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Being Good

A Short Introduction to Ethics

By Simon Blackburn

(4)

| Paperback | 9780192853776

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Book Description

Writing with wit and elegance, Simon Blackburn tackles the basic questions of ethics in this lively book, highlighting the complications and troubling issues that spring from the very simple question of how we ought to live. Blackburn dissects the many common reasons for why we are skeptical
abouContinue

Writing with wit and elegance, Simon Blackburn tackles the basic questions of ethics in this lively book, highlighting the complications and troubling issues that spring from the very simple question of how we ought to live. Blackburn dissects the many common reasons for why we are skeptical
about ethics. Drawing on examples from history, politics, religion and everyday personal experience, he shows how cynicism and self-consciousness can paralyze us into considering ethics a hopeless pursuit. He assures us that ethics is neither futile nor irrelevant, but an intimate part of the most
important issues of living--of birth, death, happiness, desire, freedom, pleasure, and justice. Indeed, from moral dilemmas about abortion and euthanasia, to our obsession with personal rights, to our longing for a sense of meaning in life, our everyday struggles are rife with ethical issues.
Blackburn distills the arguments of Hume, Kant and Aristotle down to their essences, to underscore the timeless relevance of our voice of conscience, the pitfalls of complacency, and our concerns about truth, knowledge and human progress.

Blackburn's rare combination of depth, rigor, and sparkling prose, along with his distinguished ranking among contemporary philosophers, mark Being Good as an important statement on our current disenchantment with ethics. It challenges us to take a more thoughtful reading of our ethical climate and
to ponder more carefully our own standards of behavior.

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  • It is better to say that Being Good is a short introduction to Blackburn's moral philosophy rather than moral philosophy in general. The peculiarity of this book is that unlike other introductory works, Blackburn does not introduce different moral theories one by one, but begins by stating several t ... (continue)

    It is better to say that Being Good is a short introduction to Blackburn's moral philosophy rather than moral philosophy in general. The peculiarity of this book is that unlike other introductory works, Blackburn does not introduce different moral theories one by one, but begins by stating several threats which are prevailing at our time, making rational discussion of moral issues endlessly contentious and even interminable. Throughout the pages Prof. Blackburn attempts to defend a particular version of common sense morality in the light of the said ethical environment, in the way refutes any traditional principled morality. Such claim subtly embodies a non-cognitivist view of the nature of morality and which has been well developed in his previous works Essays in Quasi-Realism, and Ruling Passions.

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    Stinky J said on Jun 1, 2007 | Add your feedback

Book Details

  • Rating:
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  • English Books
  • Paperback 172 Pages
  • Edition: 2Rev Ed
  • ISBN-10: 0192853775
  • ISBN-13: 9780192853776
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
  • Pub date: Feb 15, 2003
  • Dimensions: 1097 mm x 774 mm x 65 mm Just how big is that?
  • Also available as: Hardcover and School & Library Binding
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