Ethics: An Overview

by Attfield, Robin

• ISBN13: 9781441182050
• ISBN10: 1441182055
• Format: Paperback
• 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

Author Biography

Robin Attfield is Professor of Philosophy at Cardiff Unviersity, UK. His recent publications include Creation, Evolution and Meaning (Ashgate, 2006), Environmental Ethics: An Overview for the 21st Century (Polity, 2003) and The Ethics of the Global Environment (EUP, 1999).

Table of Contents

Preface	p. vii
Acknowledgements	p. xi
List of Abbreviations	p. xii
History of Ethics	p. 1
Aristotle on eudaemonia and virtue	p. 1
Some themes from Hobbes and Hume	p. 9
Some Kantian themes	p. 18
Value-Theory and the Good Life	p. 37
Pleasure, happiness and flourishing	p. 37
Moral standing, value and intrinsic value	p. 45
Worthwhile life, self-respect and meaningful work	p. 53
The good life, needs, virtue and morality	p. 61
Normative Ethics	p. 69
Moral standing, value, rights and Tightness	p. 69
Consequentialism and its critics	p. 76
Deontology, contractarianism and consequentialism	p. 85
Virtue ethics	p. 93
Practice-consequentialism and virtue-consequentialism	p. 101
Applied Ethics	p. 110
The re-emergence of applied ethics	p. 110
Medical ethics	p. 120
Animal ethics	p. 131
Development ethics	p. 141
Environmental ethics	p. 150
The ethics of war	p. 162
Meta-Ethics	p. 172
Non-cognitivism, projectivism and prescriptivism	p. 172
'Good', 'ought' and morality	p. 181
Cognitivism and realism	p. 189
Internalism, externalism andpracticality	p. 197
Naturalism and non-naturalism	p. 206
Free Will and Responsibility	p. 216
Responsibility, character and determinism	p. 216
Laws of nature, 'ought' and 'can'	p. 224
Evolution, randomness, 'could' and 'would'	p. 232
The future is open	p. 241
Index	p. 250
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.