Contemporary Moral Arguments. Readings in Ethical Issues

About this book

Taking a unique approach that emphasizes careful reasoning, this cutting-edge reader is structured around twenty-seven landmark arguments that have provoked heated debates on current ethical issues. Contemporary Moral Arguments: Readings in Ethical Issues, Second Edition, opens with an extensive two-chapter introduction to moral reasoning and moral theories that provides students with the background necessary to analyze the arguments in the following chapters. Chapters 3-12 present seventy-six readings that are organized--in the conventional way--into ten topical areas: abortion; drugs and autonomy (new to this edition); euthanasia and assisted suicide; genetic engineering and cloning; the death penalty; war, terrorism, and torture; pornography; economic justice and health care; animal rights and environmental duties; and global obligations to the poor.

Offering a special feature not found in other anthologies, the selections are also organized in an unconventional way, by argument, so that students can more easily see how philosophers have debated each other on these critical issues. Each argument opens with an introduction that outlines the argument's key points, provides context for it, and reviews some of the main responses to it. Each introduction is followed by two to four essays that present the argument's classic statement, critiques and defenses of it, and related debates.

Contemporary Moral Arguments incorporates more pedagogical features than any other reader, including:

• Essay questions--ideal for writing assignments--after each of the twenty-seven argument sections
• Four types of boxes throughout: Facts and Figures, Public Opinion, Legalities, and Time Lines
• A list of key terms at the end of each chapter, all defined in the glossary, and suggestions for further reading
• An Instructor's Manual and Testbank on CD featuring chapter and reading summaries, lecture outlines in PowerPoint format, and essay and objective questions with an answer key
• A Companion Website at www.oup.com/us/vaughn containing the same material as the Instructor's Manual along with such student resources as self-quizzes and flash cards

NEW TO THIS EDITION:

• An expanded introductory chapter on moral reasoning that dissects a sample essay step by step and includes exercises on arguments
• A new chapter (4) on drugs and autonomy, including four classic articles
• A new section on ethical egoism (in Chapter 2) and three additional readings in other chapters
• Numerous updated text boxes that reflect the latest information on abortion, euthanasia and assisted suicide, genetic engineering, capital punishment, war and terrorism, and economic and global justice

Readership: The intended audience is primarily undergraduates, but the book would also be appropriate for grad students in philosophy. It's designed for courses with titles such as applied ethics, contemporary moral issues, ethical issues, moral issues, and introduction to ethics.

Table of contents

New to this Edition
Chapters 3-12 open with an Introduction, Key Terms, and Arguments and Readings.
Each chapter ends with Suggestions for Further Reading.
Preface:

CHAPTER 1: MORAL REASONING
Ethics and the Moral Domain
Ethics, Law, and Religion
Moral Relativism
Moral Arguments
Argument Basics:
The Structure of Moral Arguments:
Evaluating Moral Premises:
* Reading and Evaluating Arguments
* Argument Exercises
Key Words
Summary
Plato: The Ring of Gyges
Louis P. Pojman: The Case Against Moral Relativism
James Rachels: Can Ethics Provide Answers?

CHAPTER 2: MORAL THEORIES
Why Moral Theories?
Important Moral Theories
Utilitarianism:
Kantian Ethics:
Ethical Egoism
Natural Law Theory:
Rawls's Contractarianism:
Virtue Ethics:
The Ethics of Care:
Feminist Ethics:
Judging Moral Theories
The Moral Criteria of Adequacy:
Applying the Criteria: Utilitarianism; Kant's Theory:
Key Words
Summary
John Stuart Mill: Utilitarianism
Immanuel Kant: Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals
Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics
John Rawls: A Theory of Justice
Annette C. Baier: The Need for More than Justice

CHAPTER 3: ABORTION
1. Warren's Personhood Argument for Abortion
Mary Anne Warren: On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion
Stephen Schwarz: The Being in the Womb Is a Person
Louis P. Pojman: Abortion: A Defense of the Personhood Argument
Don Marquis: Why Abortion Is Immoral
2. Noonan's Personhood-at-Conception Argument Against Abortion
John T. Noonan, Jr.: An Almost Absolute Value in History
Michael Tooley: In Defense of Abortion and Infanticide
Philip Devine: The Scope of the Prohibition Against Killing
3. Thomson's Self-Defense Argument for Abortion
Judith Jarvis Thomson: A Defense of Abortion
Francis J. Beckwith: Arguments from Bodily Rights: A Critical Analysis
Rosalind Hursthouse: Virtue Theory and Abortion

CHAPTER 4: DRUGS AND AUTONOMY
4. The Harm Argument Against Drug Use
James Q. Wilson: Against the Legalization of Drugs
Douglas N. Husak: A Moral Right to Use Drugs
5. The Argument Against Paternalism
Gerald Dworkin: Paternalism
John Hospers: What Libertarianism Is

