Taking a unique approach that emphasizes careful reasoning, this cutting-edge reader is structured around twenty-eight key arguments that have provoked heated debates on current ethical issues. Contemporary Moral Arguments: Readings in Ethical Issues opens with a two-chapter introduction to moral theories and moral reasoning that provides students with the background necessary to analyze the arguments in the following chapters. Chapters 3-12 present seventy-six readings that are organized--in the conventional way--into ten topical areas: abortion; sex and marriage; euthanasia and assisted suicide; genetic engineering and cloning; the death penalty; war, terrorism, and torture; pornography; economic justice and health care; animal rights and environmental duties; and global obligations to the poor. Offering a special feature not found in other anthologies, the selections are also organized in an unconventional way, by argument, so that students can more easily see how philosophers have debated each other on these critical issues. Each argument opens with an introduction that outlines the argument's key points, provides context for it, and reviews some of the main responses to it. Each introduction is followed by two to four essays that present the argument's classic statement, critiques and defenses of it, and related debates.
- ISBN10 0195381939
- ISBN13 9780195381931
- Publish Date 1 December 2009
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 20 April 2021
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
- Format Paperback
- Pages 704
- Language English