"May you live in interesting times," runs the famous curse. For good or ill, our times are "interesting"--uneasy and uncertain. After a century of enormous economic, political, and social change, we live with exponential technological growth and the ability to change our world irretrievably. We are developing capacities with respect of life that were once the domain of Fate, and we will soon be able to alter what it means to be human. We experience unprecedented freedom of moral and consumer choice, alongside intrusive regulation of our day-to-day activities. Our major constraints are peculiarly modern: economic expectations, not knowing what to do, or a profound awareness of the impact of our personal and national decisions on others. With such power, freedom, and knowledge come unprecedented ethical responsibility.
Understanding Ethics uses the frameworks of moral philosophy to analyse contemporary moral issues and perennial human dilemmas. Noel Preston outlines his own model for decision-making based on the idea of responsibility. He finishes with a challenging chapter, "Cultivating an Ethical Life." Each chapter closes with a chapter review, list of further reading, questions for discussion, and a case study or studies.
Regardless of your stage of life, ethical thinking equips you to make challenging decisions now--and in the unforeseeable future.
Table of Contents
CHAPTER 1: The Ethical Challenge
CHAPTER 2: Encountering Ethics
CHAPTER 3: Ethical Theory: An Overview
CHAPTER 4: Responsible Ethical Decisions
CHAPTER 5: Truthtelling and Integrity
CHAPTER 6: Sex, Love and Morality
CHAPTER 7: Matters of Life and Death
CHAPTER 8: Public Responsibility, Politics and the Professions
CHAPTER 9: Global Responsibility and the Environment
CHAPTER 10: Cultivating an Ethical Life
Glossary
A note on the history of ethics and moral traditions
Index
"Though not a legal text, the many issues and themes that arise for consideration in this book lie at the heart of contemporary legal analysis: issues such as individual liberty, protection from harm, the promulgation of a just society; issues of social justice as determined by the "common good" and "public interest"; general principles of justice and fairness; the protection of human rights; exploration of matters of integrity, truthfulness and honesty; appropriate boundary setting for state intervention in a liberal democratic society; the recognition and management of conflicts of interest; and broader perspectives on acting in ways that are consistent with the duties entrusted to persons in professional roles....
Understanding Ethics... would serve well as an introductory text or as a reader for either tertiary or secondary teachers who come to the study of ethics from outside the discipline. It would also find an appreciative audience simply with anyone who is interested in these broader philosophical or contemporary moral questions.
The text is easy to read, well written and thoughtfully organised....
Understanding Ethics... should be recommended reading for all legal graduates-in-training...."
-- Sally Kift, QUT Law and Justice Journal, Vol 1(2), 2001