith and the Baker" / The Brothers Karamazov / "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" / Saving Private Ryan / Extreme Measures

6. Using Your Reason, Part 2: Kant's Deontology

The Good Will

The Categorical Imperative

Rational Beings are Ends in Themselves

Readings: Immanuel Kant, Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals / Immanuel Kant, Metaphysics of Morals

Narratives: High Noon / Ooutland / Copland / Abandon Ship! / Star Trek: The Next Generation: "Justice"

7. Personhood, Rights, and Justice

What is a Human Being?

Persons and Rights

Questions of Rights

Distributive Justice

Criminal Justice

Readings: The United Nations Universal Declaration of Rights / John Rawls, "Justice as Fairness" / Martin Luther King, Jr., "A Letter from Birmingham Jail" / Diane Whitely, "The Victim and the Justification of Punishment"

Narratives: Bladerunner / Gattaca / Losing Isaiah / The Insider / Outbreak

PART III

8. Socrates, Plato, and the Good Life

What is Virtue?

The Good Teacher

The Good Life

The Virtuous Person

Plato's Theory of Forms

Readings: Plato, Euthyphro / Plato, The Apology

Narratives: A Man for All Seasons / "The Myth of the Cave" / The Truman Show / "The Store of the Worlds"

9. Aristotle's Virtue Theory

Empirical Knowledge and the Realm of the Senses

Aristotle the Scientist

Aristotle and Virtue

Aristotle's Influence on Aquinas

Some Objections to Greek Virtue Theory

Readings: Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book II / Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book III

Narratives: "The Flight of Icarus" / Njal's Saga / Lord Jim / "A Piece of Advice" / As Good as it Gets

10. Contemporary Perspectives

Ethics and the Morality of Virtue

Have Virtue, and Then Go Ahead: Mayo, Foot, and Sommers

The Quest for Authenticity: Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Sartre, and Levinas

Readings: Soren Kierkegaard, Johannes Climacus / Soren Kierkegaard, Either/Or / Emmanuel Levinas, "The Paradox of Morality"

Narratives: Hannah and her Sisters / No Exit / A Few Good Men

11. Different Gender, Different Ethic?

Feminism and Virtue Theory

What is Gender Equality?

Women's Historical Role in the Public Sphere

First, Second, and Third Wave Feminism

Facets of Feminism Today

Readings: Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex / Carol Gilligan, In a Different Voice / Deborah Tannen, Talking from 9 to 5

Narratives: A Doll's House / "The Woman Destroyed" / Like Water for Chocolate / Thelma and Louise

12. Case Studies in Virtues

Compassion: Are We Born With It?

Gratitude: How Much, and When?

Virtue and Conduct: A Combination?

Readings: Philip Hallie, Tales of Good and Evil / Lin Yutang, "On Growing Old Gracefully"

Narratives: "The Parable of the Good Samaritan" / "King Yudisthira and the Dog" / Schindler's List / Eat Drink Man Woman / Grand Canyon / Othello / "The Faithful Wife and the Woman Warrior" / The Count of Monte Christo / The Searchers

13. Applied Ethics: A Sampler

Media Ethics

Just-War Theory

Animal Welfare and Animal Rights

The Death Penalty

Readings: John Rawls, The Law of Peoples / Jan Narveson, "Morality and Violence: War, Revolution, and Terrorism" / Sue Savage-Rumbaugh and Roger Lewin, Kanzi: The Ape at the Brink of the Human Mind / Stephen Nathanson, An Eye for and Eye? The Morality of Punishing By Death / John Douglas and Mark Ohlshaker, Journey Into Darkness

Narratives: 15 Minutes / "The Jigsaw Man" / Dead Man Walking