Virtual Morality: Christian Ethics in the Computer Age - Softcover

Houston, G

Softcover

ISBN 10: 085111461X ISBN 13: 9780851114613

Publisher: Apollos, 1998

Synopsis

The rapid development of information technology in the last twenty years has raised urgent ethical questions. Is the technology itself morally neutral, or is it inherently value-laden? Are the uses to which we put it right just because they are possible? And what ethical principles, if any, should govern our approach to technology, including our behaviour in virtual worlds?
In this significant contribution to the debate, Graham Houston proposes a theological and moral framework within which to consider such questions. Drawing upon the work of leading moral thinkers, and using Virtual Reality as a focus for discussion, he shows how Christian ethics can provide tools for a critique of technology. It offers principles of conduct which enable us to live lives pleasing to God in every environment, whether virtual or real.

About this title

From the Author

Virtual Morality:Christian Ethics in the Computer Age reflects the author's personal journey, over 30 years,within the worlds of architecture,theology,pastoral praxis, philosophy, and Christian ethics. It is the only book in English which deals with one of the key ethical concerns of the early 21st century: what is happening morally, when human beings get immersed in computer-generated worlds? And what philosophical, theological and ethical connections are there between virtual and real environments in which we, increasingly, live and move and have our being? How does this connect with the cultural climate of postmodernity?

About the Author

Graham Houston, BSc(Hons), BD(Hons), MTh, PhD, was born in Glasgow in 1950, and studied architecture before entering training for the Church of Scotland ministry. He has served in urban and rural parishes since 1976, as well as being for eight years a full-time university chaplain and part-time philosophy lecturer. He is currently minister of the parishes of Cairngryffe with Symington, Presbytery of Lanark, and Director of the web publishers locuspublishing.org. He has written numerous articles and reviews , has edited a journal and a series of topical booklets, and is the author of Prophecy Now(1989) and Virtual Morality (1998), both published in the UK by Inter-Varsity Press. He is married to Irene, a specialist support teacher. They have three children, Rachel, Rhoda, and Stephen, and a yellow labrador called Hamish.

Edition details

• Publisher: Apollos
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 085111461X
• ISBN 13: 9780851114613
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224