Brief yet thorough and affordably priced, The Ethical Life: Fundamental Readings in Ethics and Moral Problems, Sixth Edition, is ideal for courses in introductory ethics and contemporary moral problems. Featuring forty-eight readings divided into four parts, it introduces students to ethical theory and a wide range of moral issues. The essays include selections from such historically influential philosophers as Aristotle, Hume, Kant, and Mill alongside work by contemporary philosophers like Philippa Foot, Robert Nozick, Peter Singer, and Judith Jarvis Thomson. Detailed reading introductions provide helpful contextual information.

Author Biography

Russ Shafer-Landau is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. He is the author or editor of several books including The Fundamentals of Ethics, Sixth Edition (OUP, 2023), A Concise Introduction to Ethics (OUP, 2019), and Living Ethics, Third Edition (OUP, 2024). He is also the editor of Oxford Studies in Metaethics.

Preface
A Note on the Companion Volume
Introduction

PART I. The Good Life
1. John Stuart Mill Hedonism
2. Robert Nozick The Experience Machine
3. Chris Heathwood Faring Well and Getting What You Want
4. Brad Hooker The Elements of Well-Being
5. Susan Wolf Happiness and Meaning: Two Aspects of the Good Life

PART II. Normative Ethics: Theories of Right Conduct
6. Plato Euthyphro
7. Thomas Aquinas Natural Law
8. John Stuart Mill Utilitarianism
9. Immanuel Kant The Good Will and the Categorical Imperative
10. Thomas Hobbes Leviathan
11. W. D. Ross What Makes Right Acts Right?
12. Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics
13. Hilde Lindemann What Is Feminist Ethics?

PART III. Metaethics: The Status of Morality
14. David Hume Moral Distinctions not Derived from Reason
15. J. L. Mackie The Subjectivity of Values
16. Diane Jeske Cultural Relativism
17. David Enoch Why I am an Objectivist about Ethics (and Why You Are, Too)
18. Sarah McGrath Moral Knowledge

PART IV. Moral Problems
19. Kwame Anthony Appiah What Will Future Generations Condemn Us For?
POVERTY AND HUNGER
20. Peter Singer The Singer Solution to World Poverty
21. Onora O'Neill A Kantian Approach to Famine Relief
22. Jason Brennan International Aid: Not the Cure You Were Hoping For
EUTHANASIA AND A MODEST PROPOSAL
23. James Rachels The Morality of Euthanasia
24. John Harris The Survival Lottery
IMMIGRATION
25. Christopher Heath Wellman Refugees and the Right to Control Immigration
26. Javier Hidalgo Open Borders
ANIMALS
27. Nick Zangwill Our Moral Duty to Eat Meat
28. Alastair Norcross Puppies, Pigs and People: Eating Meat and Marginal Cases
THE ENVIRONMENT
29. John Broome The Public and Private Morality of Climate Change
30. Thomas Hill, Jr. Ideals of Human Excellence and Preserving Natural Environments
ABORTION
31. Judith Jarvis Thomson A Defense of Abortion
32. Don Marquis Why Abortion is Immoral
33. Philippa Foot Abortion and the Doctrine of Double Effect
THE DEATH PENALTY
34. Igor Primoratz Justifying Legal Punishment
35. Stephen Nathanson An Eye for an Eye?
GUNS
36. Jeff McMahan Why Gun 'Control' Is Not Enough
37. Michael Huemer Is There a Right to Own a Gun?
THE LEGACY OF RACISM
38. Martin Luther King, Jr. Letter from Birmingham City Jail
39. Daniel Hausman Affirmative Action: Bad Arguments and Some Good Ones
40. Peggy McIntosh White Privilege: Unpacking the Invisible Knapsack
41. Chandran Kukathas Who? Whom? Reparations and the Problem of Agency
DRUGS
42. Douglas Husak In Favor of Drug Decriminalization
43. Peter de Marneffe Against the Legalization of Drugs
GENETIC ENGINEERING
44. Michael Sandel The Case against Perfection
45. Julian Savulescu Genetic Interventions and the Ethics of Enhancement of Human Beings
SEX AND GENDER
46. Christin Scarlett Milloy Don't Let the Doctor Do This to Your Newborn
47. Kathleen Stock Ignoring Differences between Men and Women is the Wrong Way to Address Gender Dysphoria
48. Sophie-Grace Chappell How (Not) to Talk about, and to, Trans Women

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