"There is no meaning to life except the meaning man gives his life by the unfolding of his powers." -Erich Fromm Are we primarily determined by nature or nurture? What are the best ways that people can live productively? In Man for Himself, renowned social philosopher Erich Fromm posits: With the gifts of self-consciousness and imagination, any individual can give his or her own unique answer. This answer is rooted in our human nature, and should...

"Martha C. Nussbaum, Recipient of the Prince of Asturias Award for Social Sciences for 2012" Judith Jarvis Thomson is Professor of Philosophy at Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is the author of The Realm of Rights; Rights, Restitution, and Risk: Essays in Moral Theory; and Acts and Other Events. She coauthored Moral Relativism and Moral Objectivity and edited On Being and Saying: Essays for Richard Cartwright. How should we live? What...

One of the theological classics of the twentieth century, Niebuhr's Moral Man and Immoral Society argues that using moral persuasion and shaming to affect the behavior of such collectives as corporations and nation states is fruitless, as these groups will inevitably seek to promote only their self-interest. He calls for a realistic assessment of group behavior and enumerates how individual morality can mitigate social immorality. This edition includes...

An accessible introduction to ethics through engaging dialogues Talking About Ethics provides the reader with all of the tools necessary to develop a coherent approach to ethical decision making. Using the tools of ethical theory, the authors show how these theories play out in relation to a wide variety of ethical questions using an accessible dialogue format. The chapters follow three college students as they discuss today's most important ethical...

First published in 1751, "An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals" by David Hume, the Scottish Enlightenment philosopher, was the enquiry subsequent to his 1748 work "Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding" and is often referred to as "the second Enquiry". In Hume's own opinion it was the very best of all his writings. In "An Enquiry Concerning the Principles of Morals", Hume expands upon his ideas of morality first discussed in his earlier...

Li Zehou's thought has achieved wide popularity and influence among both academic readers and the broader Chinese-reading public. His culminating views on ethics are collected here in a series of essays that highlight the importance of Confucian philosophy today. Li's groundbreaking ethics presents a powerful contemporary theory-one that inventively reconciles longstanding oppositions between relativism and absolutism, emotions and rationalism, and...

John M. Cooper is Stuart Professor of Philosophy at Princeton University. He is the author of Reason and Human Good in Aristotle and Plato's "Theaetetus." He is the general editor of Plato: Complete Works and also coedited Seneca: Moral and Political Essays with J. F. Procopé. This book brings together twenty-three distinctive and influential essays on ancient moral philosophy--including several published here for the first time--by the distinguished...

In this seminal work of moral philosophy, Immanuel Kant establishes the foundation for ethical thought based on reason alone. Written in 1785, Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysic of Morals presents a rigorous argument for the a priori basis of morality, independent of empirical influence. Positioned between his Critique of Pure Reason and later writings on practical ethics, this text introduces the categorical imperative, a central concept...

The use of assisted reproductive technologies (ART)--in vitro fertilization, artificial insemination, and gestational surrogacy--challenges contemporary notions of what it means to be parents or families. Camisha A. Russell argues that these technologies also bring new insight to ideas and questions surrounding race. In her view, if we think of ART as medical technology, we might be surprised by the importance that people using them put on race, especially...

The reality and validity of the moral sense - which ordinary people take for granted - took a battering in the last century. Materialist trends in philosophy, decline in religious faith, and a loosening of traditional moral constraints contributed to a shift in public attitudes, with many decent honest folk both aware of a questioning of moral claims and uneasy with a world that has no place for the moral dimension. Haslam shows how important the...