CHAPTER 5: EUTHANASIA AND ASSISTED SUICIDE
6. The Autonomy Argument for Euthanasia
Ronald Dworkin, Thomas Nagel, et al.: The Philosophers' Brief
Daniel Callahan: When Self-Determination Runs Amok
John Lachs: When Abstract Moralizing Runs Amok
7. The Killing/Letting Die Argument
James Rachels: Active and Passive Euthanasia
Winston Nesbitt: Is Killing No Worse Than Letting Die?
8. The Slippery-Slope Argument Against Euthanasia
Leon R. Kass: Why Doctors Must Not Kill
Dan W. Brock: Voluntary Active Euthanasia

CHAPTER 6: GENETIC ENGINEERING AND CLONING
Gene Therapy
Reproductive Cloning
9. The Beneficence Argument for Genetic Enhancement
John Harris: Is Gene Therapy a Form of Eugenics?
Walter Glannon: Genetic Enhancement
10. The Open-Future Argument Against Cloning
Dan W. Brock: Cloning Human Beings: An Assessment of the Ethical Issues Pro and Con
Soren Holm: A Life in the Shadow: One Reason Why We Should Not Clone Humans

CHAPTER 7: THE DEATH PENALTY
11. Kant's Retributivism Argument for the Death Penalty
Immanuel Kant: The Right of Punishing
Igor Primoratz: A Life for a Life
Stephen Nathanson: An Eye for an Eye?
James S. Liebman, et al.: Capital Attrition: Error Rates in Capital Cases, 1973-1995
12. The Discrimination Argument Against the Death Penalty
Paul G. Cassell: Administrative Objections
Bryan Stevenson: Capital Punishment and The Legacy of Racial Bias in America
13. The Deterrence Argument for the Death Penalty
Ernest van den Haag: On Deterrence and the Death Penalty
Hugo Adam Bedau: Capital Punishment and Social Defense

CHAPTER 8: WAR, TERRORISM, AND TORTURE
War
Terrorism
Torture
14. The Pacifist Argument Against War
Douglas P. Lackey: Pacifism
Jan Narveson: Pacifism: A Philosophical Analysis
15. The Self-Defense Argument for War
Michael Walzer: The Legalist Paradigm
John Howard Yoder: When War Is Unjust: Being Honest in Just-War Thinking
16. The Just War Argument Against Terrorism
Haig Khatchadourian: The Morality of Terrorism
Michael Walzer: Terrorism: A Critique of Excuses
Andrew Valls: Can Terrorism Be Justified?
17. The Ticking Bomb Argument for Torture
Alan M. Dershowitz: The Case for Torturing the Ticking Bomb Terrorist

CHAPTER 9: PORNOGRAPHY AND FREE SPEECH
18. The Liberty Argument Against Censorship
John Stuart Mill: On Liberty
Nadine Strossen: Hate Speech and Pornography: Do We Have to Choose Between Freedom of Speech and Equality?
Helen E. Longino: Pornography, Oppression, and Freedom
John Arthur: Sticks and Stones
19. MacKinnon's Harm-to-Women Argument for Censorship
Catharine A. MacKinnon: Pornography, Civil Rights, and Speech
Ronald Dworkin: Women and Pornography
Wendy Kaminer: Feminists Against the First Amendment

CHAPTER 10: ECONOMIC JUSTICE: HEALTH CARE
20. Daniels's Argument for a Right to Health Care
Norman Daniels: Is There a Right to Health Care and, if so, What Does It Encompass?
Allen E. Buchanan: The Right to a Decent Minimum of Health Care
21. The Argument for Rationing by Moral Worthiness
Brian Smart: Fault and the Allocation of Spare Organs
Carl Cohen et al.: Alcoholics and Liver Transplantation

CHAPTER 11: ANIMAL RIGHTS AND ENVIRONMENTAL DUTY
22. Singer's "All Animals Are Equal" Argument
Peter Singer: All Animals Are Equal
Carl Cohen: The Case for the Use of Animals in Biomedical Research
Immanuel Kant: Our Duties to Animals
23. Regan's Argument for Animal Rights
Tom Regan: The Case for Animal Rights
Mary Anne Warren: The Rights of the Nonhuman World
Roger Scruton: The Moral Status of Animals
24. The Suffering Argument for Vegetarianism
James Rachels: The Moral Argument for Vegetarianism
R. G. Frey: Moral Vegetarianism and the Argument from Pain and Suffering
25. Taylor's Argument for the Equality of All Life
Paul W. Taylor: The Ethics of Respect for Nature
David Schmidtz: Are All Species Equal?
Albert Schweitzer: Reverence for Life
* William F. Baxter: People or Penguins?

CHAPTER 12: ECONOMIC JUSTICE AND GLOBAL OBLIGATIONS
26. Hardin's Lifeboat Argument Against Aiding the Poor
Garrett Hardin: Living on a Lifeboat
William W. Murdoch and Allan Oaten: A Critique of Lifeboat Ethics
27. Singer's Utilitarian Argument for Aiding the Poor
Peter Singer: Famine, Affluence, and Morality
Louis P. Pojman: World Hunger and Population
Glossary:
Index: