Introduction to Applied Ethics

Description

How do you decide what is ethically wrong and right? Few people make moral judgments by taking the theory first. Specifically written with the interests, needs, and experience of students in mind, this textbook approaches thinking ethically as you do in real life - by first encountering practical moral problems and then introducing theory to understand and integrate the issues. Built around engaging case studies from news media, court hearings, famous speeches and philosophical writings, each of the 15 chapters: - explains and defines the moral problem dealt with - provides excerpts of readings on all sides of the issue - analyses the problem, using the relevant theory The examples are recognizable ethical problems, including judgments about racism and sexism, controversial debates such as assisted suicide and the death penalty, and contemporary concerns like privacy and technology, corporate responsibility, and the environment. The mission of the book is to assist you to engage in informed, independent, critical thinking and to enable you to enter into ethical discussions in the classroom and beyond. Supported by learning features, including study questions, key quotes, handy definitions and a companion website, this book is essential for any student of moral philosophy.

Robert L. Holmes is Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the University of Rochester, USA. His main research is in philosophy of war, the ethics of nonviolence, and contemporary moral problems. He is the author of Pacifism (2016) Basic Moral Philosophy (2006) and On War and Morality (1989), co-author of Philosophical Inquiry (1968), and co-editor of Nonviolence in Theory and Practice (1990).

Introduction to Applied Ethics is written in a clear and rigorous style, presenting and discussing the basic arguments in an exemplary way. * Ethical Perspectives * Written with exemplary clarity and astonishing erudition, this textbook will become a standard against which other texts in applied ethics must be measured for decades to come. -- Predrag Cicovacki, Professor of Philosophy, College of the Holy Cross, USA This is an excellent introduction to applied ethics: it is concise, rigorous and interestingly written. -- James Connelly, Professor of Political Theory, University of Hull