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.

 

Contemporary Moral Arguments incorporates more pedagogical features than any other reader, including:

* Essay questions --ideal for writing assignments--after each of the twenty-eight argument sections
* Four types of boxes throughout: Facts and Figures, Public Opinion, Legalities, and Time Lines
* A list of key terms at the end of each chapter, all defined in the glossary, and suggestions for further reading
* An Instructor's Manual and Testbank on CD featuring chapter and reading summaries, lecture outlines in PowerPoint format, and essay and objective questions with an answer key
* A Companion Website at www.oup.com/us/vaughn containing the same material as the Instructor's Manual along with such student resources as self-quizzes and flash cards

 

Chapters 3-12 open with an Introduction, Key Terms, and Arguments and Readings. Each chapter ends with Suggestions for Further Reading. Preface CHAPTER 1: MORAL REASONING Ethics and the Moral Domain Ethics, Law, and Religion Moral Relativism Moral Arguments Argument Basics The Structure of Moral Arguments Evaluating Moral Premises Key Words Summary Plato: The Ring of Gyges Louis P. Pojman: The Case Against Moral Relativism James Rachels: Can Ethics Provide Answers? CHAPTER 2: MORAL THEORIES Why Moral Theories? Important Moral Theories Utilitarianism Kantian Ethics Natural Law Theory Rawls's Contractarianism Virtue Ethics The Ethics of Care Feminist Ethics Judging Moral Theories The Moral Criteria of Adequacy Applying the Criteria: Utilitarianism; Kant's Theory Key Words Summary John Stuart Mill: Utilitarianism Immanuel Kant: Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals Aristotle: Nicomachean Ethics John Rawls, A Theory of Justice Annette C. Baier: The Need for More than Justice CHAPTER 3: ABORTION 1. Warren's Personhood Argument for Abortion Mary Anne Warren: On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion Stephen Schwarz: The Being in the Womb Is a Person Louis P. Pojman: Abortion: A Defense of the Personhood Argument Don Marquis: Why Abortion Is Immoral 2. Noonan's Personhood-at-Conception Argument Against Abortion John T. Noonan, Jr.: An Almost Absolute Value in History Michael Tooley: In Defense of Abortion and Infanticide Philip Devine: The Scope of the Prohibition Against Killing 3. Thomson's Self-Defense Argument for Abortion Judith Jarvis Thomson: A Defense of Abortion Francis J. Beckwith: Arguments from Bodily Rights: A Critical Analysis CHAPTER 4: SEX AND MARRIAGE 4. Goldman's Argument Against Conventional Sexual Morality Alan H. Goldman: Plain Sex Vincent C. Punzo: Morality and Human Sexuality 5. The Abnormality Argument Against Homosexuality Michael Levin: Why Homosexuality Is Abnormal Timothy F. Murphy: Homosexuality and Nature 6. The Essentialist Argument Against Gay Marriage Sam Schulman: Gay Marriage--and Marriage Jonathan Rauch: For Better or Worse? CHAPTER 5: EUTHANASIA AND ASSISTED SUICIDE 7. The Autonomy Argument for Euthanasia Daniel Callahan: When Self-Determination Runs Amok John Lachs: When Abstract Moralizing Runs Amok Ronald Dworkin, Thomas Nagel, et al.: The Philosophers' Brief 8. The Killing/Letting Die Argument James Rachels: Active and Passive Euthanasia Winston Nesbitt: Is Killing No Worse Than Letting Die? 9. The Slippery-Slope Argument Against Euthanasia Leon R. Kass: Why Doctors Must Not Kill Dan W. Brock: Voluntary Active Euthanasia CHAPTER 6: GENETIC ENGINEERING AND CLONING Gene Therapy Reproductive Cloning 10. The Beneficence Argument for Genetic Enhancement John Harris: Is Gene Therapy a Form of Eugenics? Walter Glannon: Genetic Enhancement 11. The Open-Future Argument Against Cloning Dan W. Brock: Cloning Human Beings: An Assessment of the Ethical Issues Pro and Con Soren Holm: A Life in the Shadow: One Reason Why We Should Not Clone Humans CHAPTER 7: THE DEATH PENALTY 12. Kant's Retributivism Argument for the Death Penalty Immanuel Kant: The Right of Publishing Igor Primoratz: A Life for a Life Stephen Nathanson: An Eye for an Eye? James S. Liebman, et al.: Capital Attrition: Error Rates in Capital Cases, 1973-1995 13. The Discrimination Argument Against the Death Penalty Paul G. Cassell: Administrative Objections Bryan Stevenson: Capital Punishment and The Legacy of Racial Bias in America 14. The Deterrence Argument for the Death Penalty Ernest van den Haag: On Deterrence and the Death Penalty Hugo Adam Bedau: Capital Punishment and Social Defense CHAPTER 8: WAR, TERRORISM, AND TORTURE War Terrorism Torture 15. The Pacifist Argument Against War Douglas P. Lackey: Pacifism Jan Narveson: Pacifism: A Philosophical Analysis 16. The Self-Defense Argument for War Michael Walzer: The Legalist Paradigm John Howard Yoder: When War Is Unjust: Being Honest in Just-War Thinking 17. The Just War Argument Against Terrorism Michael Walzer: Terrorism: A Critique of Excuses Haig Khatchadourian: The Morality of Terrorism Andrew Valls: Can Terrorism Be Justified? 18. The Ticking Bomb Argument for Torture Alan M. Dershowitz: The Case for Torturing the Ticking Bomb Terrorist David Luban: Liberalism, Torture, and the Ticking Bomb CHAPTER 9: PORNOGRAPHY 19. The Liberty Argument Against Censorship John Stuart Mill: On Liberty Nadine Strossen: Hate Speech and Pornography: Do We Have to Choose Between Freedom of Speech and Equality? Helen E. Longino: Pornography, Oppression, and Freedom 20. MacKinnon's Harm-to-Women Argument for Censorship Catharine A. MacKinnon: Pornography, Civil Rights, and Speech Ronald Dworkin: Women and Pornography Wendy Kaminer: Feminists Against the First Amendment CHAPTER 10: ECONOMIC JUSTICE: HEALTH CARE System Failures What Is Just? A Right to Health Care Rationing 21. Daniels's Argument for a Right to Health Care Norman Daniels: Is There a Right to Health Care and, if So, What Does It Encompass? Allen E. Buchanan: The Right to a Decent Minimum of Health Care 22. The Argument for Rationing by Moral Worthiness Brian Smart: Fault and the Allocation of Spare Organs Carl Cohen et al.: Alcoholics and Liver Transplantation CHAPTER 11: ANIMAL RIGHTS AND ENVIRONMENTAL DUTY 23. Singer's "All Animals Are Equal" Argument Peter Singer: All Animals Are Equal Carl Cohen: The Case for the Use of Animals in Biomedical Research Immanuel Kant: Our Duties to Animals 24. Regan's Argument for Animal Rights Tom Regan: The Case for Animal Rights Mary Anne Warren: The Rights of the Nonhuman World Roger Scruton: The Moral Status of Animals 25. The Suffering Argument for Vegetarianism James Rachels: The Moral Argument for Vegetarianism R. G. Frey: Moral Vegetarianism and the Argument from Pain and Suffering 26. Taylor's Argument for the Equality of All Life Paul W. Taylor: The Ethics of Respect for Nature David Schmidtz: Are All Species Equal? Albert Schweitzer: Reverence for Life CHAPTER 12: ECONOMIC JUSTICE AND GLOBAL OBLIGATIONS 27. Hardin's Lifeboat Argument Against Aiding the Poor Garrett Hardin: Living on a Lifeboat William W. Murdoch and Allan Oaten: A Critique of Lifeboat Ethics 28. Singer's Utilitarian Argument for Aiding the Poor Peter Singer: Famine, Affluence, and Morality Louis P. Pojman: World Hunger and Population Glossary Index

