Ethics: Theory and Contemporary Issues

by Barbara MacKinnon, Andrew Fiala

Explore the major perspectives in ethical theory and contemporary moral debates using MacKinnon/Fiala's THEORY AND CONTEMPORARY ISSUES, 10th EDITION. Clear writing and organization make complex philosophical concepts reader-friendly. Comprehensive introductions to general and specific areas of ethical debate cover a broad range of theoretical issues and applied topics. Chapters include user-friendly opening vignettes like �What Do You Think?� discussion questions, mid-chapter �Check Your Understanding� quizzes, clear learning outcomes, chapter summaries, and charts and tables of key ideas. Students will be engaged by the way that real world examples and contemporary issues are woven into the text, including extensive treatment of race and gender. The text has a useful glossary and online learning resources.

Genres: Philosophy, School, Textbooks, Nonfiction, Reference, College

684 pages, Paperback

First published August 1, 1994

Reviews

[Rusty del Norte]

This is a good good on explaining the basics of a variety of topics relating to Philosophical Ethics. In the first half it covers such things as Utilitarian theory, Kantian ethics, Ethical Egoism. and Aristotlian Ethics. In the second half you get into specific topics like Animal ethics, Care Ethics, Abortion. Environmental Ethics, and other major topics of concern.

I like the readings at the end of each chapter as they help guide the reader to a better understanding. I also like the general layout and flow. Overall, a good guide and introduction.

[Felipe Martins]

Cumpre razoavelmente bem o papel de dar uma visão geral, porém não tão aprofundada, das diferentes vertentes da filosofia moral.
Só achei a parte 2, onde são analisados temas contemporâneos sob diferentes perspectivas éticas, muito fraca e bem dispensável.

[Misty Dawn]

Read for an ethics class. Well-written. Enjoyed the class.

[Belle Meade School]

170

[Maura Roo]

https://youtu.be/2Oo8QzDHimQ

The bags under my eyes store Knowledge and Wisdom and also The Weight Of Several Worlds.

[soda]

Had to read this for a grad school ethics for managers course. It's ok, but the author is obviously liberal.

[shiloh]

If I must read this for school, it might as well count towards my reading goal.

[Zenaida Daud]

I need this book

[Brian Hutzell]

Normally, I don’t think price should be a consideration in book reviews, but I am going to make an exception in this case. Ethics is one of the most expensive books I have ever purchased: over $180 new on Amazon. Just as you wouldn’t judge a $2o hamburger on the same scale as you would judge a $5 hamburger, I am not going to judge a $180 book on the same scale as I would judge a $50 book.

For $180, it should be spectacular, but this one is not. Physically, it is just shy of 600 pages of decent quality, but certainly not lavishly illustrated. Furthermore, the paper size has been cut down to the bare minimum to accommodate the text, leaving no margins for notes at all—a serious drawback for a textbook where jotting down notes and cross-references is valuable. As for the writing, MacKinnon and Fiala provide a competent but not fantastic overview of ethics. Furthermore, there must be at close to 200 pages devoted to reprinting articles and excerpts from outside sources, all of which could be found much more economically elsewhere.

Had this been a $50 book, I would give it 3 or maybe even 4 stars. At $180, this book—on ethics!—is a rip-off.

[Reba]

I really liked this book. The first part introduces ethical theory.
The second part covers several ethical issues in essay form.
There is an appendix on how to write an ethics paper that helped me so much.
I would recommend getting this book and reading it for anyone that wants to clean up any sloppy careless thinking, speaking and writing. Seriously, it is only 256 pages chunked into short interesting topics.

Here are a few quotes that I really got alot of milage out of in my writing:

The Utilitarian fundamental imperative of, “Always acting in a way that will produce the greatest overall amount of good in the world (Mackinnon, 2013, p. 32).”

Kant states, “Persons have intrinsic value or inherent value, according to Kant, not simply instrumental value (Mackinnon, 2013, p. 44).”

Kant also highlights the imperative of duty-“Act as if the maxim of thy action were to become by thy will a ‘Universal Law of Nature (Mackinnon, 2013, p. 47).’”

The text also explains faulty reasoning, fallacy, and the “slippery slope”.

[The Decaffeinated Writer (Bethany)]

The first half of this book concentrates on ethical theory, and is rather dry. The second half deals with social issues, such as economic justice, animal rights, and abortion. There are many parts in the latter part of the book that are overwhelmingly biased against conservatives. The author loses credibility by going out of her way to put conservatives down and promote Al Gore (Really? Al Gore in 2011?). I believe there are better textbooks available for an ethics course.

[Alex (Sasha)]

The section on feminist ethics was a bit out-of-date, but otherwise an informative read that raises some interesting questions. The author stays very neutral on just about every subject in the book, which I suppose is good practise for a textbook but made it boring to slog through in places.

[Brandon Fryman]

This is another great book on ethics. I like that it showcases many different ethic concerns of today. This book also discusses different theories indepth. Gives the various view points. However, I wish they used more theories at the beginning of the book. Maybe add a medical chapter.

[Hilary]

I have the third edition. Reading this book for a philosophy class years ago ended up changing the way I think about a lot of things. I really enjoyed this book.

[Louise]

I used this in a philosophy of bioethics course I taught along with readings from original sources. It is a decent overview of the different philosophical ethical theories.

[Tika]

It's a textbook, but good as far as textbooks go. The post-chapter reading selections are a bore.

[Jedon Gardner]

i think this is a good book