Ethics: The Big Questions (Philosophy: The Big Questions) [Paperback]

James Sterba (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 23, 1998 | ISBN-10: 0631202862 | ISBN-13: 978-0631202868 | Edition: 1

This anthology focuses on the central questions of ethics: What is the nature of morality? Why be moral? What are the requirements of morality?

Editorial Reviews

Review

"This ethics anthology can be especially recommended as attractive material for students" - Bert Gordijn, Medicine, Health Care and Philosophy

"The primary strength of this volume is that its grounding in traditional readings and approaches from the history of ethics is complemented by contemporary readings and concerns that have come to shape the discipline. In addition to conveying the vitality of ethical discourse, it also accomplishes pedagogical goals through the organization and presentation of these writings. This volume would be attractive even to those who see themselves inclined only to teach ‘primary’ texts.’ – Jill Gordon, Colby College

"This is a beautiful collection of interesting materials for an ethics course. It begins with general topics about the nature of morality and its justification, goes through the standard topics (utility, duty, virtue), and ends with the contemporary issues of feminism, environmentalism, and postmodernism. It would be hard to find a more exciting and comprehensive collection than this volume." – T. K. Seung, University of Texas at Austin

From the Back Cover

This anthology focuses on the central questions of ethics: What is the nature of morality? Why be moral? What are the requirements of morality? It draws together the best available classical and contemporary readings to make these questions come alive for today's students. Utilitarian, Kantian, and Aristotelian viewpoints are all well represented.

Unique about the anthology is that it covers the three main challenges to ethics: form feminism, which shows how gender is relevant to morality; form environmentalism, which raises the question who is to count in morality; and form postmodernism, which emphasizes the importance of different perspectives in morality. These must be met if morality is to be justified and, surprisingly, this is the only ethics anthology on the market that presents all three challenges to students for their consideration.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 464 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell; 1 edition (October 23, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0631202862
• ISBN-13: 978-0631202868
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.8 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,027,008 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars *Good* selection of articles but *terrible* book design, July 2, 2000

By A Customer

This review is from: Ethics: The Big Questions (Philosophy: The Big Questions) (Paperback)

This book provides a wide selection of articles, 43 in all, on the philosophy of ethics -- covering diverse viewpoints and timeperiods. Important thinkers from Plato to Alasdair MacIntyre are represented, with heavier emphasis on modern concerns. The articles are arranged nicely, in that one can often read consecutive articles as part of a running debate. None of the articles is very long or very technical; hence the book is suitable for an introduction or for bed-side reading as well as for an undergraduate seminar.

There is, on the other hand, a serious problem with the physical design (page layout) of the book. The articles have been typeset in two columns, which makes reading unneccesarily painful. Given that the book is *not* extraordinarily wide, a regular page layout would have been much preferable. As it stands, the book is *not* a pleasure to read, but it still contains valuable information.