MU Libraries New Books: Ethics

About the new book list

11/18/2009

The RSS feeds for the new books list is updated every Wednesday and contains a list of books added to the Ellis Library collection for the last six weeks. The titles are grouped by call number classification, and are listed by week and alphabetically by title.

Books for the most recent weeks are currently on the New Books Shelves inside the north entrance of Ellis Library. They can be checked out.

A code of Jewish ethics / Joseph Telushkin. (11/11/2009)

11/11/2009

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From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. All societies have ethical codes that distinguish between right and wrong actions. For Jews, this is especially significant since Judaism ranks behavior as more important than belief. Behavioral prescriptions are set forth in sacred writings, anecdotes, medieval codes, rabbinical teachings and present-day stories. Telushkin—scholar, author, lecturer, teacher and rabbi—is compiling this voluminous material in order to help Jews "become more honest, decent, and just people." He plans to present his research in a three-volume series of which You Shall Be Holy is the first. Its primary emphasis is character development, while later volumes will deal with interpersonal relationships and issues of family, friendship and community. This installment is divided into five sections: the task of a lifetime; basic vices and virtues; fair speech; leading a holy life; God and ethics. Basic vices and virtues take up 257 pages, by far the longest section. Here and in the section on fair speech, there are especially stimulating discussions of when hatred and lying are permissible. Telushkin is definitive in his judgments about what is right and wrong behavior. This is an outstanding contribution to understanding Jewish ethics and their relevance for people of all faiths. (Mar. 7)
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Call #: BJ1285.2 .T45 2006

Everyday ethics and social change : the education of desire / Anna L. Peterson. (11/11/2009)

11/11/2009

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Review

"Anna L. Peterson has hit upon an important topic: that there is a profound disconnection between the private virtues we evince in caring personal relationships and the ethical decisions we make in the public arena. Exploring the reasons for this disconnection, Peterson contends that we need to generalize and project the best of our private virtues into the public sphere. Her book challenges readers to acknowledge this disconnection and seek ways to overcome it." -- David Harmon, the George Wright Society

Call #: BJ37 .P48 2009

Free will and Continental philosophy : the death without meaning / David Edward Rose. (11/4/2009)

11/4/2009

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Product Description

Offers a detailed and original analysis of the concept of free will in the Continental philosophical tradition. "Free Will and Continental Philosophy" explores the concepts of free-will and self-determination in the Continental philosophical tradition. David Rose examines the ways in which Continental philosophy offers a viable alternative to the hegemonic scientistic approach taken by analytic philosophy. Rose claims that the problem of free-will is only a problem if one makes an unnecessary assumption consistent with scientific rationalism. In the sphere of human action we assume that, since action is a physical event, it must be reducible to the laws and concepts of science. Hence, the problematic nature of free will raises its head, since the concept of free will is intrinsically contradictory to such a reductionist outlook. This book suggests that the Continental thinkers offer a compelling alternative by concentrating on the phenomena of human action and self-determination in order to offer the truth of freedom in different terms. Thus Rose offers a revealing investigation into the appropriate concepts and categories of human freedom and action. "Continuum Studies in Continental Philosophy" presents cutting-edge scholarship in the field of modern European thought. The wholly original arguments, perspectives and research findings in titles in this series make it an important and stimulating resource for students and academics from across the discipline. --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Call #: BJ1461 .R67 2009

Situational traits of character : dispositional foundations and implications for moral psychology and friendship / Candace L. Upton. (11/4/2009)

11/4/2009

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Call #: BJ1531 .U68 2009

The problem of moral demandingness : new philosophical essays / edited by Timothy Chappell. (11/4/2009)

11/4/2009

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Call #: BJ1451 .P76 2009

The geography of good and evil : philosophical investigations / Andreas Kinneging translated by Ineke Hardy edited by Jonathan Price. (10/28/2009)

