Study Guide

by Lisa H. Newton

Text/Study Guide that links detailed discussions of ethical concepts with an analysis of the programs in the Ethics in America television course. See listing for ethics in America study guide under... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0131826263
• ISBN13: 9780131826267
• Release Date: May 2004
• Publisher: Pearson
• Length: 243 Pages
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 7.1" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Ethics in America Study Guide

The product was exactly what I needed, but I have submitted the tax exempt paperwork twice now and still have not seen a refund for the tax show up in my account.

One of the Best

The Ethics In America Study Guide and its companion volume, Ethics in America Source Reader, are among the very best books in print on the subject of ethics. The author, Lisa H. Newton, begins at a point that even well-written texts fail to grapple with. That is, the question of where ethics arises from. Fundamentally, why should we concern ourselves about ethics? That is a question that, for the serious thinker, becomes harder to answer than first might seem apparent. It is also a question that helps us define ethics and develop an ethics that is applicable to the individual and to society. Newton addresses this question by asserting some things that are true about human beings. That we are vulnerable in the sense that all "animals" are - we face risks and harm simply from the human condition. That we are social - that is, with very rare exceptions, we live amidst other human beings, and thus "rules" need to be set up to deal with conflicts that inevitably arise. These include those that relate to law in the formal sense, as well as those that do not. And finally, that we are rational beings. No other life forms, as far as we know, are both animal and rational. We experience harm, pain and loss in a unique way that in part defines us as human. These three basic facts about humans lead to a series of moral imperatives that are the subject of the book. Such issues as justice, welfare and dignity are woven into the chapters. The thing that makes ethics hard is that values come into conflict. The dilemma is to figure out "what to do." In other words, ethics is about human action in the context of human communities, not merely about abstract philosophy. Further, if anyone wants to arrive at a single, right answer to all questions dealing with right and wrong action, they will be disappointed. On the other hand, UNLESS one devotes the effort to delving into the types of questions posed by Newton in her Ethics in America series, then that person can be set hopelessly adrift in the world. I think that we see people every day who seem to live with little ethical guidance other than hunches, emotional reactions and prejudice. The world is full of armchair philosophers (including those found in bars, classrooms, boardrooms and living rooms). But whether their conversations can really be deemed based on ethical reasoning is an open question. By reading, and using, a text like Newton's Ethics in America, these everyday conversations can potentially take on some real meaning.