The Moral Life An Introductory Reader in Ethics and Literature

by Pojman, Louis P.; Vaughn, Lewis

• ISBN13: 9780195396256
• ISBN10: 0195396251
• Edition: 4th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2010-04-14
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

Now more concise, the fourth edition of Louis P. Pojman and Lewis Vaughn's The Moral Life: An Introductory Reader in Ethics and Literature brings together an extensive and varied collection of eighty-four classical and contemporary readings on ethical theory and practice. Integratingliterature with philosophy in an innovative way, the book uses literary works to enliven and make concrete the ethical theory or applied issues addressed in each chapter. Literary works by Camus, Hawthorne, Huxley, Ibsen, Le Guin, Melville, Orwell, Styron, Tolstoy, and many others lead students intosuch philosophical concepts and issues as relativism; utilitarianism; virtue ethics; the meaning of life; freedom and autonomy; sex, love, and marriage; animal rights; and terrorism. Once introduced, these topics are developed further through readings by philosophers including Plato, Aristotle,Kant, Singer, and Sartre. New to this edition are readings by James Rachels, Alasdair MacIntyre, Samuel Butler, Bertrand Russell, James Q. Wilson, John Corvino, and Stephen Nathanson. This unique anthology emphasizes the personal dimension of ethics, which is often ignored or minimized in ethicstexts. It also incorporates chapter introductions, study questions, suggestions for further reading, biographical sketches of the writers, and an appendix about how to write a philosophy paper.

Table of Contents

*=New to this Edition
Each chapter ends with Further Readings.
Preface
Introduction: On the Nature of Morality
PART I. THE NATURE OF MORALITY: Good and Evil
1. What Is the Purpose of Morality?
William Golding, Lord of the Flies: A Moral Allegory
Louis P. Pojman, On the Nature and Purpose of Morality: Reflections on William Golding's Lord of the Flies
Thomas Hobbes, On the State of Nature
2. Good and Evil
Herman Melville, Billy Budd
Fyodor Dostoevsky, Why Is There Evil?
William Styron, Sophie's Choice
Philip Hallie, From Cruelty to Goodness
Stanley Benn, Wickedness
Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil
Richard Taylor, On the Origin of Good and Evil
3. Is Everything Relative?
Herodotus, Custom Is King
Ruth Benedict, The Case for Moral Relativism
* James Rachels, Why Morality Is Not Relative
Jean Bethke Elshtain, Judge Not?
Mary Midgley, On Trying Out One's New Sword
Henrick Ibsen, The Enemy of the People
PART II. MORAL THEORIES AND MORAL CHARACTER
4. Utilitarianism
Seaman Holmes and the Longboat of William Brown, Reported by John William Wallace
Jeremy Bentham, Classical Utilitarianism
John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism Refined
Kai Nielsen, A Defense of Utilitarianism
Bernard Williams, Against Utilitarianism
Ursula Le Guin, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas
Aldous Huxley, The Utilitarian Social Engineer and the Savage
5. Deontological Ethics
Immanuel Kant, The Moral Law
William K. Frankena, Kant's Theory
W. D. Ross, Intuitionism
R. M. MacIver, The Deep Beauty of the Golden Rule
Richard Whatley, A Critique of the Golden Rule
Ambrose Bierce, A Horseman in the Sky
Charles Fried, The Evil of Lying
Plato, Does Morality Depend on Religion?
Thomas Nagel, Moral Luck
6. Virtue Ethics
* Alasdair MacIntyre, The Virtues
Aristotle, Virtue Ethics
Bernard Mayo, Virtue and the Moral Life
J.O. Urmson, Saints and Heroes
Nathaniel Hawthorne, The Great Stone Face
William Frankena, A Critique of Virtue-Based Ethical Systems
7. Virtues and Vices
Jesus of Nazareth, The Sermon on the Mount; The Good Samaritan
Leo Tolstoy, How Much Land Does a Man Need? Greed
Immanuel Kant, Jealousy, Malice, and Ingratitude
Martin Gansberg, Moral Cowardice
Epictetus and Others, The Stoic Catechism
Vice Admiral James Stockdale, The World of Epictetus: Courage and Endurance
PART III. MORAL ISSUES
8. Ethics and Egoism: Why Should We Be Moral?
Plato, The Ring of Gyges
Ayn Rand, In Defense of Ethical Egoism
Louis P. Pojman, Egoism and Altruism: A Critique of Ayn Rand
James Rachels, A Critique of Ethical Egoism
9. Does Life Have Meaning?
Voltaire, The Good Brahmin
Epicurus, Hedonism
Albert Camus, Life Is Absurd
Louis P. Pojman, Religion Gives Meaning to Life
Viktor Frankl, The Human Search for Meaning: Reflections on Auschwitz
Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha, The Four Noble Truths
Bertrand Russell, Reflections on Suffering
10. Freedom, Autonomy, and Self-Respect
Martin Luther King, Jr., I Have a Dream
Maya Angelou, Graduation
Stanley Milgram, An Experiment in Autonomy
Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism Is a Humanism
Thomas E. Hill, Jr., Servility and Self-Respect
Kurt Vonnegut, Harrison Bergeron
PART IV. APPLIED ETHICS: Moral Problems
11. Sex, Love, and Marriage
Immanuel Kant, On the Place of Sex in Human Existence
John McMurtry, Monogamy: A Critique
Michael D. Bayles, Marriage, Love, and Procreation: A Critique of McMurtry
Bonnie Steinbock, What's Wrong with Adultery?
C. S. Lewis, We Have No "Right to Happiness"
Jane English, What Do Grown Children Owe Their Parents?
* Michael Levin, Why Homosexuality Is Abnormal
* John Corvino, A Defense of Homosexuality
12. Is Abortion Morally Permissible?
Don Marquis, Why Abortion Is Immoral
Judith Jarvis Thomson, A Defense of Abortion
Mary Anne Warren, Abortion Is Morally Permissible
Jane English, The Moderate Position: Beyond the Personhood Argument
13. The Morality of Euthanasia
Dan W. Brock, Voluntary Active Euthanasia
J. Gay-Williams, The Wrongfulness of Euthanasia
James Rachels, Active and Passive Euthanasia
14. Our Duties to Animals
George Orwell, Shooting an Elephant
Peter Singer, Animal Liberation: All Animals Are Equal
Carl Cohen, The Case Against Animal Rights
15. Our Duties to the Environment
Robert Heilbroner, What Has Posterity Ever Done for Me?
Garrett Hardin, The Tragedy of the Commons
William F. Baxter, People or Penguins: The Case for Optimal Pollution
16. International Justice and the Threat of Terrorism
God's Command to Destroy Jericho and Ai
* Stephen Nathanson, Can Terrorism Be Morally Justified?
Louis P. Pojman, The Cosmopolitan Response to Terrorism
Thomas Nagel, What Is Wrong with Terrorism?
* Appendix: How to Read and Write a Philosophy Paper
Index