PART I: The Story as a Tool of Ethics |
Chapter 1: Thinking About Values |
The Best of Times, the Worst of Times |
Good and Evil |
Morals, Ethics, and Values |
Why Be Moral? |
Debating Moral Issues |
Martha Nussbaum, Stories Have Value |
Primary Reading: Martha Nussbaum, Love's Knowledge |
Narrative: How to Be Good |
Narrative: Smoke Signals |
Narrative: Big Fish |
Chapter 2: Learning Moral Lessons from Stories |
Didactic Stories |
The New Interest in Stories |
The Value of Stories |
Stories Past and Present |
Stories to Live and Die By |
Seeing Your Life as a Story |
Living in the Narrative Zone |
Primary Reading: Plato, The Republic |
Primary Reading: Aristotle, Poetics |
Primary Reading: Umberto Eco, The Name of the Rose |
Primary Reading: Tristine Rainer, Your Life as Story |
Narrative: Medea |
Narrative: The Sorrows of Young Werther |
Narrative: Pulp Fiction |
PART II: What Should I Do? Theories of Conduct |
Chapter 3: Ethical Relativism |
How to Deal with Moral Differences |
The Lessons of Anthropology |
Problems with Ethical Relativism |
Refuting Ethical Relativism |
Ethical Relativism and Multiculturalism |
Primary Reading: Ruth Benedict, "Anthropology and the Abnormal" |
Primary Reading: Dwight Furrow, "Of Cave Dwellers and Spirits" |
Primary Reading: Bhikhu Parekh, "The Concept of Multicultural Education" |
Narrative: The Poisonwood Bible |
Narrative: Possessing the Secret of Joy |
Narrative: Sideshow |
Narrative: Do the Right Thing |
Chapter 4: Myself or Others? |
Psychological Egoism |
Ethical Egoism |
Altruism: Ideal and Reciprocal |
Primary Reading: Plato, The Republic |
Primary Reading: Erik Katz, "The Rings of Tolkien and Plato" |
Primary Reading: Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan |
Primary Reading: Ayn Rand, "The Ethics of Emergencies" |
Narrative: Friends |
Narrative: Return to Paradise |
Narrative: Madame Bovary |
Narrative: Atlas Shrugged |
Narrative: "The Gift of the Magi" |
Narrative: The Lord of the Rings |
Chapter 5: Using Your Reason, Part 1: Utilitarianism |
Jeremy Bentham and the Hedonistic Calculus |
John Stuart Mill: Another Utilitarian Vision |
Act and Rule Utilitarianism |
Primary Reading: Jeremy Bentham, "Of the Principle of Utility" |
Primary Reading: John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism |
Narrative: "The Blacksmith and the Baker" |
Narrative: The Brothers Karamazov |
Narrative: "The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas" |
Narrative: Saving Private Ryan |
Narrative: Extreme Measures |
Narrative: Runaway Jury |
Chapter 6: Using Your Reason, Part 2: Kant's Deontology |
The Good Will |
The Categorical Imperative |
Rational Beings Are Ends in Themselves |
Primary Reading: Immanuel Kant, Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals |
Primary Reading: Immanuel Kant, The Metaphysics of Morals |
Narrative: High Noon |
Narrative: Outland |
Narrative: Cop Land |
Narrative: Abandon Ship! |
Narrative: The Insider |
Chapter 7: Personhood, Rights, and Justice |
What Is a Human Being? |
Persons and Rights |
Questions of Rights |
Distributive Justice |
Criminal Justice |
Primary Reading: The United Nations Universal Declaration of Rights |
Primary Reading: John Rawls, "Justice as Fairness" |
Primary Reading: Martin Luther King, Jr., "A Letter from Birmingham Jail" |
Primary Reading: Diane Whitely, "The Victim and the Justification of Punishment" |
Narrative: Blade Runner |
Narrative: Gattaca |
Narrative: Losing Isaiah |
Narrative: Outbreak |
Narrative: Minority Report |