Lewis Vaughn - author or co-author of several books, including: Bioethics: Principles, Issues, and Cases (OUP, 2008); How to Think About Weird Things: Critical Thinking for a New Age, Fifth Edition (2007); Doing Ethics: Moral Reasoning and Contemporary Issues (2007); and Writing Philosophy: A Student's Guide to Writing Philosophy Essays (OUP, 2005).

 

"Lewis Vaughn's book can help me accomplish what I seek to do in a contemporary moral issues class: help students appreciate the importance and nuance of ethical problems, show them how to construct their own arguments, and provide them with the skills necessary to analyze and evaluate arguments and concepts."--Bryan Hilliard, Mississippi University for Women

"The main strength of this book is its focus on moral argumentation throughout. It contains more different types of arguments than most other anthologies on the market."--Nancy J. Matchett, University of Northern Colorado

"I especially like the sidebars and choices about what is relevant from surveys, facts and figures, and legal issues, etc. They are intelligent and illuminate the context of the issues in a helpful way."--David Hiley, University of New Hampshire

* A Companion Website at www.oup.com/us/vaughn

In Instructor Resources, there are:

• Summaries of every reading for main ideas and easy reference
  
• PowerPoint Lecture Outlines for each chapter
  
• A downloadable Testbank in Word format, which includes Multiple-Choice, True/False and Essay questions for each chapter.

 

* A Companion Website at www.oup.com/us/vaughn

Multiple Choice Self-Quizzes that test your knowledge of each chapter

Flashcards that highlight key terms and concepts

Helpful Web Links that guide further exploration of key issues