Download or read book Do Morals Matter written by Joseph S. Nye and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2020 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is the role of ethics in American foreign policy? The Trump Administration has elevated this from a theoretical question to front-page news. Should ethics even play a role, or should we only focus on defending our material interests? In Do Morals Matter? Joseph S. Nye provides a concise yet penetrating analysis of how modern American presidents have-and have not-incorporated ethics into their foreign policy. Nye examines each presidency during theAmerican era post-1945 and scores them on the success they achieved in implementing an ethical foreign policy. Alongside this, he evaluates their leadership qualities, explaining which approaches work and which ones do not.

Download or read book Matters of Care written by María Puig de la Bellacasa and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2017-03-21 with total page 371 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To care can feel good, or it can feel bad. It can do good, it can oppress. But what is care? A moral obligation? A burden? A joy? Is it only human? In Matters of Care, María Puig de la Bellacasa presents a powerful challenge to conventional notions of care, exploring its significance as an ethical and political obligation for thinking in the more than human worlds of technoscience and naturecultures. Matters of Care contests the view that care is something only humans do, and argues for extending to non-humans the consideration of agencies and communities that make the living web of care by considering how care circulates in the natural world. The first of the book’s two parts, “Knowledge Politics,” defines the motivations for expanding the ethico-political meanings of care, focusing on discussions in science and technology that engage with sociotechnical assemblages and objects as lively, politically charged “things.” The second part, “Speculative Ethics in Antiecological Times,” considers everyday ecologies of sustaining and perpetuating life for their potential to transform our entrenched relations to natural worlds as “resources.” From the ethics and politics of care to experiential research on care to feminist science and technology studies, Matters of Care is a singular contribution to an emerging interdisciplinary debate that expands agency beyond the human to ask how our understandings of care must shift if we broaden the world.

Download or read book Moral Matters Second Edition written by Jan Narveson and published by Broadview Press. This book was released on 1999-09-21 with total page 358 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Moral Matters is a concise and accessible look at such ethical issues as euthanasia, animal rights, abortion, and pornography. It provides a focused set of views from the unified perspective of one of North America’s leading libertarian thinkers, and aims to provoke thought and discussion as well as to enrich understanding. For the new edition the text has been revised throughout, the introduction has been greatly expanded, and a new chapter on environmental issues has been added.

Download or read book Climate Matters Ethics in a Warming World Norton Global Ethics Series written by John Broome and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2012-07-23 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A vital new moral perspective on the climate change debate. Esteemed philosopher John Broome avoids the familiar ideological stances on climate change policy and examines the issue through an invigorating new lens. As he considers the moral dimensions of climate change, he reasons clearly through what universal standards of goodness and justice require of us, both as citizens and as governments. His conclusions—some as demanding as they are logical—will challenge and enlighten. Eco-conscious readers may be surprised to hear they have a duty to offset all their carbon emissions, while policy makers will grapple with Broome’s analysis of what if anything is owed to future generations. From the science of greenhouse gases to the intricate logic of cap and trade, Broome reveals how the principles that underlie everyday decision making also provide simple and effective ideas for confronting climate change. Climate Matters is an essential contribution to one of the paramount issues of our time.

Download or read book Moral Matters written by Barbara S. Stengel and published by . This book was released on 2006-09-08 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most of us agree that moral issues matter, but how do they fit into the context of our schools? Since A Nation at Risk, most educators and policymakers have focused on the academic dimensions of schooling governed by standards and testing. This timely book explores the ways that committed K–12 educators have attempted to make the moral visible in American schooling over the past 25 years. The authors look at their efforts, using an analytic framework that distinguishes five possible ways that the moral and the academic can be related in schooling. Book Features: A useful survey of moral education that enables the reader to arrive at personal judgments about the value and weaknesses of various approaches. Case studies that illustrate the moral education of students, the moral component of teachers’ work, and the moral dimensions of school structure. A mixture of philosophical analysis and attention to school practice suitable for courses and accessible to teachers, administrators, policymakers, and parents.

Download or read book What Really Matters written by Arthur Kleinman and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this moving and thought-provoking volume, Arthur Kleinman tells the unsettling stories of a handful of men and women, some of whom have lived through some of the most fundamental transitions of the turbulent twentieth century. Here we meet an American veteran of World War II, tortured by the memory of the atrocities he committed while a soldier in the Pacific. A French-American woman aiding refugees in sub-Saharan Africa, facing the utter chaos of a society where life has become meaningless. A Chinese doctor trying to stay alive during Mao's cultural revolution, discovering that the only values that matter are those that get you beyond the next threat. These individuals found themselves caught in circumstances where those things that matter most to them--their desires, status, relationships, resources, political and religious commitments, life itself--have been challenged by the society around them. Each is caught up in existential moral experiences that define what it means to be human, with an intensity that makes their life narratives arresting. These stories reveal just how malleable moral life is, and just how central danger is to our worlds and our livelihood. Indeed, Kleinman offers in this book a groundbreaking approach to ethics, examining "who we are" through some of the most disturbing issues of our time--war, globalization, poverty, social injustice--all in the context of actual lived moral life.

