Ethics in the Gray Area: A Gradualist Theory of Right and Wrong - Softcover

Peterson, Martin

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1009336797 ISBN 13: 9781009336796

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 2025

Synopsis

What should morally conscientious agents do if they must choose among options that are somewhat right and somewhat wrong? Should one select an option that is right to the highest degree, or would it perhaps be more rational to choose randomly among all somewhat right options? And how should lawmakers and courts address behaviour that is neither entirely right nor entirely wrong? In this first book-length discussion of the 'gray area' in ethics, Martin Peterson challenges the assumption that rightness and wrongness are binary properties and explores acts which are neither entirely right nor entirely wrong, but rather a bit of both. Including discussions of white lies and the permissibility of abortion, Peterson's book presents a gradualist theory of right and wrong designed to answer these and other practical questions about the gray area in ethics.

About this title

About the Author

Martin Peterson holds the Sue G. and Harry E. Bovay, Jr. Chair in the Department of Philosophy at Texas A & M University. He is the author of The Dimensions of Consequentialism (Cambridge University Press, 2013), An Introduction to Decision Theory (Cambridge University Press, 2nd ed 2017), The Ethics of Technology (2017), and Engineering Ethics (2019).

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1009336797
• ISBN 13: 9781009336796
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 227