Contemporary Moral Arguments : Readings in Ethical Issues

by Vaughn, Lewis

• ISBN13: 9780195381931
• ISBN10: 0195381939
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-12-18
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Taking a unique approach that emphasizes critical thinking, this cutting-edge reader is structured around twenty-eight key arguments that have provoked heated debates on current ethical issues. Contemporary Moral Arguments: Readings in Ethical Issues opens with a two-chapter introduction to moral theories and moral reasoning that provides students with the background necessary to analyze the arguments in the following chapters. Chapters 3-12 present seventy-six readings that are organized--in the conventional way--into ten topical areas: abortion; sex and marriage; euthanasia and assisted suicide; genetic engineering and cloning; the death penalty; war, terrorism, and torture; pornography; economic justice and health care; animal rights and environmental duties; and global obligations to the poor. Offering a special feature not found in other anthologies, the selections are also organized in an unconventional way, by argument, so that students can more easily see how philosophers have debated each other on these critical issues. Each argument opens with an introduction that outlines the argument's key points, provides context for it, and reviews some of the main responses to it. Each introduction is followed by two to four essays that present the argument's classic statement, critiques and defenses of it, and related debates. Contemporary Moral Arguments incorporates more pedagogical features than any other reader, including: * Essay questions--ideal for writing assignments--after each of the twenty-eight argument sections * Four types of boxes throughout: Facts and Figures, Public Opinion, Legalities, and Time Lines * A list of key terms at the end of each chapter, all defined in the glossary, and suggestions for further reading * An Instructor's Manual and Testbank on CD featuring chapter and reading summaries, lecture outlines in PowerPoint format, and essay and objective questions with an answer key * A Companion Website at www.oup.com/us/vaughn containing the same material as the Instructor's Manual along with such student resources as self-quizzes and flash cards

Table of Contents

Chapters 3-12 open with an Introduction, Key Terms, and Arguments and Readings

Each chapter ends with Suggestions for Further Reading.

Preface

Moral Reasoning

Ethics and the Moral Domain

Norms: Moral and Nonmoral

The Elements of Morality

Emotion and Conscience

Kinds of Ethical Inquiry

Ethics, Law, and Religion

Moral Relativism

Moral Arguments

Argument Basics

The Structure of Moral Arguments

Evaluating Moral Premises

Key Words

Summary

Plato: The Ring of Gyges

The Case Against Moral Relativism

Can Ethics Provide Answers?

Moral Theories

Why Moral Theories?

Important Moral Theories

Utilitarianism

Kant's Theory

Natural Law Theory

Rawls's Contractarianism

Virtue Ethics

The Ethics of Care

Feminist Ethics

Judging Moral Theories

The Moral Criteria of Adequacy

Applying the Criteria: Utilitarianism

Kant's Theory

Key Words

Summary

Utilitarianism

Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals

Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics

A Theory of Justice

The Need for More Than Justice

Abortion

Warren's Personhood Argument for Abortion

On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion

The Being in the Womb Is a Person

Abortion: A Defense of the Personhood Argument

Why Abortion Is Immoral

Noonan's Personhood-at-Conception Argument Against Abortion

An Almost Absolute Value in History

In Defense of Abortion and Infanticide

The Scope of the Prohibition Against Killing

Thomson's Self-Defense Argument for Abortion

A Defense of Abortion

Arguments from Bodily Rights: A Critical Analysis

Sex And Marriage

Goldman's Argument Against Conventional Sexual Morality

Plain Sex

Morality and Human Sexuality

The Abnormality Argument Against Homosexuality

Why Homosexuality Is Abnormal

Homosexuality and Nature

The Essentialist Argument Against Gay Marriage

Gay Marriage--and Marriage

For Better or Worse?

Euthanasia And Assisted Suicide

The Autonomy Argument for Euthanasia

When Self-Determination Runs Amok

When Abstract Moralizing Runs Amok

The Philosophers' Brief

The Killing/Letting Die Argument

Active and Passive Euthanasia

Is Killing No Worse Than Letting Die?

The Slippery Slope Argument Against Euthanasia

Why Doctors Must Not Kill

Voluntary Active Euthanasia

Genetic Engineering And Cloning

The Beneficence Argument for Genetic Enhancement

Is Gene Therapy a Form of Eugenics?

Genetic Enhancement

The Open-Future Argument Against Cloning

Cloning Human Beings: An Assessment of the Ethical Issues Pro and Con

A Life in the Shadow: One Reason Why We Should Not Clone Humans

The Death Penalty

Kant's Retributivism Argument for the Death Penalty

Punishment and the Principle of Equality

A Life for a Life

An Eye for an Eye?

Capital Attrition: Error Rates in Capital Cases

The Discrimination Argument Against the Death Penalty

Administrative Objections

Capital Punishment and the Legacy of Racial Bias

The Deterrence Argument for the Death Penalty

On Deterrence and the Death Penalty

Capital Punishment and Social Defense

War, Terrorism, And Torture

The Pacifist Argument Against War

Pacifism

Pacifism: A Philosophical Analysis

The Self-Defense Argument for War

Just and Unjust Wars

When War Is Unjust: Being Honest in Just-War Thinking

The Just War Argument Against Terrorism

Terrorism: A Critique of Excuses

The Morality of Terrorism

Can Terrorism Be Justified?

The Ticking Bomb Argument for Torture

The Case for Torturing the Ticking Bomb Terrorist

Liberalism, Torture, and the Ticking Bomb

Pornography

The Liberty Argument Against Censorship

On Liberty

Hate Speech and Pornography: Do We Have to Choose Between Freedom and Equality?

Pornography, Oppression, and Freedom

MacKinnon's Harm-to-Women Argument for Censorship

Pornography, Civil Rights, and Speech

Women and Pornography

Feminists Against the First Amendment

Economic Justice: Health Care

Daniels's Argument for a Right to Health Care

Is There a Right to Health Care and, If So, What Does It Encompass?

The Right to a Decent Minimum of Health Care

The Argument for Rationing by Moral Worthiness

Fault and the Allocation of Spare Organs

Alcoholics and Liver Transplantation

Animal Rights And Environmental Duty

Singer's ""All Animals Are Equal"" Argument

All Animals Are Equal

The Case for the Use of Animals in Biomedical Research

Our Duties to Animals

Regan's Argument for Animal Rights

The Case for Animal Rights

The Rights of the Nonhuman World

The Moral Status of Animals

The Suffering Argument for Vegetarianism

The Moral Argument for Vegetarianism

Moral Vegetarianism and the Argument from Pain and Suffering

Taylor's Argument for the Moral Equality of All Life

The Ethics of Respect for Nature

Are All Species Equal?

Reverence for Life

Economic Justice And Global Obligations

Hardin's Lifeboat Argument Against Aiding the Poor

Living on a Lifeboat

A Critique of Lifeboat Ethics

Singer's Utilitarian Argument for Aiding the Poor

Famine, Affluence, and Morality

World Hunger and Population

Glossary

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.