Hugh LaFollette (ed) - Ethics in Practice: An Anthology

Each volume in this outstanding series provides an authoritative and comprehensive collection of the essential primary readings from philosophys main fields of study. Designed to complement the Blackwell Companions to Philosophy series, each volume represents an unparalleled resource in its own right, and will provide the ideal platform for course use.

This edition first published 2014
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Cover image: Camille Pissarro, Father Sawing Wood, Pontoise, 1879, oil on canvas. Christies Images / Corbis
Cover design by Nicki Averill Design and Illustration

This anthology seeks to provide engagingly written, carefully argued philosophical essays, on a wide range of important, contemporary ethical issues. When I had trouble finding essays that suited those purposes, I commissioned new essays four for this edition. I also invited a number of philosophers to revise their classic essays three for this edition, with four reprints new to this edition. Altogether, more than half of the essays were written or revised specifically for Ethics in Practice. This edition also features a new introductory essay, Writing a Philosophy Paper.

The result is a tasty blend of the old and the new, the familiar and the unfamiliar. I have organized the book into five thematic sections and fifteen topics to give you the greatest flexibility to construct the course you want. When feasible, I begin or end sections with essays that bridge to preceding or following sections.

Although I have included essays I think introductory students can read and comprehend, no one would believe me if I claimed all the essays are easy to read. We all know many students have trouble reading philosophical essays. That is not surprising. Many of these essays were written originally for other professional philosophers, not first-year undergraduates. Moreover, even when philosophers write expressly for introductory audiences, their ideas, vocabularies, and styles are often foreign to the introductory student. So I have included a brief introduction on READING PHILOSOPHY to advise students on how to read and understand philosophical essays.