Principles of Moral Philosophy Classic and Contemporary Approaches

by Cahn, Steven M.; Forcehimes, Andrew T.

• ISBN13: 9780190491000
• ISBN10: 0190491000
• eBook ISBN(s): 9780190491024
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2016-02-15
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• More Book Details

Summary

Principles of Moral Philosophy: Classic and Contemporary Approaches covers all the major theories in normative ethics--relativism, egoism, divine command theory, natural law, Kantian ethics, consequentialism, pluralism, social contract theory, virtue ethics, the ethics of care, and particularism--and also includes sections on applied ethics and metaethics. It provides students with a balanced introduction to an array of approaches to topics in normative ethics, offering traditional theories alongside criticisms of them. The readings are enhanced by a variety of pedagogical features including a general introduction, an introduction to each reading, study questions after each reading, and a glossary of key terms.

With one-third of its contemporary readings authored by women, Principles of Moral Philosophy is the most inclusive and balanced normative ethics reader available. A password-protected Instructor's Manual is available on the book's Ancillary Resource Center.

Author Biography

Steven M. Cahn is Professor of Philosophy at The City University of New York Graduate Center. He is the author or editor of more than fifty books. Most recently, he coauthored Happiness and Goodness: Philosophical Reflections on Living Well (2015). Dr. Cahn is the editor of The World of Philosophy (OUP, 2015), Ethics, Sixth Edition (OUP, 2015), Exploring Philosophy, Fifth Edition (OUP, 2014), Political Philosophy, Third Edition (OUP, 2014), and Exploring Ethics, Third Edition (OUP, 2013).

Andrew T. Forcehimes is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He has published articles in Ethics, Pacific Philosophical Quarterly, Journal of Ethics and Social Philosophy, Utilitas, and Res Publica. He is also the coeditor, with Larry May, of Morality, Jus Post Bellum, and International Law (2012).

Table of Contents

Preface
PART 1. INTRODUCTION
The Anatomy of Normative Ethics
Andrew T. Forcehimes
PART 2. RELATIVISM
Moral Relativism: A Defense
Ruth Benedict
Moral Isolationism
Mary Midgley
PART 3. EGOISM
The Republic
Plato
In Defense of Egoism
Jesse Kalin
Egoism and Moral Skepticism
James Rachels
PART 4. DIVINE COMMAND THEORY
God and Morality
Steven M. Cahn
A Modified Divine Command Theory of Ethical Wrongness
Robert M. Adams
PART 5. NATURAL LAW
Summa Contra Gentiles
Thomas Aquinas
Natural Law: A Defense
John Finnis
Natural Law: A Critique
Russ Shafer-Landau
PART 6. KANTIAN ETHICS
Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals
Immanuel Kant
Kantianism
Shelly Kagan
On the Value of Acting on the Motive of Duty
Barbara Herman
Kant's Formula of Humanity
Christine Korsgaard
Moral Luck
Thomas Nagel
PART 7. CONSEQUENTIALISM
An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation
Jeremy Bentham
Utilitarianism
John Stuart Mill
Methods of Ethics
Henry Sidgwick
Well-Being
Shelly Kagan
Objective and Subjective Consequentialism
Julia Driver
Act-consequentialism versus Rule-consequentialism
Brad Hooker
A Critique of Utilitarianism
Bernard Williams
PART 8. PLURALISM
The Right and the Good
W. D. Ross
An Unconnected Heap of Duties?
David McNaughton
How Strong is this Obligation?
Walter Sinnott-Armstrong
PART 9. SOCIAL CONTRACT THEORY
Leviathan
Thomas Hobbes
A Theory of Justice
John Rawls
Why Contractarianism?
David Gauthier
What We Owe to Each Other
T. M. Scanlon
Can Contract Theory Ground Morality?
Philip Pettit
PART 10. VIRTUE ETHICS
Nicomachean Ethics
Aristotle
Virtue Ethics
Julia Annas
Normative Virtue Ethics
Rosalind Hursthouse
Virtue and Right
Robert N. Johnson
PART 11. THE ETHICS OF CARE
Moral Orientation and Moral Development
Carol Gilligan
Beyond Caring: The De-Moralization of Gender
Marilyn Friedman
The Ethics of Care
Virginia Held
PART 12. PARTICULARISM
Existentialism is a Humanism
Jean-Paul Sartre
Particularism, Universalism. and Commonsense Morality
Shelly Kagan
PART 13. APPLIED ETHICS
A Defense of Abortion
Judith Jarvis Thomson
An Argument that Abortion is Wrong
Don Marquis
Virtue Theory and Abortion
Rosalind Hursthouse
Famine, Affluence, and Morality
Peter Singer
Reply to Singer
Travis Timmerman
The Trolley Problem
Judith Jarvis Thomson
The Altruism Puzzle
Steven M. Cahn, Harry Brighouse, and Robert B. Talisse
PART 14. METAETHICS
A Treatise of Human Nature
David Hume
Principia Ethica
G. E. Moore
Ethics and Observation
Gilbert Harman
Realism
Michael Smith
Morality as a System of Hypothetical Imperatives
Philippa Foot
The Last Word
Thomas Nagel
Glossary
Index