Vice and Virtue in Everyday Life Introductory Readings in Ethics

by Hoff Sommers, Christina; Sommers, Fred

• ISBN13: 9780495601616
• ISBN10: 0495601616
• Edition: 8th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-02-19
• Publisher: Wadsworth Publishing

Summary

Explore classical and contemporary topics of character, personal integrity and social morality with a book college students have loved for years-Vice and Virtue in Everyday Life. Throughout every topic and each different point of view, Christina Hoff Sommers and Fred Sommers maintain a strong sense of the importance of avoiding cruelty and practicing kindness in a well-lived life.

Table of Contents

Preface	p. xiii
Acknowledgments	p. xv
Good and Evil	p. 1
From Cruelty to Goodness	p. 4
The Conscience of Huckleberry Finn	p. 15
The Evil That Men Think-And Do	p. 25
Facing the Extreme: The War of All Against All	p. 33
Strategies for Survival	p. 39
The Perils of Obedience	p. 46
The Moral Insight	p. 56
Billy Budd	p. 59
Beyond Good and Evil	p. 67
Is It All Relative?	p. 76
Morality As Custom	p. 78
A Defense of Moral Relativism	p. 79
A Defense of Cultural Relativism	p. 85
Cultural Relativism and Universal Rights	p. 90
Uganda's Women: Children, Drudgery, and Pain	p. 94
An Alternative to Moral Relativism	p. 98
Who's to Judge?	p. 103
The Objective Basis of Morality	p. 113
The Deep Beauty of the Golden Rule	p. 117
I Have a Dream	p. 121
The United Nations Charter: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights	p. 124
Morality and Self-Interest	p. 130
The Ring of Gyges	p. 132
Of the State of Men without Civil Society	p. 135
Of Self-Love	p. 141
The Unselfishness Trap	p. 146
Egoism and Moral Skepticism	p. 151
The Virtue of Selfishness	p. 160
Egoism, Self-Interest, and Altruism	p. 163
Why Not Be a Bad Person?	p. 167
Why Act Morally?	p. 176
Moral Doctrines and Moral Theories	p. 182
The Judeo-Christian Tradition	p. 184
Morality Is Based on God's Commands	p. 196
Why Morality Does Not Depend on Religion	p. 200
Of Benevolence	p. 207
Utilitarianism	p. 211
A Critique of Utilitarianism	p. 216
The Experience Machine	p. 222
The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas	p. 225
Good Will, Duty, and the Categorical Imperative	p. 230
The Holocaust and Moral Philosophy	p. 239
A Critique of Kantianism	p. 244
Virtue	p. 250
Happiness and the Virtues	p. 252
Virtue and the Human Soul	p. 264
The Art of Living	p. 267
The World of Epictetus	p. 271
Virtue or Duty?	p. 282
Tradition and the Virtues	p. 286
The Ethics of Virtue	p. 295
Of Justice and Beneficence	p. 309
The Origin of the Moral Sense	p. 316
The Parable of the Sadhu	p. 320
Vice	p. 329
Vice	p. 331
The Depths of Vice	p. 333
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God	p. 337
The Hypocrites	p. 339
Self-Deception	p. 343
Upon Self-Deceit	p. 346
Jealousy, Envy, and Spite	p. 351
How Much Land Does a Man Need? A Parable on Greed	p. 357
Morality and Social Policy	p. 368
Famine, Affluence, and Morality	p. 370
World Hunger and Moral Obligation: The Case against Singer	p. 377
"For Heaven's Sake, Please Stop the Aid!"	p. 383
An Almost Absolute Value in History	p. 386
On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion	p. 392
A Defense of Abortion	p. 400
Why Abortion Is Immoral	p. 414
On Duties to Animals	p. 419
A Moral Defense of Vegetarianism	p. 421
Down on the Factory Farm	p. 427
An Animal's Place	p. 435
Case Against Animal Rights	p. 447
The Case for Affirmative Action	p. 452
What Is Wrong with Affirmative Action?	p. 461
The Meaning of Life	p. 468
Substance, Shadow, and Spirit	p. 470
The Bhagavad Gita	p. 472
My Confession	p. 481
A Free Man's Worship	p. 489
The Myth of Sisyphus	p. 495
The Meaning of Life	p. 499
Existentialism Is Humanism	p. 502
Absurd Self-Fulfillment	p. 509
The Human Search for Meaning	p. 512
The Book of Job	p. 518
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