The Moral Of The Story: An Introduction to Ethics

by Rosenstand, Nina

• ISBN13: 9780072963359
• ISBN10: 0072963352
• Edition: 5th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2005-05-10
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages

Summary

The Moral of the Story, Fifth Edition offers a remarkably effective approach that helps students understand and evaluate moral issues. Through storytelling and story analysis, using examples from fiction and film, Rosenstand clearly shows how ethical theories are applied to real life. The fifth edition encapsulates and reflects the present social and political climate. As such, coverage of topics like courage, terrorism, and just war have been enhanced and updated throughout.

Table of Contents

Preface	x
Acknowledgments	xiv
PART 1 The Story as a Tool of Ethics	1	(102)
Thinking About Values	3	(32)
The Best of Times, the Worst of Times?	3	(3)
Good and Evil	6	(3)
Morals, Ethics, and Values	9	(4)
Why Be Moral?	13	(1)
Debating Moral Issues	14	(3)
Martha Nussbaum: Stories Have Value	17	(18)
Primary Reading: Martha Nussbaum, Love's Knowledge	21	(2)
Narrative: How to Be Good	23	(5)
Narrative: Smoke Signals	28	(3)
Narrative: Big Fish	31	(4)
Learning Moral Lessons from Stories	35	(68)
Didactic Stories	35	(2)
The New Interest in Stories	37	(3)
The Value of Stories	40	(1)
Stories Past and Present	41	(27)
Stories to Live and Die By	68	(9)
Seeing Your Life as a Story	77	(4)
Living in the Narrative Zone	81	(22)
Primary Reading: Plato, Republic	84	(4)
Primary Reading: Aristotle, Poetics	88	(2)
Primary Reading: Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose	90	(2)
Primary Reading: Tristine Rainer, Your Life as Story	92	(2)
Narrative: Medea	94	(4)
Narrative: The Sorrows of Young Werther	98	(1)
Narrative: Pulp Fiction	99	(4)
PART 2 What Should I Do? Theories of Conduct	103	(266)
Ethical Relativism	105	(51)
How to Deal with Moral Differences	107	(2)
The Lessons of Anthropology	109	(6)
Problems with Ethical Relativism	115	(8)
Refuting Ethical Relativism	123	(5)
Ethical Relativism and Multiculturalism	128	(28)
Primary Reading: Ruth Benedict, ``Anthropology and the Abnormal''	134	(3)
Primary Reading: Dwight Furrow, ``Of Cave Dwellers and Spirits''	137	(2)
Primary Reading: Bhikhu Parekh, ``The Concept of Multicultural Education''	139	(3)
Narrative: The Poisonwood Bible	142	(6)
Narrative: Possessing the Secret of Joy	148	(3)
Narrative: Sideshow	151	(2)
Narrative: Do the Right Thing	153	(3)
Myself or Others?	156	(57)
Psychological Egoism	156	(16)
Ethical Egoism	172	(7)
Altruism: Ideal and Reciprocal	179	(34)
Primary Reading: Plato, Republic	187	(3)
Primary Reading: Erik Katz, ``The Rings of Tolkien and Plato''	190	(4)
Primary Reading: Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan	194	(1)
Primary Reading: Ayn Rand, ``The Ethics of Emergencies''	195	(4)
Narrative: Friends	199	(2)
Narrative: Return to Paradise	201	(4)
Narrative: Madame Bovary	205	(2)
Narrative: Atlas Shrugged	207	(3)
Narrative: ``The Gift of the Magi''	210	(1)
Narrative: The Lord of the Rings	211	(2)
Using Your Reason, Part 1: Utilitarianism	213	(50)
Jeremy Bentham and the Hedonistic Calculus	214	(13)
John Stuart Mill: Another Utilitarian Vision	227	(13)
Act and Rule Utilitarianism	240	(23)
Primary Reading: Jeremy Bentham, ``Of the Principle of Utility''	243	(2)
Primary Reading: John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism	245	(3)
Narrative: ``The Blacksmith and the Baker''	248	(2)
Narrative: The Brothers Karamazov	250	(2)
Narrative: ``The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas''	252	(1)
Narrative: Saving Private Ryan	253	(3)
Narrative: Extreme Measures	256	(3)
Narrative: Runaway Jury	259	(4)
Using Your Reason, Part 2: Kant's Deontology	263	(36)
The Good Will	263	(3)
The Categorical Imperative	266	(10)
Rational Beings Are Ends in Themselves	276	(23)
Primary Reading: Immanuel Kant, Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals	285	(2)
Primary Reading: Immanuel Kant, The Metaphysics of Morals	287	(2)
Narrative: High Noon	289	(3)
Narrative: Outland	292	(1)
Narrative: Cop Land	292	(2)
Narrative: Abandon Ship!	294	(2)
Narrative: The Insider	296	(3)
Personhood, Rights, and Justice	299	(70)
What Is a Human Being?	299	(1)
Persons and Rights	300	(15)
Questions of Rights	315	(11)
Distributive Justice	326	(8)
Criminal Justice	334	(35)
Primary Reading: The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights	342	(4)
Primary Reading: John Rawls, ``Justice as Fairness''	346	(2)