Download or read book Speech Matters written by Seana Valentine Shiffrin and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2016-11-08 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: To understand one another as individuals and to fulfill the moral duties that require such understanding, we must communicate with each other. We must also maintain protected channels that render reliable communication possible, a demand that, Seana Shiffrin argues, yields a prohibition against lying and requires protection for free speech. This book makes a distinctive philosophical argument for the wrong of the lie and provides an original account of its difference from the wrong of deception. Drawing on legal as well as philosophical arguments, the book defends a series of notable claims—that you may not lie about everything to the "murderer at the door," that you have reasons to keep promises offered under duress, that lies are not protected by free speech, that police subvert their mission when they lie to suspects, and that scholars undermine their goals when they lie to research subjects. Many philosophers start to craft moral exceptions to demands for sincerity and fidelity when they confront wrongdoers, the pressures of non-ideal circumstances, or the achievement of morally substantial ends. But Shiffrin consistently resists this sort of exceptionalism, arguing that maintaining a strong basis for trust and reliable communication through practices of sincerity, fidelity, and respecting free speech is an essential aspect of ensuring the conditions for moral progress, including our rehabilitation of and moral reconciliation with wrongdoers.

Download or read book On What Matters written by Derek Parfit and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-02-09 with total page 360 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Derek Parfit presents the third volume of On What Matters, his landmark work of moral philosophy. Parfit develops further his influential treatment of reasons, normativity, the meaning of moral discourse, and the status of morality. He engages with his critics, and shows the way to resolution of their differences. This volume is partly about what it is for things to matter, in the sense that we all have reasons to care about these things. Much of the book discusses three of the main kinds of meta-ethical theory: Normative Naturalism, Quasi-Realist Expressivism, and Non-Metaphysical Non-Naturalism, which Derek Parfit now calls Non-Realist Cognitivism. This third theory claims that, if we use the word 'reality' in an ontologically weighty sense, irreducibly normative truths have no mysterious or incredible ontological implications. If instead we use 'reality' in a wide sense, according to which all truths are truths about reality, this theory claims that some non-empirically discoverable truths-such as logical, mathematical, modal, and some normative truths-raise no difficult ontological questions. Parfit discusses these theories partly by commenting on the views of some of the contributors to Peter Singer's collection Does Anything Really Matter? Parfit on Objectivity. Though Peter Railton is a Naturalist, he has widened his view by accepting some further claims, and he has suggested that this wider version of Naturalism could be combined with Non-Realist Cognitivism. Parfit argues that Railton is right, since these theories no longer deeply disagree. Though Allan Gibbard is a Quasi-Realist Expressivist, he has suggested that the best version of his view could be combined with Non-Realist Cognitivism. Parfit argues that Gibbard is right, since Gibbard and he now accept the other's main meta-ethical claim. It is rare for three such different philosophical theories to be able to be widened in ways that resolve their deepest disagreements. This happy convergence supports the view that these meta-ethical theories are true. Parfit also discusses the views of several other philosophers, and some other meta-ethical and normative questions.

Download or read book Why Veganism Matters written by Gary L. Francione and published by Columbia University Press. This book was released on 2021-04-13 with total page 193 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Most people care about animals, but only a tiny fraction are vegan. The rest often think of veganism as an extreme position. They certainly do not believe that they have a moral obligation to become vegan. Gary L. Francione—the leading and most provocative scholar of animal rights theory and law—demonstrates that veganism is a moral imperative and a matter of justice. He shows that there is a contradiction in thinking that animals matter morally if one is also not vegan, and he explains why this belief should logically lead all who hold it to veganism. Francione dismantles the conventional wisdom that it is acceptable to use and kill animals as long as we do so “humanely.” He argues that if animals matter morally, they must have the right not to be used as property. That means that we cannot eat them, wear them, use them, or otherwise treat them as resources or commodities. Why Veganism Matters presents the case for the personhood of nonhuman animals and for veganism in a clear and accessible way that does not require any philosophical or legal background. This book offers a persuasive and powerful argument for all readers who care about animals but are not sure whether they have a moral obligation to be vegan.

Download or read book The Heart of What Matters written by Anthony Cunningham and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 2001-09-04 with total page 307 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "This is a wonderful book--beautifully written, deeply moving, and philosophically well argued. I loved it."—Nel Noddings, author of Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education "This book gives us something all too rare in contemporary philosophical writing: a passionate, careful, deeply sympathetic and sustained analysis of some important literary narratives in aid of a clearly defined philosophical project. Whether one agrees with Cunningham's conclusions or not, his treatment of the texts is inspiring and illuminating."—Lawrence C. Becker, author of A New Stoicism

