The Ethics Of Opting Out

In The Ethics of Opting Out, Mari Ruti provides an accessible yet theoretically rigorous account of the ideological divisions that have animated queer theory during the last decade, paying particular attention to the field's rejection of dominant neoliberal narratives of success, cheerfulness, and self-actualization. More specifically, she focuses on queer negativity in the work of Lee Edelman, Jack Halberstam, and Lynne Huffer, and on the rhetoric of bad feelings found in the work of Sara Ahmed, Lauren Berlant, David Eng, Heather Love, and José Muñoz. Ruti highlights the ways in which queer theory's desire to opt out of normative society rewrites ethical theory and practice in genuinely innovative ways at the same time as she resists turning antinormativity into a new norm. This wide-ranging and thoughtful book maps the parameters of contemporary queer theory in order to rethink the foundational assumptions of the field.

Perfect for your next dinner party discussion, The Little Book of Big Ethical Questions presents some of today’s most thought-provoking ethical questions in a welcoming, easy-to-discuss Q&A format, with guidance from a renowned ethicist. Often a single question can spark a meaningful exchange—like “Would you apply for a job you know your friend is applying for?” Or “Should voting be mandatory?” Or what about police using facial recognition technology? Questions like these spur us to consider: What would I have done? Is there one correct answer? And ultimately: How can ethics help us navigate these situations to find the best outcome for ourselves and others? An ethicist who advises leaders and organizations worldwide, Susan Liautaud asks intriguing questions that encourage lively discussion across a range of subjects, from family and friends to health and technology to politics, work, and consumer choices. She then walks through the ways you might approach each situation to find the best answer for you. Grab the book, gather a few friends, and dive in!

The essential guide for ethical decision-making in the 21st century, The Power of Ethics depicts “ethical decision-making not in a nebulous philosophical space, but at the point where the rubber meets the road” (Michael Schur, producer and creator of The Good Place). It’s not your imagination: we’re living in a time of moral decline. Publicly, we’re bombarded with reports of government leaders acting against the welfare of their constituents; companies prioritizing profits over health, safety, and our best interests; and technology posing risks to society with few or no repercussions for those responsible. Personally, we may be conflicted about how much privacy to afford our children on the internet; how to make informed choices about our purchases and the companies we buy from; or how to handle misconduct we witness at home and at work. How do we find a way forward? Today’s ethical challenges are increasingly gray, often without a clear right or wrong solution, causing us to teeter on the edge of effective decision-making. With concentrated power structures, rapid advances in technology, and insufficient regulation to protect citizens and consumers, ethics are harder to understand than ever. But in The Power of Ethics, Susan Liautaud shows how ethics can be used to create a sea change of positive decisions that can ripple outward to our families, communities, workplaces, and the wider world—offering unprecedented opportunity for good. Drawing on two decades as an ethics advisor guiding corporations and leaders, academic institutions, nonprofit organizations, and students in her Stanford University ethics courses, Susan Liautaud provides clarity to blurry ethical questions, walking you through a straightforward, four-step process for ethical decision-making you can use every day. Liautaud also explains the six forces driving virtually every ethical choice we face. Exploring some of today’s most challenging ethics dilemmas and showing you how to develop a clear point of view, speak out with authority, make effective decisions, and contribute to a more ethical world for yourself and others, The Power of Ethics is the must-have ethics guide for the 21st century.

Men Do It Too: Opting Out and In offers a timely and comprehensive analysis of the phenomenon of men leaving mainstream careers models, adding to current debates on opting out. The book investigates how globalization, individualization, and this age of high modernity, in addition to issues of masculinity and what it means to be a man in contemporary society and organizational contexts, affect decisions to opt out. Throughout the book, social theory and relevant debates are interwoven with the narratives of 15 men who have left successful careers and mainstream career models to live and work on their own terms: six from the United States, five from Finland, and four from the UK. The narratives help illustrate the issues presented, as well as providing an insight into the men’s identity work throughout their opting out processes. In addition, Biese explores what organizations can learn from the knowledge gathered in her research on men (and women) opting out. This is important in order to create sustainable work environments that not only attract but also retain employees.

