Ethics in Practice (Blackwell Philosophy Anthologies)

694 Pages·2002·36.93 MB·English

by  Hugh LaFollette

Second Edition
Edited by
Hugh LaFollette
East Tennessee State University
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First published 1997 by Blackwell Publishing Ltd
Second edition published 2002
Reprinted 2002
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Preface for Instructors IX
Acknowledgments Xli
General Introduction
Theorizing about Ethics 3
Reading Philosophy 12
Part I Life and Death
Euthanasia 19
Rule-Utilitarianism and Euthanasia
Brad Hooker [W] 22
2 Against the Right to Die
J. David Velleman [NR] 32
3 Justifying Physician-Assisted Deaths
Tom L. Beauchamp [W] 40
4 Dying at the Right Time: Reflections on (Un)Assisted Suicide
John Hardwig [W] 48
Abortion 60
5 A Defense of Abortion
Judith Jarvis Thomson 63
6 On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion
Mary Anne Warren [R] 72
7 An Argument that Abortion is Wrong
Don Marquis [W] 83
8 Virtue Theory and Abortion
Rosalind Hursthouse [NR] 94
N: New to second edition R: Revised for Ethics in Practice W: Written for Ethics in Practice
Contents
Animals 104
9 All Animals Are Equal Peter Singer 107
10 The Moral Community Michael Allen Fox 117
II Moral Standing, the Value of Lives, and Speciesism
R. G. Frey 128
12 The Case for Animal Rights
Tom Regan 140
Part II The Personal Life
Family and Reproductive Technology l49
13 What Do Grown Children Owe Their Parents?
Jane English 152
14 Emotional Exploitation
Sandra Lee Bartky [R] 156
15 Morality, Parents, and Children
James Rachels 167
16 Artificial Means of Reproduction and Our Understanding ofthe Family
Ruth Macklin [N] 178
17 Is Women's Labor a Commodity?
Elizabeth S. Anderson [N] 187
18 "Goodbye, Dolly?": the Ethics of Human Cloning
John Harris [N] 199
Sexuality 209
19 What's Wrong with Rape?
Pamela Foa 212
20 Morality and Human Sexuality
Vincent C. Punzo 220
21 Plain Sex
Alan H. Goldman 225
22 Why Homosexuality is Abnormal
Michael Levin [R] 233
23 Homosexuality and the Moral Relevance of Experience
John Corvino [NW] 241
Virtues 251
24 Servility and Self-Respect
Thomas E. Hill, Jr. 254
25 On Improving People by Political Means
Lester H. Hunt 261
26 Generosity
James D. Wallace 272
27 Humility
Judith Andre [NR] 276
Part III Liberty and Equality
Paternalism and Risk 287
28 Freedom of Action
John Stuart Mill 290
29 Against the Legalization of Drugs
James Q Wilson 295
Contents
30 The War on Drugs is Lost
William F. Buckley Jr., et al. [N] 300
31 Permissible Paternalism: Saving Smokers from Themselves
Robert E. Goodin [R] 307
32 The Liberal Basis of the Right to Bear Arms
Todd C. Hughes and Lester H. Hunt [NR] 313
33 Gun Control
Hugh LaFollette [N] 325
Free Speech 338
34 Freedom of Thought and Discussion
John Stuart Mill 340
35 Sex, Lies, and Pornography
Ann Garry [NR] 344
36 MacKinnon's Words
Ronald Dworkin [N] 356
37 Sticks and Stones
John Arthur [W] 364
38 Speech Codes and Expressive Harm
Andrew Altman [NW] 376
Sexual and Racial Discrimination 386
39 Racisms
Kwame Anthony Appiah 389
40 Sexual Harassment
Anita M. Superson 400
41 Date Rape
Lois Pineau 410
42 Men in Groups: Collective Responsibility for Rape
Larry M~y and Robert Strikwerda [R] 418
Affirmative Action 428
43 Affirmative Action
Michael Levin 431
44 The Rights of Allan Bakke
Ronald Dworkin 441
45 Affirmative Action as Equalizing Opportunity:
Challenging the Myth of "Preferential Treatment"
