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Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction: On the Nature of Morality 1
Pt. I The Nature of Morality: Good and Evil 5
1 What Is the Purpose of Morality? 7
William Golding: Lord of the Flies: A Moral Allegory 8
Louis P. Pojman: On the Nature and Purpose of Morality: Reflections on William Golding's Lord of the Flies 31
Thomas Hobbes: On the State of Nature 41
2 Good and Evil 54
Herman Melville: Billy Budd 57
Fyodor Dostoevsky: Why Is There Evil? 69
William Styron: Sophie's Choice 75
Kevin Bales: The New Slavery 83
Philip Hallie: From Cruelty to Goodness 93
Stanley Benn: Wickedness 108
Friedrich Nietzsche: Beyond Good and Evil 127
Richard Taylor: On the Origin of Good and Evil 141
3 Is Everything Relative? 155
Herodotus: Custom Is King 156
Ruth Benedict: The Case for Moral Relativism 157
Louis P. Pojman: The Case Against Moral Relativism 166
Jean Bethke Elshtain: Judge Not? 191
Henrick Ibsen: The Enemy of the People 201
Pt. II Moral Theories and Moral Character 223
4 Utilitarianism 227
Seaman Holmes and the Longboat of William Brown, Reported by John William Wallace 229
Jeremy Bentham: Classical Utilitarianism 231
Kai Nielsen: A Defense of Utilitarianism 237
Bernard Williams: Against Utilitarianism 252
Ursula Le Guin: The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas 265
Aldous Huxley: The Utilitarian Social Engineer and the Savage 272
5 Deontological Ethics 295
Immanuel Kant: The Moral Law 297
W. D. Ross: Intuitionism 317
R. M. MacIver: The Deep Beanty of the Golden Rule 332
Richard Whatley: A Critique of the Golden Rule 337
Ambrose Bierce: A Horseman in the Sky 340
Charles Fried: The Evil of Lying 346
Susan Glaspell: A Jury of Her Peers 356
Plato: Does Morality Depend on Religion? 370
Thomas Nagel: Moral Luck 374
6 Virtue Ethics 388
Victor Hugo: The Bishop and the Candlesticks 390
Aristotle: Virtue Ethics 407
Bernard Mayo: Virtue and the Moral Life 423
Nathaniel Hawthorne: The Great Stone Face 429
William Frankena: A Critique of Virtue-Based Ethical Systems 447
7 Virtues and Vices 459
Jesus of Nazareth: The Sermon on the Mount; The Good Samaritan 460
Leo Tolstoy: How Much Land Does a Man Need? Greed 464
Immanuel Kant: Jealousy, Malice, and Ingratitude 478
Martin Gansberg: Moral Cowardice 486
Helen Keller: Three Days to See: Gratitude 490
Epictetus and Others: The Stoic Catechism 500
Plutarch: In Consolation to His Wife: Equanimity 512
Vice Admiral James Stockdale: The World of Epictetus: Courage and Endurance 521
The Story of David and Bathsheba: Lust 535
Leo Tolstoy: Where Love Is, There Is God: Love 539
Bertrand Russell: Reflections on Suffering 544
Charles Colson: The Volunteer at Auschwitz: Altruism 550
Pt. III Moral Issues 557
8 Ethics and Egoism: Why Should We Be Moral? 559
Plato: The Ring of Gyges 561
Ayn Rand: In Defense of Ethical Egoism 569
Louis P. Pojman: Egoism and Altruism: A Critique of Ayn Rand 580
James Rachels: A Critique of Ethical Egoism 588
9 Does Life Have Meaning? 604
Voltaire: The Good Brahmin 606
Epicurus: Hedonism 609
Albert Camus: Life Is Absurd 616
Lois Hope Walker: Religion Gives Meaning to Life 623
Viktor Frank: The Human Search for Meaning: Reflections on Auschwitz 630
Siddhartha Gautama, the Buddha: The Four Noble Truths 638
Robert Nozick: The Experience Machine 644
10 Freedom, Autonomy, and Self-Respect 648
Martin Luther King, Jr.: I Have a Dream 649
Maya Angelou: Graduation 653
Stanley Milgram: An Experiment in Autonomy 666
Jean-Paul Sartre: Existentialism Is a Humanism 681
Thomas E. Hill, Jr.: Servility and Self-Respect 691
John Benson: Who Is the Autonomous Man? 703
Kurt Vonnegut: Harrison Bergeron 719
Pt. IV Allied Ethics: Moral Problems 727
11 Sex, Love, and Marriage 729
John Barth: Pansexuality 731
Immanuel Kant: On the Place of Sex in Human Existence 732
John McMurtry: Monogamy: A Critique 735
Michael D. Bayles: Marriage, Love, and Procreation: A Critique of McMurtry 746
Bonnie Steinbock: What's Wrong with Adultery? 760
C. S. Lewis: We Have No "Right to Happiness" 767
Hugh LaFollette: Licensing Parents 772
12 Is Abortion Morally Permissible? 787
John T. Noonan, Jr.: Abortion Is Not Morally Permissible 789
Mary Anne Warren: Abortion Is Morally Permissible 797
Jane English: The Moderate Position: Beyond the Personhood Argument 806
13 Substance Abuse: Drugs and Alcohol 818
John Stuart Mill: On Liberty 820
Gore Vidal: Drugs Should Be Legalized 824
William Bennett: Drugs Should Not Be Legalized 827
Yoshida Kenko: On Drinking 833
Bonnie Steinbock: Drunk Driving 836
14 Our Duties to Animals 850
George Orwell: Shooting an Elephant 852
Immanuel Kant: We Have Only Indirect Duties to Animals 859
Peter Singer: Animal Liberation: All Animals Are Equal 861
Carl Cohen: The Case Against Animal Rights 878
15 Our Duties to the Environment 885
Sophocles: On Mankind's Power over Nature 891
Robert Heilbroner: What Has Posterity Ever Done for Me? 892
Garrett Hardin: The Tragedy of the Commons 897
William F. Baxter: People or Penguins: The Case for Optimal Pollution 915
16 International Justice and the Threat of Terrorism 924
God's Command to Destroy Jericho and Ai 931
Martha C. Nussbaum: Compassion and Terror 937
Louis P. Pojman: The Cosmopolitan Response to Terrorism 962
