Ethics

The Big Questions

Sterba, James P. (Editor)

Philosophy: The Big Questions

2. Edition February 2009
602 Pages, Softcover
Practical Approach Book

Short Description

Ethics: The Big Questions, 2nd Edition focuses on the central questions of ethics, including topics such as: What is the nature of morality? How is morality justified? What are the requirements of morality? This volume draws together the best available classical and contemporary readings to help make these questions come alive for today's students. As with the first edition, Utilitarian, Kantian, and Aristotelian viewpoints are all well represented, and the second edition features updated sections throughout--including eighteen new readings--and an entirely new section on multiculturalism.

ISBN: 978-1-4051-9128-9

John Wiley & Sons

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As with the first edition, Utilitarian, Kantian, and Aristotelian viewpoints are all well represented here, and this second edition features updated sections throughout--including eighteen new readings--and an entirely new section on multiculturalism.
* Presents students with a unique focus on three main challenges to ethics: feminism, environmentalism, and multiculturalism
* Pedagogical focus on the 'big questions' motivates student interest
* Collects readings on all key traditional theoretical and practical questions in ethics

I. The Nature of Morality: What is Morality?.

II. The Justification of Morality: Why be Moral?.

III. Alternative Moral Perspectives: What does Morality Require?.

IV. Contemporary Challenges for Morality

"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

James P. Sterba is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Notre Dame. He has published 25 books, including Affirmative Action for the Future (2009), Does Feminism Discriminate Against Men? - A Debate (2008, co-authored with Warren Farrell), The Triumph of Practice over Theory in Ethics (2005), Terrorism and International Justice (2003), Three Challenges to Ethics (2001), and Justice for Here and Now (1998). He is a past president of the American Philosophical Association (Central Division), Concerned Philosophers for Peace, the North American Society for Social Philosophy, and the International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy (American section). He has lectured widely in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Africa.

J. P. Sterba, University of Notre Dame