An Introduction to Buddhist Ethics

• 1. Shared foundations of Buddhist ethics: sources of guidance to Buddhists; Rebirth and karma; The four noble truths; Philosophy of action; 2. Key Buddhist values; giving; Keeping the lay precepts; Monastic values; Ethics of inter-personal relationships; Loving kindness and compassion; Social ethics; 3. Mahayana emphases and adaptations: the path of the Bodhisattva; The ethics of the Bodhisattva; Skilful means and overriding precepts; Specific strands of Mahayana thought and practice; Mahayana reassessment of monasticism; 4. Attitude to and treatment of the natural world; Humanity's place in nature; Non-harming of animals; Positive regard, and help, for animals; Plants, trees and forests; Conservation and environmentalism; 5. Economic ethics; Lay economic ethics; The monastic economy; Buddhism and capitalism: Weber's 'Protestant Ethic' thesis; 'Buddhist economics'; Buddhism and economics in the modern world; 6. War and peace; Buddhist analyses of the causes of conflict; Solutions to conflict; Non-violent reflections on a violent world; The position of the soldier; Buddhist 'justifications' of and involvement in, violence; Buddhist action for peace in the modern world; 7. Suicide and euthanasia; considerations and arguments against suicide; Suicide and the precepts; Euthanasia; 8. Abortion and contraception; Embryonic life; Abortion and Buddhist principles; Contraception; Abortion in Buddhist cultures; Anti-abortion but pro-choice?: the relationship between morality and law; 9. The status of women: women in early Hinduism; the effect of Buddhism; The spiritual potential and achievement of women; Gender, rebirth and the status of women; Views on spiritual statuses unattainable by women; Images of wise and wayward women; Ascetic wariness of the opposite sex; The ordination of women; Nuns and other female religious roles in Buddhist cultures; Lay women in Buddhist texts; Lay women in Buddhist cultures; 10. Homosexuality and other forms of 'Queerness'; Sex change; Hermaphrodites; Pandakas; Homosexual acts; Homosexuality in Buddhist cultures.

'Marks the beginning of a new era in the study of Buddhist ethics … an accessible and authoritative way in to a subject that is sure to become one of the major growth areas in Buddhist Studies.' Expository Times