How Good People Make Tough Choices: Resolving the Dilemmas of Ethical Living [Paperback]

Rushworth M. Kidder (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0688175902 | ISBN-13: 978-0688175900 | Publication Date: December 16, 2003

Should you take a much-needed vacation or save money for your children's education? Should you protect the endangered owl or maintain jobs for loggers?

How do you handle questions such as these? We frequently face ethical dilemmas in our daily lives, and few have trouble with the "right vs. wrong" choices. However, the "right vs. right" dilemmas, in which neither choice is clearly or widely accepted as wrong, many times present obstacles that call for value-based decisions, and that's where we often need help.

Kidder -- the founder of the Institute for Global Ethics -- teaches us how to think for ourselves in order to resolve any ethical dilemma, from the personal to the philosophical. Unique in its approach and full of illustrative anecdotes, How Good People Make Tough Choices is an indispensable resource for arriving at sound conclusions when facing tough choices.

Editorial Reviews

Review

“A brilliant analysis that squarely faces all the issues and can be grasped by the thoughtful nonspecialist.” (Kirkus Reviews )

“A thought-provoking guide to enlightened and progressive personal behavior.” (Jimmy Carter )

About the Author

Rushworth M. Kidder was a professor of English at Wichita State University for ten years before becoming an award-winning columnist and editor at the Christian Science Monitor. The author of ten books on subjects ranging from international ethics to the global future, he won the 1980 Explicator Literary Foundation Award for his book on the poetry of E.E. cummings. He and his wife, Elizabeth, live in Lincolnville, Maine.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Harper Paperbacks (December 16, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0688175902
• ISBN-13: 978-0688175900
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #312,912 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Prior to founding the Institute for Global Ethics in Camden, Maine, and London, England, Rushworth M. Kidder, Ph.D., was a senior columnist for the Christian Science Monitor. For the past fifteen years he has worked to refine the guidelines for ethical decision making through the institute's mission of research, public discourse, and practical action. Kidder leads seminars, gives keynote speeches, and conducts interviews with global leaders. He is an award-winning author of eight books on subjects ranging from twentieth-century poetry to the global ethical future and is a trustee of the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. He serves on the advisory board of the Kenan Ethics Center at Duke University, the advisory council of the Character Education Partnership, and the advisory board of Religion & Ethics Newsweekly on public television. In addition to his weekly columns for the institute's Ethics Newsline, Kidder's op-ed pieces have appeared in the Los Angeles Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the Boston Globe. He lives with his family in Lincolnville, Maine.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars choice and conflict, May 7, 2000

By 

A. Wakefield "Partial Observer" (Indian Fortress, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How Good People Make Tough Choices: Resolving the Dilemmas of Ethical Living (Paperback)

This is a nice, short book that anybody could read and get something useful out of. To help potential readers, I will clarify a little about the book. In many ways, it is not a book about decision making per se, but rather ethics and decision making. As such the title doesn't quite fit: perhaps it should be called how good people -should- make tough choices. Given that the emphasis of the book was somewhat different than expected, Kidder made a decent book out of the general topic of ethics. Not arcane in any way, chock full of examples and designed to be user-friendly. A great book for "lay persons" who are nonetheless quite familiar with decisions that have ethical implications and need to make them on a regular basis.

23 of 26 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Beautifully written, easy to understand ideas, July 6, 1999

By 

[e-mail] (Chicagoland area) - See all my reviews

This review is from: How Good People Make Tough Choices: Resolving the Dilemmas of Ethical Living (Paperback)

This book has provided me with a structure through which I can begin to think more openly about ethics. It has surprised me with a number of new ideas, most of which are relevant to all of us. I highly recommend this work to those who care about living a thoughtful life. Ethics this way is not stodgy and limiting, but expansive and exciting.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good material for ethics class, August 19, 2005

By 

Peter Cooper - See all my reviews
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This review is from: How Good People Make Tough Choices: Resolving the Dilemmas of Ethical Living (Paperback)

This books allows students of all ages to start the difficult job of ethical decision making. Starting with its "Right vs. Right" concept, it teaches various ways to think about ethical decision making. This would be a wonderful book for a middle school or high school ethics class as well as an adult discussion group. Could easily be adapted to a church setting.