Ethics

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For students at AS/A2 level, notes are available from my lectures on the following:

 

Virtue Ethics

Natural Law Ethics

Abortion and Euthanasia

Conscience 

Aristotle and Virtue Ethics

The Ethics of War

Sexual Morality: Christian demands and modern attitudes

Meta-ethics

Jeremy Bentham                                                                              
Utilitarianism

 

My books on ethics:

Ethical Theory

Teach Yourself: Ethics

Introduction to Philosophy and Ethics

 

In my view, one of the best ways of getting into ethics is simply to read, listen and take a view on the big issues of the day - but to do so while reflecting on your own presuppositions and the way in which you make your moral judgements.

 

Books can help with that process, by introducing basic ethical theories and by helping to show their relevance to present issues. There are thousands of books, both on ethical theory and on particular moral issues. But where to start? Peter Singer is always worth reading, whether or not you agree with his generally utilitarian views. Neglected, but utterly relevant, are the works of Iris Murdoch, particularly The Sovereignty of Good, but also her Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals. And there are accessible and lively introductions to Ethics from Blackburn, Pojman, Warnock and others, as well as sections on ethics in most of the major introductions to philosophy.

 

Here is a small selection of useful titles...

 

Robert L Arrington, Western Ethics: an historical introduction (Blackwell, 1998)

Ray Billington, Living Philosophy: an introduction to moral thought  (3rd Edition, Routledge, 2003)

Simon Blackburn, Being Good: An Introduction to Ethics (OUP, 2001)

Simon Blackburn, Ruling Passions (Clarendon Press, 1998)

Ted Honderich, How Free are You? (OUP, 2002)

Alasdair MacIntyre, A Short History of Ethics (2nd edition) (Routledge, 2002)

Mackie J L, Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong  (Penguin, 1977)

Iris Murdoch, Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals (OUP, 1994)

Iris Murdoch, The Sovereignty of Good  (Routledge Classics, 2001)

L P Pojman, Ethics: Discovering Right and Wrong (Wadsworth, 2001)

James Rachels, The Elements of Moral Philosophy (2nd edition) (McGraw-Hill, 1995)

Peter Singer (ed.), A Companion to Ethics (Blackwell 1991)

Peter Singer, How are we to live?: Ethics in an Age of Self-interest  (Mandarin, 1995)

J P Sterba (ed.), Ethics: the big questions (Blackwell, 1998)

Avrum Stroll, Did my Genes Make Me Do It? (Oneworld, 2004)

Nigel Warburton, Philosophy: The Classics (3rd edition) (Routledge, 2006)

Mary Warnock, An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Ethics (Duckworth 1998)

 

 

 

Starting with the classics...

The best discussions of moral issues are informed by great thinkers of the past who have developed and expounded ethical theories, and have applied them to the issues of their day. Here are some of the classic texts for anyone wanting to deepen their appreciation of ethics. Many are available in cheap editions:

 

Where to start?  Plato, Aristotle, Mill and Nietzsche would be my suggestion.

 

Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics (Dover Publications, 1998)

A J Ayer, Language, Truth and Logic (Penguin Classics, 2001)

Jeremy Bentham, An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation (Prometheus Books, 1988)

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Ethics (Pocket Books, 1995)

F H Bradley, Ethical Studies (Clarendon Press, 1962)

Epictetus (trans. George Long), Enchiridion (Dover Publications, 2004)  

R M Hare, Freedom and Reason (Oxford Paperbacks, 1965

R M Hare, The Language of Morals (Oxford Paperbacks, 1964)  

Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan  (Oxford World Classics, 1998)

David Hume, Treatise on Human Nature (Penguin, 1986)

Immanuel Kant, Critique of Practical Reason  (CUP, 1997)

Immanuel Kant, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals (CUP, 1998)

Søren Kierkegaard (trans. Alastair Hannay), Either / Or (Penguin Classics, 1992)

John Locke, Treatises of Government  (CUP, 1998)

John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism (OUP, 1998)

G E Moore, Principia Ethica (CUP, 1993)

Friedrich Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morals (Dover Publications, 2003)

Friedrich Nietzsche, Beyond Good and Evil (Penguin, 1990)

Plato, The Republic (Penguin, 2003)

H A Pritchard, Moral Obligation ((OUP, 1963) 

John Rawls, A Theory of Justice (revised edition) (OUP, 1999)

W D Ross, The Foundations of Ethics (OUP, 2000)

W D Ross, The Right and the Good  (Clarendon Press, 2002)

Jean-Paul Sartre, Existentialism and Human Emotions (Citadel Press, 1984)

Henry Sidgwick, Essays on Ethics and Methods (Clarendon Press, 2000)

C L Stevenson, Ethics and Language (Yale UP)

Paul Tillich, Morality and Beyond (Westminster John Knox Press, 2004)

 

For studends at A level wanting to explore medical and other issues from a distinctively Christian standpoint, try the www.ethicsforschools.org website, provided by the Christian Medical Fellowship (see below) – but be aware of the particular religious origin of this material.

 

 

 All material © Mel Thompson unless otherwise attributed