Ethical Prospects

Ethical Prospects: Economy, Society, and Environment aims to present and summarize new perspectives and leading-edge results in ethics reflecting on interconnected economic, social and environmental issues. The yearbook reports on innovative practices and policy reforms and provides a forum for discussion about groundbreaking theories. The main function of the yearbook is to present ideas and initiatives that lead toward responsible business practices, policies for the common good and ecological sustainability. It seeks to form a value-community of scholars, practitioners and policymakers engaged in genuine ethics in business, environmental management, and public policy.

This volume centers on debates about how far moral judgments bind across traditions and epochs. Nowadays such debates appear especially volatile, both in popular culture and intellectual discourse: although there is increasing agreement that the moral and political criteria invoked in human rights documents possess cross-cultural force, many modern and postmodern developments erode confidence in moral appeals that go beyond a local consensus or apply outside a particular community. Often the point of departure for discussion is the Enlightenment paradigm of a common morality, in which it is assumed that certain unchanging beliefs inhere in the structure of human reason. Whereas some thinkers continue to defend this paradigm, others modify it in diverse ways without abandoning entirely the attempt to address a universal audience, and still others jettison virtually all of its distinguishing features. Exhibiting a range of positions Western participants take in these debates, this volume seeks to advance the substance of the debates themselves without prejudging the outcome. Rival assessments of the Enlightenment paradigm are offered from various philosophical and theological points of view. In addition to the editors, the contributors include Robert Merrihew Adams, Annette C. Baier, Alan Donagan, Margaret A. Farley, Alan Gewirth, David Little, Richard Rorty, Jeffrey Stout, and Lee H. Yearley.

The Practices of Global Ethics takes a unique look at global ethics: not as mere written statements but as a set of practices undertaken by thousands of organisations and hundreds of thousands of people to shape the normative trajectory of human affairs. It looks at statements of global ethical principles including The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Earth Charter and the Rio Documents and positions them as the outcomes and expression of ongoing practices. Offering innovative, critical and thoughtful analyses of ethical practices since World War II, the book examines efforts to promote human rights; foster ecological responsibility; end genocide; reduce global poverty; encourage responsible and sustainable international business practices; cultivate understanding and collaboration amongst the world's religions among other worldwide endeavours.

An all-star cast of philosophical thinkers about higher education, more than half women, offers new essays exploring major ethical problems facing American higher education today. Among the crucial topics discussed are free speech on campus, challenges to the tenure system, the proliferation of adjunct faculty, historical injustices, affirmative action, admission policies, opportunities for applicants from the working-class, faculty and administrative responsibilities, student life, threats to privacy, treatment of those with disabilities, the impact of technology on teaching and learning, curricular controversies, the impact of unions, philanthropy, sports and intercollegiate athletics, and the aims of liberal education. The authors are leading researchers and teachers, many with extensive administrative experience, and they are members of the faculties at public and private institutions throughout the country. The essays are jargon-free and address the most pressing problems for higher education, weigh alternative policies, and assess future prospects for overcoming present challenges. Philosopher, scholar, teacher, and novelist Rebecca Newberger Goldstein provides a foreword to this unique collection. List of Contributors: Christa Davis Acampora, Anita L. Allen, Alexandra Bradner, Harry Brighouse, Steven M. Cahn, Ann E. Cudd, N. Ann Davis, Judith Wagner DeCew, Richard De George, Kyla Ebels-Duggan, Deni Elliott, Dan Edelstein, Keota Fields, Leslie P. Francis, Peter A. French, Alan H, Goldman, Karen Hanson, Elizabeth Harman, David A. Hoekema, Laura M. Howard, James F. Keenan, Anthony Laden, Meira Levinson, Peter Markie, Mary Kate McGowan, Jennifer M. Morton, Debra Satz, David Shatz, Robert Simon, Cynthia A. Stark, Bryan Warnick, Shelley Wilcox

Claims about the transformations enabled by modern science and medicine have been accompanied by an unsettling question in recent years: might the knowledge being produced undermine – rather than further – human and animal well being? On the Dual Uses of Science and Ethics examines the potential for the skills, know-how, information, and techniques associated with modern biology to serve contrasting ends. In recognition of the moral ambiguity of science and technology, each chapter considers steps that might be undertaken to prevent the deliberate spread of disease. Central to achieving this aim is the consideration of what role ethics might serve. To date, the ethical analysis of the themes of this volume has been limited. This book remedies this situation by bringing together contributors from a broad range of backgrounds to address a highly important ethical issue confronting humanity during the 21st century.

Buddhism points out that emphasizing individuality and promoting the greatest fulfillment of the desires of the individual conjointly lead to destruction. The book promotes the basic value-choices of Buddhism, namely happiness, peace and permanence. Happiness research convincingly shows that not material wealth but the richness of personal relationships determines happiness. Not things, but people make people happy. Western economics tries to provide people with happiness by supplying enormous quantities of things and today’s dominating business models are based on and cultivates narrow self-centeredness.But what people need are caring relationships and generosity. Buddhist economics makes these values accessible by direct provision. Peace can be achieved in nonviolent ways. Wanting less can substantially contribute to this endeavor and make it happen more easily. Permanence, or ecological sustainability, requires a drastic cutback in the present level of consumption and production globally. This reduction should not be an inconvenient exercise of self-sacrifice. In the noble ethos of reducing suffering it can be a positive development path for humanity.

Prominent bioethicists whose work is rooted in philosophy, religion, medicine, nursing, literature, history, and policy analysis join together to discuss their methods and professional insights, as well as to better define the field and its future development. Writing from the perspective of their own specialties, the authors: review just how their personal disciplines have contributed to bioethics, debate the current and future bioethical issues they face, and identify the most significant strengths and weaknesses in the current practice of bioethics. Seeking a sound foundation for the discipline, they also consider what basic knowledge and skills are necessary to be competent in bioethics, what methods and theoretical approaches are most promising for its future development, and what issues or perspectives have been neglected.

Imagination and Ethical Ideals is an interdisciplinary work which investigates some of the links between moral philosophy and moral psychology, with implications for both personal ethics and social philosophy. Tierney begins with the argument that the widespread fascination with moral principles has led moral philosophers into a dead end, which is revealed both by their inability to deal with the problem of relativism, and by the felt irrelevancy of moral philosophy to the lives that people are actually striving to lead. He then offers an alternative account of the nature of ethical thought, grounded in a theory of imaginative ethical ideals. A psychological framework for ideals is then developed using the results of contemporary psychoanalysis and psychology, particularly the self psychology of Heinz Kohut.