Addressed to those who ask, "Why should I be moral?" this book explores strategies and tactics for evoking moral responses from people, especially in political contexts where so much is at stake. A central theme is how rarely people are required to act upon purely moral motives. For most purposes cold calculations of self-interest, in some suitably extended sense, are all that is really needed to induce people to behave as morality would require. Reciprocity - the threat that others will do as they are done by - will often suffice to make people behave fairly. Uncertainty - the prospect of soon finding yourself in the position of the other - is often enough to induce people to weigh impartially the interests of all. However, there inevitably remains a subset of extremely vulnerable people whom others have no self-interested reasons not to exploit. To secure decent treatment for them, appeal must be made directly and exclusively to people's sense of morality.
- ISBN10 1557862478
- ISBN13 9781557862471
- Publish Date 25 June 1992
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 14 May 1997
- Publish Country GB
- Publisher John Wiley and Sons Ltd
- Imprint Blackwell Publishers
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 200
- Language English