Ethics

by Peter Singer

Paper Book, 1994

Status

Available

Call number

170

Genres

Collection

Gifts

Publication

Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1994.

Description

What is ethics? Where does it come from? Can we really hope to find any rational way of deciding how we ought to live? If we can, what would it be like, and how are we going to know when we have found it? This book is not a conventional reader in moral philosophy. To capture the essentials of what we know about the origins and nature of ethics, Peter Singer has drawn on anthropology, history, observations of non-human animals, the theory of evolution, game theory, and works of fiction, in addition to moral philosophy. By choosing some of the finest pieces of writing, old and new, in and about ethics, he conveys the intellectual excitement of the search for answers to basic questions about how we ought to live.

User reviews

LibraryThing member WalkerMedia

This text packs 90 excerpts into just over 400 pages. Although these excerpts must be brief, Singer has chosen well as an editor to maximize the content communicated by each, to give the reader exposure to as many different points of view as possible. Although he gives a brief introduction to each

chapter, the excerpts themselves are unadorned by questions to ponder or other such pedagogical devices. Instead, the readings within each section are carefully arranged so that the questions will arise from the reader's mind, in noting the contrasts between selections. A bibliography and a short biographical paragraph for each anthologized writer are included at the end of the book. This text is a sourcebook to be cited by a gifted lecturer, or an appetizer for readers who might wish to get a feel for the diversity of the field before reading further in original works. While the choice of works and arrangement do provide some structure and guidance, the reader is not dominated by exposition, which may be an ethical statement in itself. Not recommended as the sole work on ethics for a reader, but an interesting and accessible sampling.

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