Luke Charles Harris and Uma Narayan [W] 448
Part IV Justice
Punishment 463
46 Punishment and Desert
James Rachels [W] 466
47 Repentance and Criminal Punishment
Jeffrie G. Murphy [R] 475
48 Making Hard Time Even Harder
Lynn Pasquerella [W] 481
49 In Defense of the Death Penalty
Louis Pojman [N] 493
50 Against the Death Penalty
Jeffrey Reiman [N] 503
®
Contents
Economic Justice 511
51 A Theory of Justice
John Rawls 514
52 The Entitlement Theory of Justice
Robert Nozick 527
53 Displacing the Distributive Paradigm
Iris Marion Young 540
54 Economic Competition: Should We Care About the Losers?
Jonathan Woif.T[NW] 551
World Hunger and International Justice 560
55 Free Movement: If People Were Money
Robert E. Goodin [R] 563
56 Famine, Affluence, and Morality
Peter Singer 572
57 Famine Relief and the Ideal Moral Code
John Arthur [NW] 582
58 Hunger, Capacity, and Development
David A. Crocker [R] 591
59 Eradicating Systemic Poverty: Brief for a Global Resources Dividend
Thomas W. Pogge [NR] 604
Environment 618
60 Feeding People versus Saving Nature
Holmes Rolston III [R] 621
61 The Land Ethic
Aldo Leopold 631
62 Challenges of Ecofeminism: from "Should" to "Can"
Gail Stenstad [NW] 640
63 Ideals of Human Excellence and Preserving Natural Environments
Thomas E. Hill Jr. [N] 654
64 Hume and Nature
Alan Carter [NW] 664
Index 674
This anthology seeks to provide engagingly I want this volume to be suitable for a variety
written, carefully-argued philosophical essays, of courses. The most straightforward way to use
on a wide range of timely issues in practical the text is to assign essays on six or seven of
ethics. When I had trouble finding essays that your favorite practical issues. If you want a
suited my purposes, I commissioned new essays more topical course, you could emphasize issues
- fourteen in all. I also invited thirteen philoso in one or more of the major thematic sections.
phers to revise their "classic" essays. The result You could also focus on one or more of the
is a tasty blend of the old and the new, the familiar practical and theoretical issues that span the
and the unfamiliar. I have organized the book individual topics (sections) and the four the
into four large thematic parts and fourteen par matic parts of the book. If, for instance, you
ticular topics (sections) to give you the greatest want to focus on gender, you could select
flexibility to construct the course you want. most essays from five sections: ABORTION,
When feasible, I begin or end sections with essays FAMILIES AND REPRODUCTIVE TECHNOL
that bridge to the preceding or following section. OGY, SEXUALITY, SEXUAL AND RACIAL
Although I have included essays I think DISCRIMIN AT ION, and AFFIRMATIVE
introductory students can read and com ACTION, and combine these with some specific
prehend, no one would believe me if I claimed articles scattered throughout, e.g., Young's
all the essays are easy to read. We all know many "Displacing the Distributive Paradigm" (Eco
students have trouble reading philosophical NOMIC JUSTICE) and Stenstad's "Challenges
essays. That is not surprising. Many of these of Ecofeminism" (THE ENVIRONMENT).
essays were written originally for other profes Finally, you can also give your course a decided
sional philosophers, not first-year undergradu theoretical flavor by using essays that address,
ates. Moreover, even when philosophers write in diverse contexts, significant theoretical issues
expressly for introductory audiences, their like the act/ omission distinction, the determin
ideas, vocabularies, and styles are often foreign ation of moral status, or the limits of morality,
to the reader. So I have included a brief intro etc. At the end of this preface, I include a list of
duction on READING PHILOSOPHY to advise some of those theoretical issues, along with the
students on how to read and understand philo essays you could use to highlight them (see
sophical essays. p. x-xi). You can also direct your students to
Preface for Instructors
THEORIZING ABOUT ETHICS - an introduc introduction refers, she can better appreciate
tory essay designed to help them understand the interconnections between issues. It might
why it is necessary to theorize; this essay will even have the delicious consequence of encour
give them a snapshot of some of the major aging the student to read an essay that you did
theories. not assign.
