The Practice of Ethics Blackwell 2007 |
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“This is an extremely impressive book. Not only does LaFollette explore a wide array of important topics with the insight and clarity for which he is famous, he shows that the best analysis of ethical theory and the most helpful reflection on practical moral problems must go hand in hand. LaFollette is not alone in claiming that theory and practice must inform each other, of course, but no one that I know of has done a better job of illustrating how intimately these two inquiries are intertwined.”
Christopher Heath Wellman |
Table of Contents
Acknowledgments | iii |
Introduction | v |
Part One: Learning to Theorize | 5 |
1. The Ethical Impulse | 8 |
2. A Tale of Two Theories | 22 |
3. Using and Sharpening the Theoretical Tools | 38 |
4. Relativism | 57 |
Part Two: The Moral Status of Groups | 69 |
5. Racism | 71 |
6. Affirmative Action | 85 |
Part Three: Life and Death | 101 |
7. Religion and Morality | 103 |
8. Death, Dying, and Assisted Suicide | 116 |
9. Slippery Slope Arguments | 130 |
Part Four: Autonomy, Responsibility, and Risk | 147 |
10. Autonomy, Children, and Paternalism | 149 |
11. Punishment | 162 |
12. Gun Control | 179 |
Part Five: Living Morally | 197 |
13. Everyday Morality | 199 |
14. Character, Virtue Ethics, and Pragmatism | 210 |
15. Animals | 224 |
Part Six: The Demands of Morality | 235 |
16. World Hunger | 237 |
17. Is Morality Demanding? | 253 |
18. Egoism: Psychological and Moral | 272 |
Part Seven: Thinking Ahead | 285 |
19. Moral Speculations | 287 |
Index | 297 |