Primary Reading: Martin Luther King, Jr., ``A Letter from Birmingham Jail''	348	(2)
Primary Reading: Diane Whiteley, ``The Victim and the Justification of Punishment''	350	(3)
Narrative: Blade Runner	353	(3)
Narrative: Gattaca	356	(3)
Narrative: Mississippi Burning	359	(3)
Narrative: Outbreak	362	(3)
Narrative: Minority Report	365	(4)
PART 3 How Should I Be? Theories of Virtue	369	(324)
Socrates, Plato, and the Good Life	371	(45)
What Is Virtue?	371	(4)
The Good Teacher	375	(7)
The Good Life	382	(2)
The Virtuous Person	384	(3)
Plato's Theory of Forms	387	(29)
Primary Reading: Plato, Euthyphro	395	(3)
Primary Reading: Plato, Apology	398	(4)
Narrative: A Man for All Seasons	402	(3)
Narrative: ``The Myth of the Cave''	405	(3)
Narrative: The Truman Show	408	(3)
Narrative: ``The Store of the Worlds''	411	(2)
Narrative: Shrek	413	(3)
Aristotle's Virtue Theory	416	(39)
Aristotle the Scientist	417	(3)
Aristotle and Virtue	420	(13)
Aristotle's Influence on Aquinas	433	(2)
Some Objections to Greek Virtue Theory	435	(20)
Primary Reading: Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics Book II	437	(4)
Primary Reading: Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics Book III	441	(2)
Narrative: ``The Flight of Icarus''	443	(2)
Narrative: Njal's Saga	445	(2)
Narrative: Lord Jim	447	(2)
Narrative: ``A Piece of Advice''	449	(3)
Narrative: As Good As It Gets	452	(3)
Contemporary Perspectives	455	(45)
Ethics and the Morality of Virtue	455	(4)
Have Virtue, and Then Go Ahead: Mayo, Foot, and Sommers	459	(8)
The Quest for Authenticity: Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Sartre, and Levinas	467	(33)
Primary Reading: Soren Kierkegaard, Johannes Climacus	489	(1)
Primary Reading: Soren Kierkegaard, Either/Or	490	(1)
Primary Reading: Emmanuel Levinas, ``The Paradox of Morality: An Interview with Emmanuel Levinas''	491	(2)
Narrative: Hannah and Her Sisters	493	(2)
Narrative: No Exist	495	(1)
Narrative: A Few Good Men	496	(4)
Case Studies in Virtue	500	(66)
Courage: What Is It? and Who Has It?	500	(7)
Compassion: Are We Born with It?	507	(7)
Gratitude: How Much and When?	514	(17)
Virtue and Conduct: A Combination?	531	(35)
Primary Reading: John McCain, Why Courage Matters: The Way to a Braver Life	537	(3)
Primary Reading: Philip Hallie, Tales of Good and Evil, Help and Harm	540	(1)
Primary Reading: Lin Yutang, ``On Growing Old Gracefully''	541	(2)
Narrative: Band of Brothers	543	(2)
Narrative: The Life of Tom Horn	545	(4)
Narrative: ``The Parable of the Good Samaritan''	549	(2)
Narrative: ``King Yudisthira and the Dog''	551	(2)
Narrative: Schindler's List	553	(3)
Narrative: Eat Drink Man Woman	556	(3)
Narrative: Pay It Forward	559	(3)
Narrative: Grand Canyon	562	(4)
Different Gender, Different Ethics?	566	(60)
Feminism and Virtue Theory	566	(1)
What is Gender Equality?	567	(4)
Women's Historical Role in the Public Sphere	571	(4)
First-, Second-, and Third-Wave Feminism	575	(8)
Facets of Feminism Today	583	(43)
Primary Reading: Harriet Taylor Mill, ``Enfranchisement of Women''	598	(4)
Primary Reading: Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex	602	(3)
Primary Reading: Carol Gilligan, In a Different Voice	605	(2)
Primary Reading: Deborah Tannen, Talking from 9 to 5	607	(4)
Narrative: A Doll's House	611	(5)
Narrative: Like Water for Chocolate	616	(3)
Narrative: ``The Woman Destroyed''	619	(3)
Narrative: Mona Lisa Smile	622	(4)
Applied Ethics: A Sampler	626	(67)
Media Ethics	626	(6)
Theory of a Just War	632	(9)
Animal Welfare and Animal Rights	641	(6)
The Death Penalty	647	(8)
Stories and Issues: A Final Word	655	(38)
Primary Reading: Andrew Belsey and Ruth Chadwick, ``Ethics as a Vehicle for Media Quality''	657	(2)
Primary Reading: John Rawls, The Law of Peoples	659	(3)
Primary Reading: Jan Narveson, ``Morality and Violence: War, Revolution, Terrorism''	662	(3)
Primary Reading: David Rodin, ``Terrorism Without Intention''	665	(4)
Primary Reading: Sue Savage-Rumbaugh and Roger Lewin, Kanzi: The Ape at the Brink of the Human Mind	669	(3)
Primary Reading: Stephen Nathanson, An Eye for an Eye? The Morality of Punishing by Death	672	(2)
Primary Reading: John Douglas and Mark Olshaker, Journey into Darkness	674	(3)
Primary Reading: Tom Sorell, ``Two Ideals and the Death Penalty''	677	(3)
Primary Reading: Mark Fuhrman, Death and Justice: An Expose of Oklahoma's Death Row Machine	680	(4)
Narrative: 15 Minutes	684	(3)
Narrative: ``The Jigsaw Man''	687	(1)
Narrative: The Life of David Gale	688	(5)
Bibliography	693	(7)
Credits	700	(2)
Glossary	702	(7)
Index	709