Authors: James Rachels, Stuart Rachels
ISBN-13: 9780073386713, ISBN-10: 0073386715
Format: Paperback
Publisher: McGraw-Hill Companies, The
Date Published: February 2009
Edition: 6th Edition
James Rachels, the distinguished American moral philosopher, was born in Columbus, Georgia, graduating from Mercer University in Macon in 1962. He received his Ph.D. in 1967 from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He taught at the University of Richmond, New York University, the University of Miami, Duke University, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he spent the last twenty-six years of his career. 1971 saw the publication of Rachels’ groundbreaking textbook Moral Problems, which ignited the movement in America away from teaching ethical theory towards teaching concrete practical issues. Moral Problems sold 100,000 copies over three editions. In 1975, Rachels wrote “Active and Passive Euthanasia,” arguing that the distinction so important in the law between killing and letting die has no rational basis. Originally appearing in the New England Journal of Medicine, this essay has been reprinted roughly 300 times and is a staple of undergraduate education. The End of Life (1986) was about the morality of killing and the value of life. Created from Animals (1990) argued that a Darwinian world-view has widespread philosophical implications, including drastic implications for our treatment of nonhuman animals. Can Ethics Provide Answers? (1997) was Rachels’ first collection of papers (others are expected posthumously). Rachels’ McGraw-Hill textbook, The Elements of Moral Philosophy, is now in its fourth edition and is easily the best-selling book of its kind.
Over his career, Rachels wrote 5 books and 85 essays, edited 7 books and gave about 275 professional lectures. His work has been translated into Dutch, Italian, Japanese, and Serbo-Croatian. James Rachels is widely admired as a stylist, as his prose is remarkably free of jargon and clutter. A major theme in his work is that reason can resolve difficult moral issues. He has given reasons for moral vegetarianism and animal rights, for affirmative action (including quotas), for the humanitarian use of euthanasia, and for the idea that parents owe as much moral consideration to other people’s children as they do to their own.
James Rachels died of cancer on September 5th, 2003, in Birmingham, Alabama.
STUART RACHELS is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Alabama. He has revised
several of James Rachels’ books, including Problems from Philosophy (second edition, 2009) and The Right Thing to Do (fifth edition, 2010), which is the companion anthology to this book. Stuart won the United States Chess Championship in 1989, at the age of 20, and he is a Bronze Life Master at bridge. His website is www.jamesrachels.org/stuart.
Firmly established as the standard text for undergraduate courses in ethics, this concise, lively book takes the reader on an in-depth tour of the major moral theories, always illustrating abstract ideas with concrete examples. Separate, self-contained chapters examine such theories as Egoism, Kantianism, Utilitarianism, Virtue Ethics, and the Social Contract Theory. Through this conceptual framework, the text addresses timely and provocative issues, including abortion, racism, euthanasia, poverty, marijuana, homosexuality, the death penalty, and vegetarianism. The text's versatility makes it an ideal choice for use not only in ethical theory courses, but also in applied ethics courses of all kinds.
Preface | ||
About the Second Edition | ||
1 | What is Morality? | 1 |
1.1 | The Problem of Definition | |
1.2 | An Example of Moral Reasoning: Baby Jane Doe | |
1.3 | Reason and Impartiality | |
1.4 | The Minimum Conception of Morality | |
2 | The Challenge of Cultural Relativism | 15 |
2.1 | How Different Cultures Have Different Moral Codes | |
2.2 | Cultural Relativism | |
2.3 | The Cultural Differences Argument | |
2.4 | The Consequences of Taking Cultural Relativism Seriously | |
2.5 | Why There Is Less Disagreement Than It Seems | |
2.6 | How All Cultures Have Some Values in Common | |
2.7 | What Can Be Learned from Cultural Relativism | |
3 | Subjectivism in Ethics | 30 |
3.1 | The Basic Idea of Ethical Subjectivism | |
3.2 | The Evolution of the Theory | |
3.3 | The First Stage: Simple Subjectivism | |
3.4 | The Second Stage: Emotivism | |
3.5 | Emotivism, Reason, and "Moral Facts" | |
3.6 | The Example of Homosexuality | |
4 | Does Morality Depend on Religion? | 44 |
4.1 | The Presumed Connection Between Morality and Religion | |
4.2 | The Divine Command Theory | |
4.3 | The Theory of Natural Law | |
4.4 | Christianity and the Problem of Abortion | |
5 | Psychological Egoism | 62 |
5.1 | Is Unselfishness Possible? | |
5.2 | The Strategy of Reinterpreting Motives | |
5.3 | Two Arguments in Favor of Psychological Egoism | |
5.4 | Clearing Away Some Confusions | |
5.5 | The Deepest Error in Psychological Egoism | |
6 | Ethical Egoism | 75 |
6.1 | Is There a Duty to Contribute for Famine Relief? | |
6.2 | Three Arguments in Favor of Ethical Egoism | |
6.3 | Three Arguments Against Ethical Egoism | |
7 | The Utilitarian Approach | 90 |
7.1 | The Revolution in Ethics | |
7.2 | First Example: Euthanasia | |
7.3 | Second Example: Nonhuman Animals | |
8 | The Debate Over Utilitarianism | 102 |
8.1 | The Resilience of the Theory | |
8.2 | Is Happiness the Only Thing That Matters? | |
8.3 | Are Consequences All That Matter? | |
8.4 | The Defense of Utilitarianism | |
8.5 | What Is Correct and What Is Incorrect in Utilitarianism | |
9 | Are There Absolute Moral Rules? | 117 |
9.1 | Kant and The Categorical Imperative | |
9.2 | Absolute Rules and the Duty Not to Lie | |
9.3 | Conflicts Between Rules | |
9.4 | Another Look at Kant's Basic Idea | |
10 | Kant and Respect for Persons | 127 |
10.1 | The Idea of "Human Dignity" | |
10.2 | Retribution and Utility in the Theory of Punishment | |
10.3 | Kant's Retributivism | |
11 | The Idea of a Social Contract | 139 |
11.1 | Hobbes's Argument | |
11.2 | The Prisoner's Dilemma | |
11.3 | Some Advantages of the Social Contract Theory of Morals | |
11.4 | The Problem of Civil Disobedience | |
11.5 | Difficulties for the Theory | |
12 | The Ethics of Virtue | 159 |
12.1 | The Ethics of Virtue and the Ethics of Right Action | |
12.2 | Should We Return to the Ethics of Virtue? | |
12.3 | The Virtues | |
12.4 | Some Advantages of Virtue Ethics | |
12.5 | The Incompleteness of Virtue Ethics | |
13 | What Would a Satisfactory Moral Theory Be Like? | 180 |
13.1 | Morality Without Hubris | |
13.2 | The Moral Community | |
13.3 | Justice and Fairness | |
Suggestions for Further Reading | 194 | |
Notes on Sources | 202 | |
Index | 207 |