PART III: How Should I Be? Theories of Virtue |
Chapter 8: Socrates, Plato, and the Good Life |
What Is Virtue? |
The Good Teacher |
The Good Life |
The Virtuous Person |
Plato's Theory of Forms |
Primary Reading: Plato, Euthyphro |
Primary Reading: Plato, Apology |
Narrative: A Man for All Seasons |
Narrative: "The Myth of the Cave" |
Narrative: The Truman Show |
Narrative: "The Store of the Worlds" |
Narrative: Shrek |
Chapter 9: Aristotle's Virtue Theory |
Aristotle the Scientist |
Aristotle and Virtue |
Aristotle's Influence on Aquinas |
Some Objections to Greek Virtue Theory |
Primary Reading: Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book II |
Primary Reading: Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics, Book III |
Narrative: "The Flight of Icarus" |
Narrative: Njal's Saga |
Narrative: Lord Jim |
Narrative: "A Piece of Advice" |
Narrative: As Good as it Gets |
Chapter 10: Contemporary Perspectives |
Ethics and the Morality of Virtue |
Have Virtue, and Then Go Ahead: Mayo, Foot, and Sommers |
The Quest for Authenticity: Kierkegaard, Heidegger, Sartre, and Levinas |
Primary Reading: Soren Kierkegaard, Johannes Climacus |
Primary Reading: Soren Kierkegaard, Either/Or |
Primary Reading: Emmanuel Levinas, "The Paradox of Morality: An Interview with Emmanuel Levinas" |
Narrative: Hannah and her Sisters |
Narrative: No Exit |
Narrative: A Few Good Men |
Chapter 11: Case Studies in Virtues |
Courage: What Is It, and Who Has It? |
Compassion: Are We Born with It? |
Gratitude: How Much and When? |
Virtue and Conduct: A Combination? |
Primary Reading: John McCain, Why Courage Matters: The Way to a Braver Life |
Primary Reading: Philip Hallie, Tales of Good and Evil, Help and Harm |
Primary Reading: Lin Yutang, "On Growing Old Gracefully" |
Narrative: Band of Brothers |
Narrative: The Life of Tom Horn |
Narrative: "The Parable of the Good Samaritan" |
Narrative: "King Yudisthira and the Dog" |
Narrative: Schindler's List |
Narrative: Eat Drink Man Woman |
Narrative: Pay It Forward |
Narrative: Grand Canyon |
Chapter 12: Different Gender, Different Ethic? |
Feminism and Virtue Theory |
What Is Gender Equality? |
Women's Historical Role in the Public Sphere |
First-, Second-, and Third-Wave Feminism |
Facets of Feminism Today |
Primary Reading: Harriet Taylor Mill, "Enfranchisement of Women" |
Primary Reading: Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex |
Primary Reading: Carol Gilligan, In a Different Voice |
Primary Reading: Deborah Tannen, Talking from 9 to 5 |
Narrative: A Doll's House |
Narrative: Like Water for Chocolate |
Narrative: "The Woman Destroyed" |
Narrative: Mona Lisa Smile |
Chapter 13: Applied Ethics: A Sampler |
Media Ethics |
Theory of a Just War |
Animal Welfare and Animal Rights |
The Death Penalty |
Stories and Issues: A Final Word |
Primary Reading: Andrew Belsey and Ruth Chadwick, "Ethics as a Vehicle for Media Quality" |
Primary Reading: John Rawls, The Law of Peoples |
Primary Reading: Jan Narveson, "Morality and Violence: War, Revolution, Terrorism" |
Primary Reading: David Rodin, "Terrorism Without Intention" |
Primary Reading: Sue Savage-Rumbaugh and Roger Lewin, Kanzi: The Ape at the Brink of the Human Mind |
Primary Reading: John Douglas and Mark Olshaker, Journey into Darkness |
Primary Reading: Tom Sorell, "Two Ideals and the Death Penalty" |
Primary Reading: Mark Fuhrman, Death and Justice: An Expose of Oklahoma's Death Row Machine |
Narrative: 15 Minutes |
Narrative: "The Jigsaw Man" |
Narrative: The Life of David Gale |
Bibliography |
Glossary |