The Elements of Moral Philosophy - Assignment Task

1 T he Elements of Moral Philosophy EIGHTH EDITION James Rachels Editions 5 8 by Stuart Rachels i9/5/14 5:32 PM9/5/14 5:32 PM THE Elements OF Moral Philosophy , EIGHTH EDITION Published by McGraw-Hill Education, 2 Penn Plaza, New York, NY 10121. Copyright 2015 by McGraw-Hill Education. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. Previous editions 2012, 2010, and 2007. No part of this publication may be reproduced or distributed in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written consent of McGraw-Hill Education, including, but not limited to, in any network or other electronic storage or transmission, or broadcast for distance ancillaries, including electronic and print components, may not be available to customers outside the United book is printed on acid-free paper.

2 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0 DOC/DOC 1 0 9 8 7 6 5 4 ISBN 978-0-07-811906-4 MHID 0-07-811906-5 Senior Vice President, Products & Markets: Kurt L. Strand Vice President, General Manager, Products & Markets: Michael Ryan Vice President, Content Design & Delivery: Kimberly Meriwether David Managing Director: William Glass Lead Product Developer: Lisa Pinto Product Developer: Jamie Daron Director, Content Design & Delivery: Terri Schiesl Content Project Manager: Lisa Bruflodt Buyer: Jennifer Pickel Cover Designer: Studio Montage, St. Louis, MO Compositor: Lumina Datamatics, Inc.

3 Typeface: 11/12 New Baskerville Printer: R. R. Donnelley Cover painting: Aleksandr Rodchenko. (Russian, 1891 1956). Non-Objective Painting no. 80 (Black on Black). 1918. Oil on canvas, 32 1/4" 31 1/4" ( cm). Gift of the artist, through Jay Leyda. The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Digital Image 2006 The Museum of Modern Art/Licensed by Scala/Art Resource, NY. Alexander Rodchenko/RAO, Moscow/VAGA, New York All credits appearing on page or at the end of the book are considered to be an extension of the copyright page. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Rachels, Stuart, 1969 The Elements of Moral Philosophy /James Rachels; Editions 5 8 by Stuart Rachels.

4 8th ed. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 978-0-07-811906-4 (alk. paper) 1. Ethics Textbooks. I. Rachels, James, 1941 2003. Elements of Moral Philosophy . II. Title. 2014 170 dc23 ii9/5/14 5:32 PM9/5/14 5:32 PMiii James Rachels (1941 2003) wrote The End of Life: Euthanasia and Morality (1986), Created from Animals: The Moral Implica-tions of Darwinism (1990), Can Ethics Provide Answers? And Other Essays in Moral Philosophy (1997), Problems from Philosophy (first edition, 2005), and The Legacy of Socrates: Essays in Moral Phi-losophy (2007). His website is . Stuart Rachels is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Alabama.

5 He has revised several of James Rachels books, including Problems from Philosophy as well as the compan-ion anthology to this book, The Right Thing to Do . Stuart won the United States Chess Championship in 1989, at the age of 20, and is a Bronze Life master at bridge. He is currently writ-ing a book about his chess career called The Best I Saw in Chess . About the Authors iii9/5/14 5:32 PM9/5/14 5:32 iv9/5/14 5:32 PM9/5/14 5:32 PMv Contents Preface ix About the Eighth Edition xi 1. WHAT IS MORALITY? 1 The Problem of Definition 1 First Example: Baby Theresa 1 Second Example: Jodie and Mary 6 Third Example: Tracy Latimer 8 Reason and Impartiality 10 The Minimum Conception of Morality 13 2.

6 THE CHALLENGE OF CULTURAL RELATIVISM 15 Different Cultures Have Different Moral Codes 15 Cultural Relativism 17 The Cultural Differences Argument 18 What Follows from Cultural Relativism 20 Why There Is Less Disagreement Than There Seems to Be 22 Some Values Are Shared by All Cultures 24 Judging a Cultural Practice to Be Undesirable 25 Back to the Five Claims 28 What We Can Learn from Cultural Relativism v9/5/14 5:32 PM9/5/14 5:32 PMvi CONTENTS 3.

7 SUBJECTIVISM IN ETHICS 33 The Basic Idea of Ethical Subjectivism 33 The Linguistic Turn 35 The Denial of Value 39 Ethics and Science 41 The Question of Same-Sex Relations 43 4. DOES MORALITY DEPEND ON RELIGION? 49 The Presumed Connection between Morality and Religion 49 The Divine Command Theory 51 The Theory of Natural Law 55 Religion and Particular Moral Issues 58 5.

8 ETHICAL EGOISM 64 Is There a Duty to Help the Starving? 64 Psychological Egoism 65 Three Arguments for Ethical Egoism 71 Three Arguments against Ethical Egoism 76 6. THE SOCIAL CONTRACT THEORY 82 Hobbes s Argument 82 The Prisoner s Dilemma 85 Some Advantages of the Social Contract Theory 89 The Problem of Civil Disobedience 92 Difficulties for the Theory 95 7.

9 THE UTILITARIAN APPROACH 99 The Revolution in Ethics 99 First Example: Euthanasia 100 Second Example: Marijuana 103 Third Example: Nonhuman Animals vi9/5/14 5:32 PM9/5/14 5:32 PM 8. THE DEBATE OVER UTILITARIANISM 111 The Classical Version of the Theory 111 Is Pleasure All That Matters? 112 Are Consequences All That Matter?

10 113 Should We Be Equally Concerned for Everyone? 117 The Defense of Utilitarianism 119 Concluding Thoughts 125 9. ARE THERE ABSOLUTE Moral RULES? 126 Harry Truman and Elizabeth Anscombe 126 The Categorical Imperative 129 Kant s Arguments on Lying 131 Conflicts between Rules 133 Kant s Insight 135 10.