Ethics: An Overview

by Attfield, Robin

• ISBN13: 9781441144034
• ISBN10: 144114403X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-05-10
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

This is an admirable up-to-date introduction to the main fields of ethics, including meta-ethics and applied ethics. The way Attfield presents his material reveals long-standing teaching experience and makes the book especially suitable for beginners. Though taking a firm stance on the more controversial topics of ethics (rather then indulging in mere "option presentation") Attfield consistently avoids being magisterial. Instead, the reader is invited to think things through for himself and to come to his own conclusions. Dieter Birnbacher, Professor of Philosophy, Heinrich-Heine-Universität Düsseldorf, Germany

Table of Contents

Preface \ Acknowledgements \ List of Abbreviations \ 1. History of Ethics \ Aristotle on Eudaemonia and Virtue\ Some Themes from Hobbes and Hume\ Some Kantian Themes \ John Stuart Mill's Utilitarianism \ 2. Value-Theory and the Good Life \ Pleasure, Happiness and Flourishing \ Moral Standing, Value and Intrinsic Value \ Worthwhile Life, Self-Respect and Meaningful Work \ The Good Life, Needs, Virtue and Morality \ 3. Normative Ethics \ Moral Standing, Value, Rights and Rightness \ Consequentialism and Its Critics \ Deontology, Contractarianism and Consequentialism \ Virtue Ethics \ Practice-Consequentialism and Virtue-Consequentialism \ 4. Applied Ethics \ The Re-emergence of Applied Ethics \ Medical Ethics \ Animal Ethics \ Development Ethics \ Environmental Ethics \ The Ethics of War \ 5. Meta-Ethics \ Non-cognitivism, Projectivism and Prescriptivism \ ‘Good', ‘Ought' and Morality \ Cognitivism and Realism \ Internalism, Externalism and Practicality \ Naturalism and Non-naturalism \ 6. Free Will and Responsibility \ Responsibility, Character and Determinism \ Laws of Nature, ‘Ought' and ‘Can' \ Evolution, Randomness, ‘Could' and ‘Would' \ The Future Is Open \ Index