Ethics: A Contemporary Introduction (Routledge Contemporary Introductions to Philosophy) [Paperback]

Harry J. Gensler (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0415156254 | ISBN-13: 978-0415156257 | Publication Date: September 20, 1998 | Edition: 1

Ethics introduces the issues and controversies of contemporary moral philosophy to undergraduate students who have already done an introductory course in philosophy. It will help students to think more clearly about how to form their moral beliefs in the wisest and most rational way. The basic approaches to metaethics and normative ethics are related to specific issues, particularly those of racism, education, and abortion. Written in a clear and concise way by an experienced textbook author, Ethics will also be of interest to the general reader.
Unique features of the textbook:
* boxed key ideas
* Glossary of philosophical terms
* Chapter summaries and study questions
* Annotated further reading and Internet Web resources
There is an associated website for teachers and students at www.routledge.com/routledge/philosophy/cip/ethics.htm

Editorial Reviews

Review

The book reinforces the conviction that reasonable, undogmatic answers can be given to the main question of ethics.
–Robert Arrington, Georgia State University

Unusually rigorous. The best and most thorough treatment of foundational issues that I have seen . . . The discussion of abortion is outstanding.
–Thomas Carson, Loyola University of Chicago

From the Publisher

Robert Arrington (Georgia State University): "An excellent text. It involves the student in thinking about ethics and not just studying what philosophers have said about the subject. It reinforces the conviction that reasonable, undogmatic answers can be given to the main questions of ethics."

Thomas Carson (Loyola University Chicago): "Unusually rigorous. The best and most thorough treatment of foundational issues that I have seen in a textbook. The discussion of abortion is outstanding."

Mark Walker (University of Birmingham): "Accessibly and engagingly written."

Jeanette Kennett (Monash University): "Clear and accurate in its account of the basic philosophical problems. With its accompanying electronic exercises, it provides a useful tool for students struggling to come to terms with the different metaethical positions."

These quotes are from the back cover of the paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Routledge; 1 edition (September 20, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0415156254
• ISBN-13: 978-0415156257
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #763,394 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Spare yourself: do NOT go to the sources, October 31, 2003

By 

Zimmermann "I" (The Netherlands) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Ethics: A Contemporary Introduction (Routledge Contemporary Introductions to Philosophy) (Paperback)

Shure, if you're already familiar with ethics you might find it's rather a glancy look into The Morale. But mind you: it's an introduction - meaning it's set up for people who are interested in ethics, but have no prior knowledge about this topic. To these people it gives them a fair look at ethics. If they're really interested Gensler gives them plenty references to go out and buy the sources.
I do agree though that it's kind of annoying that Gensler does not refrain from pushing the reader in a certain kind of ethical direction. Overall, I give it 4 stars out of 5.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Ethical Tool-Kit, June 24, 2007

By 

Reader (Arlington, Virginia) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Ethics: A Contemporary Introduction (Routledge Contemporary Introductions to Philosophy) (Hardcover)

This book is an easy-to-understand introduction to ethical reasoning. I say "ethical reasoning" rather than "ethical philosophy" because the author doesn't survey the great ethical philosophers or go book-by-book through the ethics canon. Instead, he outlines competing approaches to ethics (such as intuitionism and emotivism), and subjects them to critical analysis. He ends up defending a Kantian "Golden Rule" approach that enables us to reason consistently about ethical problems, even though it offers no conclusions about the ultimate source of ethics.

Although the book handles no issue in depth, it does zero in on most of the main issues in contemporary analytic ethics. It provides the reader with the basic tools for thinking rationally about ethical dilemmas. For beginners, that's more helpful than the exegesis of Great Books.

10 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Superficial, misleading, June 19, 2005

By 

Felix Sonderkammer (Somerville, MA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Ethics: A Contemporary Introduction (Routledge Contemporary Introductions to Philosophy) (Paperback)

Gensler's book is not an introduction to contemporary ethics (unlike the Metaphysics volume of this series, which is an introduction to contemporary metaphysics), but a contemporary introduction to ethics. Gensler treats six different metaethical views (cultural relativism, subjectivism, supernaturalism, intuitionism, emotivism, prescriptivism), and then goes on to propound his own (based on the Golden Rule). He treats consequentialism and deontologism as ways of realizing the Golden Rule. His final chapter examines abortion using the perspectives he detailed earlier in the book.

The book does what it sets out to do tolerably well. Unfortunately, the book does not set out to do very much. It sets out to explain only the most basic ethical views in only the most cursory fashion. He considers only one or two variations of each view, and only the most superficial objections. The chapters are short (12 chapters out of roughly 200 pages), the type is rather big, there is a summary at the end of each chapter (even though each chapter is simple and brief), and there are "study questions" at the end of each chapter (which are useless because they are too simple).

The book is obviously written for an uneducated audience: Gensler thought it necessary to define the word "impasse" for his readers. While he meant the book for undergraduates who had already had taken one or two philosophy courses, only the dumbest students would find this book very interesting. This simple and clear book is occasionally helpful in clearing up one small thing or another, but overall it is not worth the time of anyone who knows the first thing about philosophical ethics.

The simplicity of the book is misleading in important ways. Gensler does not consider the is/ought problem apart from mentioning it in explaining intuitionism. He mentions Aristotle and Kant only in passing. Skeptical views like Nietzsche's get no mention whatsoever. The book gives no adequate reasons for valuing consistency or rationality in ethics.

Perhaps the greatest flaw of the book is that the chapters that contain Gensler's own moral arguments (7-9, 12) are condensed from his already published works. Gensler's perspective throughout the book is intuitionist in the worst way: if a particular result is absurd to an intuitionist, he calls it absurd outright. Thus, the book might be better termed "An Introduction to Contemporary Intuitionist Ethics."