10/28/2009

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Product Description

Contrary to the fashionable view in the Western world, good and evil are objective aspects of the world, contends the Dutch philosopher Andreas Kinneging in this latest entry in ISI's "Crosscurrents" series. Good and evil are not figments of the mind or the subjective creations of men; they are inherent in creation. They are not to be invented, but discovered. Thus, just as a geographer maps the physical globe, the geographer of good and evil must map the universe of good and evil. This, of course, is precisely what the tradition of classical and medieval natural law maintains. Kinneging contributes to that tradition by reformulating and defending its central insights in a way today's readers will understand - and find persuasive. Kinneging lays out the metaphysical and epistemological foundations of virtue and vice and discusses the merits of alternative moral notions, such as 'duties' and 'rights'. He contrasts the traditional, natural law view of the family with the modern view. And in a long chapter on conservatism he establishes that true conservatism consists in a defense of the classical and medieval natural law tradition against newfangled views derived from the Enlightenment and Romanticism. "The Geography of Good and Evil" establishes Andreas Kinneging as one of contemporary Europe's wisest and most insightful moral philosophers.

Call #: BJ1405.D8 K5613 2009

Harming future persons : ethics, genetics and the nonidentity problem / Melinda A. Roberts, David T. Wasserman, editors. (10/21/2009)

10/21/2009

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Product Description

This collection of essays investigates the obligations we have in respect of future persons, from our own future offspring to distant future generations. Can we harm them? Can we wrong them? Can the fact that our choice brings a worse off person into existence in place of a better off but "nonidentical" person make that choice wrong?

We intuitively think we are obligated to treat future persons in accordance with certain stringent standards—roughly those we think apply to our treatment of existing persons. We think we ought to create better lives for at least some future persons when we can do so without making things worse for too many existing or other future persons. We think it would be wrong to engage in risky behaviors today that will have clearly adverse effects for the children we intend one day to conceive. And we think it would be wrong to act today in a way that would turn the Earth of the future into a miserable place.

Each of these intuitive points is, however, challenged by the nonidentity problem. That problem arises from the observation that future persons often owe their very existence to choices that appear to make things worse for those same persons. New reproductive technologies, for example, can be both risky and essential to one person’s coming into existence in place of a "nonidentical" other or no one at all. But so can a myriad of other choices, whether made just prior to conception or centuries before—choices that seem to have nothing to do with procreation but in fact help to determine the timing and manner of conception of any particular future person and thus the identity of that person. Where the person’s life is worth living, it is difficult to see how he or she has been harmed, or made worse off, or wronged, by such an identity-determining choice. We then face the full power of the nonidentity problem: if the choice is not bad for the future person it seems most adversely to affect, then on what basis do we say that choice is wrong?

The nonidentity problem has implications for moral theory, population policy, procreative choice, children’s rights, bioethics, environmental ethics, the law and reparations for historical injustices. The contributors to this collection offer new understandings of the nonidentity problem and evaluate an array of proposed solutions to it. Aimed at philosophers, legal scholars, bioethicists and students in all these disciplines, this collection is a thorough exploration of one of the most fascinating and important moral issues of our time.

Call #: BJ1469 .H37 2009

Evil and silence / Richard Fleming. (10/14/2009)

10/14/2009

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Review

Not an interpretation of Austin's or Cavell's or Wittgenstein's ordinary language philosophy but the continuation of it, a trial of how far acknowledging our common forms of speech and action can take anyone, how far toward disentangling our violence, injustice, unfreedom Richard Fleming's philosophical exercises seek peace on just these terms. That speaking presumes stillness, that silence resists us, that evil goes unfought unless accepted, to such austere conditions his words remain responsible. A sequel to First Word Philosophy, Fleming's Evil and Silence undoes the confusions we have become. All that's ordinary here is everything. --Ralph M. Berry, Chair of the Department of English, Florida State University