Download or read book The Evolution of Morality written by Richard Joyce and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2007-08-24 with total page 285 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Moral thinking pervades our practical lives, but where did this way of thinking come from, and what purpose does it serve? Is it to be explained by environmental pressures on our ancestors a million years ago, or is it a cultural invention of more recent origin? In The Evolution of Morality, Richard Joyce takes up these controversial questions, finding that the evidence supports an innate basis to human morality. As a moral philosopher, Joyce is interested in whether any implications follow from this hypothesis. Might the fact that the human brain has been biologically prepared by natural selection to engage in moral judgment serve in some sense to vindicate this way of thinking—staving off the threat of moral skepticism, or even undergirding some version of moral realism? Or if morality has an adaptive explanation in genetic terms—if it is, as Joyce writes, "just something that helped our ancestors make more babies"—might such an explanation actually undermine morality's central role in our lives? He carefully examines both the evolutionary "vindication of morality" and the evolutionary "debunking of morality," considering the skeptical view more seriously than have others who have treated the subject. Interdisciplinary and combining the latest results from the empirical sciences with philosophical discussion, The Evolution of Morality is one of the few books in this area written from the perspective of moral philosophy. Concise and without technical jargon, the arguments are rigorous but accessible to readers from different academic backgrounds. Joyce discusses complex issues in plain language while advocating subtle and sometimes radical views. The Evolution of Morality lays the philosophical foundations for further research into the biological understanding of human morality.

Download or read book Matters of Life and Death written by David Orentlicher and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2001-12-02 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Orentlicher uses controversial life-and-death issues as case studies for evaluating three models for translating principle into practice. Physician-assisted suicide illustrates the application of "generally valid rules," a model that provides predictability and simplicity and, more importantly, avoids the personal biases that influence case-by-case judgments. The author then takes up the debate over forcing pregnant women to accept treatments to save their fetuses. He uses this issue to weigh the "avoidance of perverse incentives," an approach to translation that follows principles hesitantly for fear of generating unintended results. And third, Orentlicher considers the denial of life-sustaining treatment on grounds of medical futility in his evaluation of the "tragic choices" model, which hides difficult life-and-death choices in order to prevent paralyzing social conflict.

Download or read book Moral Clarity written by Susan Neiman and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2009-09-06 with total page 480 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Neiman reclaims the vocabulary of morality--good and evil, heroism and nobility--as a lingua franca for the twenty-first century. In constructing a framework for taking responsible action on today's urgent questions, [she] reaches back to the eighteenth century, retrieving a series of values--happiness, reason, reverence, and hope--held high by Enlightenment thinkers. In this ... updated edition, Neiman reflects on how the moral language of the 2008 presidential campaign has opened up new political and cultural possibilities in America and beyond"--Back cover.

Download or read book Contemporary Moral Issues written by Lawrence M. Hinman and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2016-07-01 with total page 545 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Contemporary Moral Issues is an anthology that provides a selection of readings on contemporary social issues revolving around three general themes: Matters of Life and Death, Matters of Equality and Diversity, and Expanding the Circle, which includes duties beyond borders, living together with animals, and environmental ethics. The text contains a number of distinctive, high-profile readings and powerful narratives, including Jonathan Foer's "Eating Animals," Eva Feder Kittay's "On the Ethics of Selective Abortion for Disability," and Susan M. Wolf's "Confronting Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia: My Father's Death." Each set of readings is accompanied by an extensive introduction, a bibliographical essay, pre-reading questions, and discussion questions.

Download or read book The Good War That Wasn t and Why It Matters written by Ted Grimsrud and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2014-11-10 with total page 297 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A war is always a moral event. However, the most destructive war in human history has not received much moral scrutiny. The Good War That Wasn't--and Why It Matters examines the moral legacy of this war, especially for the United States. Drawing on the just war tradition and on moral values expressed in widely circulated statements of purpose for the war, the book asks: How did American participation in the war fit with just cause and just conduct criteria? Subsequently the book considers the impact of the war on American foreign policy in the years that followed. How did American actions cohere (or not) with the stated purposes for the war, especially self-determination for the peoples of the world and disarmament? Finally, the book looks at the witness of war opponents. Values expressed by war advocates were not actually furthered by the war. However, many war opponents did inspire efforts that effectively worked toward the goals of disarmament and self-determination. The Good War That Wasn't--and Why It Matters develops its arguments in pragmatic terms. It focuses on moral reasoning in a commonsense way in its challenge to widely held assumptions about World War II.

Download or read book The Moral Landscape written by Sam Harris and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2011-09-13 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sam Harris dismantles the most common justification for religious faith--that a moral system cannot be based on science.

Download or read book Communication Ethical and Moral Issues written by Lee Thayer and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2015-10-23 with total page 550 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This pioneering book, on the ethical and moral dimensions of communication and communication systems in the modern world, was originally published in 1974. It derived from an International Symposium on communication, consisting of world-class scholars ranging from philosophy and anthropology, to cybernetics and psychiatry, and from literary criticism to the social and behavioural sciences. The uses of communication are ubiquitous. The breadth, depth, scope and reach of every human mind depends upon the communication experiences one has had, or is capable of having. How people confront one another depends upon the quality and reach of their individual minds – not solely on their words. This book provides an opportunity to explore with these far-ranging scholars the ethical, moral, and pragmatic communication dilemmas of our modern age. It is as pertinent today as it was when it was first published.