Perhaps the most distinctive feature of this One last note about the criteria for selecting
anthology is the section introductions. Some essays. Many practical ethics anthologies in
anthologies do not include them. Those that clude essays on opposing sides of every issue.
do, often use these introductions simply to sum For most topics I think that is a laudable aim
marize the essays in that section. These intro that an editor can normally achieve. But not
ductions indicate the main thrust of the essays. always. I include essays that discuss the issue
But that is not their primary purpose. Their as we currently frame and understand it. Some
purpose is (1) to focus students' attention on times that understanding precludes some pos
the theoretical issues at stake and (2) to relate itions that might have once been part of the
those issues to the discussion of the same or debate. For instance, early practical ethics an
related issues in other sections. All too often thologies included essays that argued that an
students (and philosophers) see practical ethics individual should always choose to prolong her
as a hodgepodge oflargely (or wholly) unrelated life, by any medical means whatever. On this
problems. The introductions should go some view, euthanasia of any sort and for any reason
way toward remedying this tendency. They was immoral. Although that was once a viable
show students that practical questions are not position, virtually no one now advocates or even
discrete, but are intricately connected with one discusses it. Even the author of the essay with
another. Thinking carefully about any problem serious misgivings about a "right to die" would
invariably illuminates (and is illuminated by) not embrace that position. The current eutha
others. Thus, the overarching aim of the section nasia debate largely concerns when people might
introductions is to give the book a coherence choose not to sustain their lives, how they might
that many anthologies lack. carry out their wishes, and with whose assist
There are consequences of this strategy you ance. Those are the questions addressed by
might mention to your students. I organized these essays on euthanasia.
the order of the essays within each section Likewise, I do not have any essays that argue
to maximize the students' understanding of the that women and blacks ought to be relegated to
practical issue to hand - nothing more. However, the bedroom or to manual labor. Although every
I wrote the introductions and organized the sum one acknowledges that racism and sexism are still
maries to maximize the understanding of theor alive and well in the United States, few people
etical issues. Often the order of the discussion of openly advocate making blacks and women
essays in the introduction matches the order of second-class citizens. No one seriously discusses
essays in that section; occasionally it does not. these proposals in academic circles. Instead, I
Moreover, I spend more time "summarizing" include essays that highlight current issues con
some essays than others. That in no way suggests cerning the treatment of minorities and women
I think these essays are more cogent, useful, or in (sexual harassment, date rape, etc.).
any way better than the others. Rather, I found it
easier to use them as entrees into the theoretical Some theoretical issues, and the number of the
realm. essays where they are discussed explicitly, are
Finally, since I do not know which sections listed below. I do not list essays (and there are
you will use, you should be aware that the plenty) that tangentially address these issues:
introductions will likely refer to essays the stu act/omission distinction - 3,5,54, 59
dent will not (have) read. When that happens, autonomy - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 17,23,24,27,28,29, 30,
they will not realize one aim of the introduc 31,32
tions. But they may still be valuable. For even if consequentialism - 1, 18
the student does not read the essays to which an deontology - 2,5, 7, 12, 16,46
Preface for Instructors
equality - 6,7,9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 17, 18,34, 35, 36, institutions, moral significance of - 3, 13, 15, 24,
37,38,39,40,41,42,43,44,45,50,51,52,53, 25,35,36,37,38,39,40,41,42,43,45,47,53,
54,55 54, 59, 60
freedom - 1, 2, 3, 4,5,28,29,30,31,32,33,34, limits of morality - 5, 13, 15,24,25,26,27,29,32,
35,36,37, 51, 52, 55 37, 60, 63
groups, moral significance of - 10, 11, 12, 35, 36, moral status - 5,6,7,8,9, 10, 11, 12, 18,35,36,
37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 62 39,40,41,46,47,56,57,58,59,60,61,62,63,64