Noting a phenomenon that might seem to recall a previous era, The New York Times Magazine recently portrayed women who leave their careers in order to become full-time mothers as "opting out." But, are high-achieving professional women really choosing to abandon their careers in order to return home? This provocative study is the first to tackle this issue from the perspective of the women themselves. Based on a series of candid, in-depth interviews with women who returned home after working as doctors, lawyers, bankers, scientists, and other professions, Pamela Stone explores the role that their husbands, children, and coworkers play in their decision; how women’s efforts to construct new lives and new identities unfold once they are home; and where their aspirations and plans for the future lie. What we learn—contrary to many media perceptions—is that these high-flying women are not opting out but are instead being pushed out of the workplace. Drawing on their experiences, Stone outlines concrete ideas for redesigning workplaces to make it easier for women—and men—to attain their goal of living rewarding lives that combine both families and careers.

Winner, Alan Bray Memorial Book Award 2022 Lammy Finalist, LGBTQ Studies Can queer theory be erotophobic? This book proceeds from the perplexing observation that for all of its political agita, rhetorical virtuosity, and intellectual restlessness, queer theory conforms to a model of erotic life that is psychologically conservative and narrow. Even after several decades of combative, dazzling, irreverent queer critical thought, the field remains far from grasping that sexuality’s radical potential lies in its being understood as “exogenous, intersubjective and intrusive” (Laplanche). In particular, and despite the pervasiveness and popularity of recent calls to deconstruct the ideological foundations of contemporary queer thought, no study has as yet considered or in any way investigated the singular role of psychology in shaping the field’s conceptual impasses and politico-ethical limitations. Through close readings of key thinkers in queer theoretical thought—Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick, Leo Bersani, Lee Edelman, Judith Butler, Lauren Berlant, and Jane Gallop—Homo Psyche introduces metapsychology as a new dimension of analysis vis-à-vis the theories of French psychoanalyst Jean Laplanche, who insisted on “new foundations for psychoanalysis” that radically departed from existing Freudian and Lacanian models of the mind. Staging this intervention, Ashtor deepens current debates about the future of queer studies by demonstrating how the field’s systematic neglect of metapsychology as a necessary and independent realm of ideology ultimately enforces the complicity of queer studies with psychological conventions that are fundamentally erotophobic and therefore inimical to queer theory’s radical and ethical project.

Should people with deeply held objections to certain practices be allowed to opt out of involvement with them? Should a Christian baker who objects to homosexuality be allowed to deny service to a customer seeking a cake for a gay wedding? Should a Catholic nurse be able to refuse to contribute to the provision of abortions without losing her job? The law increasingly answers no to such questions. But David Oderberg argues that this is a mistake. He contends that in such cases, opting out should be understood as part of a right of dissociation – and that this right needs better legal protection than it now enjoys.

Collected here in this omnibus edition are Immanuel Kant's three most important works on the Metaphysics of Morals and Ethics. Included are Kant: Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals, Introduction to the Metaphysic of Morals, and The Metaphysical Elements of Ethics. Kant's Fundamental Principles of the Metaphysics of Morals is one of the most important works in modern moral philosophy. It belongs beside Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, and Hobbes. Here Kant sets out to articulate and defend the Categorical Imperative - the fundamental principle that underlies moral reasoning - and to lay the foundation for a comprehensive account of justice and human virtues. In Introduction to the Metaphysic of Morals Kant states: "All duties are either duties of right, that is, juridical duties, or duties of virtue, that is, ethical duties. Juridical duties are such as may be promulgated by external legislation; ethical duties are those for which such legislation is not possible." In The Metaphysical Elements of Ethics states: "If there exists on any subject a philosophy (that is, a system of rational knowledge based on concepts), then there must also be for this philosophy a system of pure rational concepts, independent of any condition of intuition, in other words, a metaphysic. It may be asked whether metaphysical elements are required also for every practical philosophy, which is the doctrine of duties, and therefore also for Ethics."