Not an interpretation of Austin's or Cavell's or Wittgenstein's ordinary language philosophy but the continuation of it, a trial of how far acknowledging our common forms of speech and action can take anyone, how far toward disentangling our violence, injustice, unfreedom Richard Fleming's philosophical exercises seek peace on just these terms. That speaking presumes stillness, that silence resists us, that evil goes unfought unless accepted, to such austere conditions his words remain responsible. A sequel to First Word Philosophy, Fleming's Evil and Silence undoes the confusions we have become. All that's ordinary here is everything. --Ralph M. Berry, Chair of the Department of English, Florida State University<br /><br />Richard Fleming writes in a voice unique among contemporary American philosophers. He is unlikely to be read much by the professional philosophers who dominate the academy. Yet his learning is large and generous, and his debts to writers like Wittgenstein and Cavell are well-incurred. He manages to take risks and yet remain calm and even-tempered in his raids on the inarticulate. His prose upsets our cultural certainties, without being aggressive. He manages to be out of step with almost every trend I can think of. The one trend he consistently stays true to is the strain of American simplicity (which is anything but simple) that runs from Emily Dickinson and Henry Thoreau down to Beckett and (he would argue) John Cage. His questions continue to throb: How do we approach the everyday, if we are already there? --Timothy Gould, Department of Philosophy, Metropolitan State College of Denver

Call #: BJ1401 .F56 2010

The rediscovery of the highest good : a philosophical and critical ethic / Stuart C. Hackett. (9/30/2009)

9/30/2009

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Call #: BJ1012 .H23 2009

The retrieval of ethics / Talbot Brewer. (9/30/2009)

9/30/2009

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Product Description
Talbot Brewer presents an invigorating new approach to ethical theory, in the context of human selfhood and agency. The first main theme of the book is that contemporary ethical theorists have focused too narrowly on actions and the discrete episodes of deliberation through which we choose them, and that the subject matter of the field looks quite different if one looks instead at unfolding activities and the continuous forms of evaluative awareness that carry them forward and that constitute an essential element of those activities. The second is that ethical reflection is itself a centrally important life activity, and that philosophical ethics is an extension of this practical activity rather than a merely theoretical reflection upon it.

Brewer's approach is founded on a far-reaching reconsideration of the notions of the nature and sources of human agency, and particularly of the way in which practical thinking gives shape to activities, relationships and lives. He contests the usual understanding of the relationship between philosophical psychology and ethics. The Retrieval of Ethics shows the need for a new contemplative vision of the point or value of human action--without which we will remain unable to make optimal sense of our efforts to unify our lives around a tenable conception of how best to live them, or of the yearnings that draw us to our ideals and to each other.

About the Author

Talbot Brewer is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Virginia.

Call #: BJ1012 .B675 2009

The normativity of the natural : human goods, human virtues, and human flourishing / edited by Mark J. Cherry. (9/23/2009)

9/23/2009

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Product Description
Western philosophy has long nurtured the hope to resolve moral controversies through reason; thereby to secure moral direction and human meaning without the need for a defining encounter with God or the transcendent. The expectation is for a moral rationality that is universal and able adequately to frame and guide the moral life. Moral and cultural unity was sought though philosophical reflection on human nature and the basic goods of a properly nurtured and virtuous life - that is, through appeal to what has come to be called the natural law. The natural law addresses permissible moral choice through objective understandings of human nature and human goods. Persons are obligated to act in ways that are compatible with creating and integrating the basic human goods into their lives and the lives of others. Such goods provide the basis for practical reasoning about virtuous choices and immediate reasons for action. The goal is the making of rational choices in the pursuit of a virtuous, flourishing, human life. Natural law theorists have argued extensively against human cloning, abortion, and same-gender marriage. Yet, whose assumptions regarding human nature should guide our understanding of the basic goods that mark the full flourishing human life? Moreover, why should nature, even human nature, be thought of as a moral boundary beyond which one must not trespass? Persons may wish actively to direct human evolution, utilizing the tools of both imagination and biotechnology. Perhaps nature is simply a challenge to be addressed, overcome, and set aside. This volume is a critical exploration of natural law theory.

Call #: BJ1012 .N67 2009