Doing Ethics In A Diverse World

Nothing is more difficult today than deciding what to do about abortion, gay marriage, economic injustice, war, torture, global warming, euthanasia, capital punishment, and a host of other controversies, particularly in a world in which people of varying religious, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds commonly live side by side. Can we draw on the wisdom of the past to address these contemporary ethical dilemmas? Can we see more clearly how we should consider what is right and wrong, and good and bad, and then work through these divisive problems toward decisions that make sense to us? While challenging moral relativism, Doing Ethics in a Diverse World uses a pluralist approach that draws on religious as well as secular positions and on Eastern as well as Western traditions. The book's approach reasons by analogy from the rule of law, including international human rights law, as a means to constructing ethical presumptions about duty, character, relationships, and rights. These presumptions are weighed against the predicted consequences of acting on them, which either confirm the presumptions or support alternative actions.

Nothing is more difficult today than deciding what to do about abortion, gay marriage, economic injustice, war, torture, global warming, euthanasia, capital punishment, and a host of other controversies, particularly in a world in which people of varying religious, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds commonly live side by side. Can we draw on the wisdom of the past to address these contemporary ethical dilemmas? Can we see more clearly how we should consider what is right and wrong, and good and bad, and then work through these divisive problems toward decisions that make sense to us? While challenging moral relativism, Doing Ethics in a Diverse World uses a pluralist approach that draws on religious as well as secular positions and on Eastern as well as Western traditions. The book's approach reasons by analogy from the rule of law, including international human rights law, as a means to constructing ethical presumptions about duty, character, relationships, and rights. These presumptions are weighed against the predicted consequences of acting on them, which either confirm the presumptions or support alternative actions.

This book covers standard offerings like utilitarianism, nonconsequentialism, and contractarianism. It also features full-length essays representing feminist and multi-cultural thought.

Doing Environmental Ethics faces our ecological crisis by drawing on environmental science, economic theory, international law, and religious teachings, as well as philosophical arguments. It engages students in constructing ethical presumptions based on arguments for duty, character, relationships, and rights, and then tests these moral presumptions by predicting the likely consequences of acting on them. Students apply what they learn to policy issues discussed in the final part of the book: sustainable consumption, environmental policy, clean air and water, agriculture, managing public lands, urban ecology, and climate change. Questions after each chapter and a worksheet aid readers in deciding how to live more responsibly. The second edition has been updated to reflect the latest developments in environmental ethics, including sustainable practices of corporations, environmental NGO actions, and rainforest certification programs. This edition also gives greater emphasis to environmental justice, Rawls, and ecofeminism. Revised study questions concern application and analysis, and new 'Decisions' inserts invite students to analyze evaluate current environmental issues.

Doing Environmental Ethics offers a way to face our ecological crisis that draws on environmental science, economic theory, international law, and religious teachings, as well as philosophical arguments. It engages students in constructing ethical presumptions based on our duty (to other persons and species and also to ecosystems), our character...

Doing Ethics in Media: Theories and Practical Applications is an accessible, comprehensive introduction to media ethics. Its theoretical framework and grounded discussions engage students to think clearly and systematically about dilemmas in the rapidly changing media environment. The 13-chapter text is organized around six decision-making questions— the "5Ws and H" of media ethics. The questions encourage students to articulate the issues; apply codes, policies or laws; consider the needs of stakeholders; sift and sort through conflicting values; integrate philosophic principles; and pose a "test of publicity." Specifically, the questions ask: • What’s your problem? • Why not follow the rules? • Who wins, who loses? • What’s it worth? • Who’s whispering in your ear? • How’s your decision going to look? As they progress through the text, students are encouraged to resolve dozens of practical applications and increasingly complex case studies relating to journalism, new media, advertising, public relations, and entertainment. Other distinctive features include: • Comprehensive materials on classic moral theory and current issues such as truth telling and deception, values, persuasion and propaganda, privacy, diversity, and loyalty. • A user-friendly approach that challenges students to think for themselves rather than imposing answers on them. • Consistent connections between theories and the decision-making challenges posed in the practical applications and case studies. • A companion website with online resources for students, including additional readings and chapter overviews, as well as instructor materials with a test bank, instructor’s manual, sample syllabi and more. www.routledge.com/textbooks/black • A second website with continuously updated examples, case studies, and student writing – www.doingmediaethics.com. Doing Ethics in Media is aimed at undergraduates and graduate students studying media ethics in mass media, journalism, and media studies. It also serves students in rhetoric, popular culture, communication studies, and interdisciplinary social sciences.

The second edition of Doing Ethics in Media continues its mission of providing an accessible but comprehensive introduction to media ethics, with a grounding in moral philosophy, to help students think clearly and systematically about dilemmas in the rapidly changing media environment. Each chapter highlights specific considerations, cases, and practical applications for the fields of journalism, advertising, digital media, entertainment, public relations, and social media. Six fundamental decision-making questions—the "5Ws and H" around which the book is organized—provide a path for students to articulate the issues, understand applicable law and ethics codes, consider the needs of stakeholders, work through conflicting values, integrate philosophic principles, and pose a "test of publicity." Students are challenged to be active ethical thinkers through the authors’ reader-friendly style and use of critical early-career examples. While most people will change careers several times during their lives, all of us are life-long media consumers, and Doing Ethics in Media prepares readers for that task. Doing Ethics in Media is aimed at undergraduate and graduate students studying media ethics in mass media, journalism, and media studies. It also serves students in rhetoric, popular culture, communication studies, and interdisciplinary social sciences. The book’s companion website—doingethicsin.media, or www.doingmediaethics.com—provides continuously updated real-world media ethics examples and collections of essays from experts and students. The site also hosts ancillary materials for students and for instructors, including a test bank and instructor’s manual.

There isn’t one conversation about animal ethics. Instead, there are several important ones that are scattered across many disciplines.This volume both surveys the field of animal ethics and draws professional philosophers, graduate students, and undergraduates more deeply into the discussions that are happening outside of philosophy departments. To that end, the volume contains more nonphilosophers than philosophers, explicitly inviting scholars from other fields—such as animal science, ecology, economics, psychology, law, environmental science, and applied biology, among others—to bring their own disciplinary resources to bear on matters that affect animals. The Routledge Handbook of Animal Ethics is composed of 44 chapters, all appearing in print here for the first time, and organized into the following six sections: I. Thinking About Animals II. Animal Agriculture and Hunting III. Animal Research and Genetic Engineering IV. Companion Animals V. Wild Animals: Conservation, Management, and Ethics VI. Animal Activism The chapters are brief, and they have been written in a way that is accessible to serious undergraduate students, regardless of their field of study. The volume covers everything from animal cognition to the state of current fisheries, from genetic modification to intersection animal activism. It is a resource designed for anyone interested in the moral issues that emerge from human interactions with animals.