Contemporary Moral Arguments Readings in Ethical Issues

Taking a unique approach that emphasizes careful reasoning, this cutting-edge reader is structured around twenty-seven landmark arguments that have provoked heated debates on current ethical issues. Contemporary Moral Arguments: Readings in Ethical Issues, Second Edition, opens with an extensive two-chapter introduction to moral reasoning and moral theories 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; drugs and autonomy (new to this edition); 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-seven 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 NEW TO THIS EDITION: * An expanded introductory chapter on moral reasoning that dissects a sample essay step by step and includes exercises on arguments * A new chapter (4) on drugs and autonomy, including four classic articles * A new section on ethical egoism (in Chapter 2) and three additional readings in other chapters * Numerous updated text boxes that reflect the latest information on abortion, euthanasia and assisted suicide, genetic engineering, capital punishment, war and terrorism, and economic and global justice

*=New to this Edition; 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: ; * Reading and Evaluating Arguments; * Argument Exercises; 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: ; Ethical Egoism; 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; * Rosalind Hursthouse: Virtue Theory and Abortion; * CHAPTER 4: DRUGS AND AUTONOMY; * 4. The Harm Argument Against Drug Use; * James Q. Wilson: Against the Legalization of Drugs; * Douglas N. Husak: A Moral Right to Use Drugs; * 5. The Argument Against Paternalism; * Gerald Dworkin: Paternalism; * John Hospers: What Libertarianism Is; CHAPTER 5: EUTHANASIA AND ASSISTED SUICIDE; 6. The Autonomy Argument for Euthanasia; Ronald Dworkin, Thomas Nagel, et al.: The Philosophers' Brief; Daniel Callahan: When Self-Determination Runs Amok; John Lachs: When Abstract Moralizing Runs Amok; 7. The Killing/Letting Die Argument; James Rachels: Active and Passive Euthanasia; Winston Nesbitt: Is Killing No Worse Than Letting Die?; 8. 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; 9. The Beneficence Argument for Genetic Enhancement; John Harris: Is Gene Therapy a Form of Eugenics?; Walter Glannon: Genetic Enhancement; 10. 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; 11. Kant's Retributivism Argument for the Death Penalty; Immanuel Kant: The Right of Punishing; 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; 12. The Discrimination Argument Against the Death Penalty; Paul G. Cassell: Administrative Objections; Bryan Stevenson: Capital Punishment and The Legacy of Racial Bias in America; 13. 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; 14. The Pacifist Argument Against War; Douglas P. Lackey: Pacifism; Jan Narveson: Pacifism: A Philosophical Analysis; 15. The Self-Defense Argument for War; Michael Walzer: The Legalist Paradigm; John Howard Yoder: When War Is Unjust: Being Honest in Just-War Thinking; 16. The Just War Argument Against Terrorism; Haig Khatchadourian: The Morality of Terrorism; Michael Walzer: Terrorism: A Critique of Excuses; Andrew Valls: Can Terrorism Be Justified?; 17. The Ticking Bomb Argument for Torture; Alan M. Dershowitz: The Case for Torturing the Ticking Bomb Terrorist; CHAPTER 9: PORNOGRAPHY AND FREE SPEECH; 18. 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; John Arthur: Sticks and Stones; 19. 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; ECONOMIC JUSTICE: HEALTH CARE; 20. 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; 21. 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; 22. 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; 23. 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; 24. The Suffering Argument for Vegetarianism; James Rachels: The Moral Argument for Vegetarianism; R. G. Frey: Moral Vegetarianism and the Argument from Pain and Suffering; 25. 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; * William F. Baxter: People or Penguins?; CHAPTER 12: ECONOMIC JUSTICE AND GLOBAL OBLIGATIONS; 26. 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; 27. 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 is the author or coauthor of several books, including Philosophy Here and Now (2012), Bioethics, Second Edition (2012), The Power of Critical Thinking, Fourth Edition (2012), and Great Philosophical Arguments (2011), all published by Oxford University Press.