Ethics

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Curious to know more about Ethics? This double CD audio book may be just what you're looking for.

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Books can help with the process of thinking through ethical issues, by introducing basic ethical theories and by helping to show their relevance to the issues in hand.

There are thousands of books, both on ethical theory and on particular moral issues. Where to start? Some titles are suggested below.

 

Peter Singer is always worth reading, whether or not you agree with his broadly utilitarian view. He presents ethical issues in the most challenging way.

Sometimes neglected, but utterly relevant, are the works of Iris Murdoch, particularly The Sovereignty of Good, but also her Metaphysics as a Guide to Morals.

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.

 

 

 

Welcome to the Ethics selection...

 

Of my own books:

  • Understand Ethics gives a general introduction for the general reader, for students at A level, of for those who are thinking of going on to study Philosophy or Religious Studies at university. It is also available for the Kindle.

  • Ethical Theory is an a level text, particularly aimed at those taking Ethics papers as part of a Religious Studies A level.

  • An Introduction to Philosophy and Ethics is for AS level students taking Religious Studies.

For more information on any of these, click below the relevant title on the right.

 

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

just clink on the 'Notes' link at the top of this page

 

The Open University has a set of 10 podcasts introducing issues in ethics and political philosophy. Entitled 'Justice and Morality' you can hear them by following this link:

 

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=444080339

 

 

 

For accessible essays on a whole range of ethical issues, try www.moralmoments.com the website of Joel Marks, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, University of New Haven.

 

 Here's Nigel Warburton on the ethical life, personal responsibility, relativism and more...

 

And for a whole range of material on ethics, try the Open University material on:

www.open2.net/ethicsbites

 

Science and moral values?

Agree with him or not, Sam Harris argues well and gives everyone a great deal to think about. Here is a short lecture in which he claims that science can provide a basis for ethical values.  This is a great way to start the discussion about how facts and values are related. Naturally, being Sam Harris, he has a few juicy criticisms of religion in store, but don't let that (if you are from a religious background) stop you appreciating the logic of his argument.  A great stimulus piece for groups of ethics students!

 

 

 

Whether facts and values should be kept separate has always been a big issue for ethics. Sam Harris, in the lecture featured here, wants to link them. Here, at the other extreme is A J Ayer (in Language, Truth and Logic)…

‘…. in saying that a certain type of action is right or wrong, I am not making any factual statement, not even a statement about my own state of mind. I am merely expressing certain moral sentiments. And the man who is ostensibly contradicting me is merely expressing his moral sentiments. So that there is plainly no sense in asking which of us is in the right. For neither of us is asserting a genuine proposition.’

But does that view – in which moral views are merely subjective wishes, without factual basis – adequate? Does it help or hinder the process of moral decision-making? And particularly, if it is merely a matter of ‘moral sentiments’, should we not ask why we should have such sentiments in the first place?

 

Listen to Sam Harris critically - the relationship between objective facts, science and moral values is rather more slippery than he would have us believe!

 

 

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:

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)

 

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) 

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)

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

 

 

 

My own books...

 

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 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 - while reflecting on your own presuppositions and the way in which you make your moral judgements.

Only once you do that will you appreciate the significance of ethical theories.

 

Here is a selection of useful titles for students:

 

►  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)

 

 

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