It is not only in our dark hours that scepticism, relativism, hypocrisy,
and nihilism dog ethics. Whether it is a matter of giving to charity,
or sticking to duty, or insisting on our rights, we can be confused, or
be paralysed by the fear that our principles are groundless. Many are
afraid that in a Godless world science has unmasked us as creatures
fated by our genes to be selfish and tribalistic, or competitive and
aggressive.
Simon Blackburn, author of thebest-selling Think,
structures this short introduction around these and other threats to
ethics. Confronting seven different objections to our self-image as
moral, well-behaved creatures, he charts a course through the
philosophical quicksands that often engulf us. Then, turning to
problems of life anddeath, he shows how we should think about the
meaning of life, and how we should mistrust the sound-bite sized
absolutes that often dominate moral debates.
Finally he offers a
critical tour of the ways the philosophical tradition has tried to
provide foundations for ethics, from Plato and Aristotle through to
contemporary debates.
Being Good : A Short Introduction to Ethics - Simon Blackburn
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£8.50