The Moral Life

The late Louis P. Pojman was Professor of Philosophy at the United States Military Academy at West Point. He is the author or editor of more than thirty books including Classics of Philosophy, Third Edition (OUP, 2010). Lewis Vaughn is the author or coauthor of numerous books, including Bioethics, Fourth Edition (2019), The Power of Critical Thinking, Sixth Edition, (2018), Philosophy Here and Now, Third Edition (2019), and Living Philosophy, Third Edition (2021), all published by Oxford University Press. He also publishes Doing Ethics, Fifth Edition (2018) with W.W. Norton.

• PrefaceIntroductionPart I: The Nature of Morality: Good and Evil1. What is the Purpose of Morality?William Golding, Lord of the Flies: A Moral AllegoryLouis P. Pojman, On the Nature and Purpose of Morality: Reflections on William Golding's Lord of the FliesThomas Hobbes, On the State of Nature2. Good and EvilHerman Melville, Billy BuddFyodor Dostoevsky, Why Is There Evil?William Styron, Sophie's ChoicePhilip Hallie, From Cruelty to GoodnessPhilippa Foot, Natural GoodnessRichard Taylor, On the Origin of Good and Evil3. Is Everything Relative?Herodotus, Custom Is KingRuth Benedict, The Case for Moral RelativismDavid Enoch, Why I Am an Objectivist about Ethics (And Why You Are, Too)James Rachels, Why Morality Is Not RelativeJean Bethke Elshtain, Judge Not?Mary Midgley, Trying Out One's New SwordHenrick Ibsen, The Enemy of the PeoplePart II: Moral Theories and Moral Character4. UtilitarianismSeaman Holmes and the Longboat of William Brown, Reported by John William WallaceJeremy Bentham, Classical UtilitarianismJohn Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism RefinedKai Nielsen, A Defense of UtilitarianismBernard Williams, Against UtilitarianismUrsula Le Guin, The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas5. Deontological EthicsImmanuel Kant, The Moral LawWilliam K. Frankena, Kant's TheoryW. D. Ross, IntuitionismAmbrose Bierce, A Horseman in the SkyCharles Fried, The Evil of LyingPlato, Does Morality Depend on Religion?James Rachels, The Divine Command TheoryThomas Nagel, Moral LuckCarl Dennis, New Year's Eve6. Virtue EthicsAristotle, Virtue EthicsAlasdair MacIntyre, The VirtuesSusan Wolf, Moral SaintsNathaniel Hawthorne, The Great Stone FaceWilliam K. Frankena, A Critique of Virtue-Based Ethical SystemsJesus of Nazareth, The Sermon on the Mount; The Good SamaritanLeo Tolstoy, How Much Land Does a Man Need? GreedEpictetus and Others, The Stoic CatechismVice Admiral James Stockdale, The World of Epictetus: Courage and Endurance7. Feminist Ethics and the Ethics of CareAlison M. Jaggar, Feminist EthicsJan Crosthwaite, Gender and BioethicsAnnette C. Baier, The Need for More than JusticeVirginia Held, The Ethics of CarePart III Moral Issues8. Ethics and Egoism: Why Should We Be Moral?Plato, The Ring of GygesAyn Rand, In Defense of Ethical EgoismLouis P. Pojman, Egoism and Altruism: A Critique of Ayn RandJames Rachels, A Critique of Ethical Egoism9. Does Life Have Meaning?Voltaire, The Good BrahminEpicurus, HedonismAlbert Camus, Life Is AbsurdViktor Frankl, The Human Search for Meaning: Reflections on Auschwitz* John Messerly, The Ascent of MeaningBertrand Russell, Reflections on SufferingRichard Taylor, The Meaning of LifePart IV: Applied Ethics: Moral Problems10. Sexism and MisogynyAnn E. Cudd and Leslie Jones, SexismKate Manne with Sean Illing, What We Get Wrong about MisogynyCharlotte Perkins Gilman, The Yellow Wallpaper11. Racism, Equity, and PrivilegeLawrence Blum, Racism: What It Is and Isn'tNaomi Zack, Uses and Abuses of the Discourse of White PrivilegeEduardo Bonilla-Silva, Racism Without RacistsShannon Sullivan, Good White Liberals12. Free Speech and Hate SpeechSigal Ben-Porath, Free Speech on CampusRichard Stengel and Conor Friedersdorf, Two Views of Speech LawsErwin Chemerinsky and Howard Gillman, Hate Speech13. Pandemic EhicsMichael Sandel with Colleen Walsh, Why Some Americans Refuse to Social Distance and Wear MasksEzekiel J. Emanuel, Govind Persad, Ross Upshur, Et Al., Fair Allocation of Scarce Medical Resources in the Time of COVID-1914. Food EthicsGeorge Orwell, Shooting an ElephantTristram McPherson, How to Argue for (and Against) Ethical VeganismJoel Salatin, Animal WelfareAlastair Norcross, Puppies, Pigs, and People: Eating Meat and Marginal Cases15. The Ethics of Climate ChangeRobert Heilbroner, What Has Prosperity Ever Done for Me?Stephen M. Gardiner, A Perfect Moral Storm: Climate ChangeJohn Broome, The Public and Private Morality of Climate Change

I believe this is one of the best ethics anthologies available... It gives a good selection of traditional and important ethical theories, excerpts of classics in the field, applications of ethics to current controversies and other materials that exemplify the abstract theories." - Glen A. Mazis, Penn State Harrisburg