Whatever Happened to Good and Evil? - Softcover

Shafer-Landau

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0195168739 ISBN 13: 9780195168730

Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc, 2003

Synopsis

This is a brief introduction to ethics, with a point of view. This book addresses "meta-ethical" questions that go beyond what most introductory ethics books address, which are "normative" theories (egoism, utilitarianism, etc.) and "applied" ethics (abortion, capital punishment, etc.).Instead this book focuses on whether our ethical views on such matters can themselves be true or false, and, if so, whether their truth lies in personal or cultural opinion, or some objective, independent standard. With many examples, and an emphasis on argumentative clarity, this book is ideal for introductory ethics and philosophy courses and the interested general reader.

About this title

Review

"The idea behind this book was ingeniously conceived, and the execution of that idea is handled brilliantly. This is a superb book. It is philosophically astute, passionately argued, and written in a wonderfully accessible and eloquent style. I've never seen a better introduction to meta-ethics."--Brad Hooker, University of Reading

"This is an excellent introductory textbook on moral relativism and objectivity. It is concise, well-written, well-organized, and well-reasoned. It fills a real gap in the literature."--Paul K. Moser, Loyola University of Chicago

"The topic is timely, the execution is admirable, and there is no other book quite like it. I would gladly assign it to my students and recommend it to other teachers."--Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Dartmouth College

Synopsis

This is a brief introduction to ethics, with a point of view. This book addresses "meta-ethical" questions that go beyond what most introductory ethics books address, which are "normative" theories and "applied" ethics (abortion, capital punishment and so forth). Instead this book focuses on whether our ethical views on such matters can themselves be true or false, and, if so, whether their truth lies in personal or cultural opinion, or some objective, independent standard. With many examples, and an emphasis on argumentative clarity, this book is ideal for introductory ethics and philosophy courses and the interested general reader.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 0195168739
• ISBN 13: 9780195168730
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 160