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Ethical theory examines
the different philosophies, systems, ideas or principles used to make
judgments about right/wrong/good/bad things or what we mean by those
words.
People become morally educated insofar as they achieve a grasp of
the principles of ethical analysis and the motivation to choose, organize,
and assess their own values and actions by means of those principles.
This implies the existence of a means of moral decision-making processes,
based upon human reason and defensible moral principles, to what we
do and believe. To be ethical, then, implies that one has acted through
self-motivation, open-mindedness, and with these principles in mind.
This section produces discussions, working papers and other means
to explore the questions: what processes do we use to make good ethical
decisions? This page provides general theoretical information. For
more specific discussions, use the links shown in the theory matrix
above.
If you would like a topic discussed or have information you would
like to provide, please email Rod
Erakovich or Vicki Edwards.
We look forward to hearing from you. |
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Books |
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Links & Websites |
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Books |
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Outlines of a Critical Theory of Ethics
Author: John
Dewey. (Greenwood Press Reprint, 12/23/1969) ISBN: 0-8371-2707-6.
253 pages
http://www.praeger.com/books/BookDetail.asp?dept_id=1&sku=DETE |
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Virtue Ethics and Servant Leadership
Jacques P. Thiroux (Emeritus) Bakersfield College &
CSUB
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Using a clear, jargon-free style and a flexible organization, this text introduces students with little or no background in philosophy or ethics to traditional and contemporary ethical theory. An abundance of examples and case studies illustrates for students how to set up their own systematic, rational ethics and how to apply ethical theories to traditional and contemporary moral issues.
ISBN: 0-13-031408-0 |
Virtue Ethics and Servant Leadership |
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Basic Ethics
Michael Boylan
Marymount University
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This text examines major moral theories from the worldview perspective, teaching students the major tenets of the principal moral theories, and the controversies that surround them, as well as offering suggestions on choosing and applying an ethical theory.
ISBN: 0-13-674292-0 |
Basic Ethics |
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Emile Durkheim: Ethics and the Sociology of Morals
Author: Robert
T. Hall. (Greenwood Press, 11/13/1987) ISBN: 0-313-25847-3. 248
pages
This work examines Emile Durkheim's concern with the sociology of morals and demonstrates the importance of this orientation of his social theory, which until now has been vastly underrated. In addition, it emphasizes the problematic relationship between sociology and philosophical ethics, which served as a motivating force in Durkheim's thought.
http://www.praeger.com/books/BookDetail.asp?dept_id=1&sku=HDK/ |
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Ethical Theories: A Book of Readings with Revisions, 2/E
by Melden
This anthology features essays written by outstanding and representative thinkers from several eras.
Publisher: Prentice Hall; Copyright: 1967
ISBN: 0-13-290122-6
Ethical Theories: A Book of Readings with Revisions, 2/E |
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Ethical Theory
Lafollette, Hugh (East Tennessee State University, USA) [£17.99, available Immediate Dispatch]
Ranging from moral realism to virtue ethics, this volume presents a survey of ethical theory. Written by an international assembly of leading moral philosophers, each of the 21 newly-commissioned papers develop the main tenets, arguments, themes, and problems of the main normative and meta-ethical philosophical outlooks. Contributors are Michael Smith, Simon Blackburn, Philip L. Quinn, James Rachels, Jeff McMahan, John D. Caputo, Elliott Sober, Laurence Thomas, R. G. Frey, Brad Hooker, F. M. Kamm, Thomas E. Hill, Jr., Geoffrey Sayre-McCord, David McNaughton, L. W. Sumner, Jan Narveson, Michael Slote, Alison Jagger, William R. Schroeder, Hugh LaFollette, and James P. Sterba.
Ethical Theory |
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Renegotiating Ethics in Literature, Philosophy, and Theory
Adamson, Jane (Australian National University, Canberra), Freadman,
Richard (La Trobe University)
Is it possible for postmodernism to offer viable, coherent accounts of ethics? Or are our social and intellectual worlds too fragmented for any broad consensus about the moral life? These issues have emerged as some of the most contentious in literary and philosophical studies. In Renegotiating Ethics in Literature, Philosophy, and Theory a distinguished international gathering of philosophers and literary scholars address the reconceptualisations involved in this 'turn towards ethics'.
Renegotiating Ethics in Literature, Philosophy, and Theory |
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Ethical Theory & Social Issues: Historical Texts & Contemporary Readings
Edition 0002 Goldberg, David Theo
A textbook for a course that combines theoretical and applied ethics, a rather recent concept. Re-formatted and augmented from the 1989 edition, includes a section of readings from philosophers who illustrate the development of western ethics, including Plato, Kant, and Mill.
Ethical Theory & Social Issues: Historical Texts & Contemporary Readings |
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Professional Ethics in Teaching: Towards the Development of a Code of Practice
Elizabeth Campbell at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education of the University of Toronto
Cambridge Journal of Education
Publisher: Carfax Publishing Company, part of the Taylor & Francis Group
Issue: Volume 30, Number 2/June 1, 2000, Pages: 203 - 221
This article provides a theoretical discussion of the process of developing a professional code of ethics for teachers. Two underlying assumptions pervade the article. Firstly, that increased awareness of the ethical dimensions and responsibilities of teaching is essential for both enhanced professionalism and, more significantly, improved practice. Secondly, that while a code of ethics may not advance the ultimate route to such awareness, it should be able to contribute broadly and positively to a deeper examination of ethics in teaching as long as its limitations are recognised and acknowledged. Six key issues and questions that highlight the complexities that those involved in the development of a code of professional ethics should address are discussed. While this article intends to provoke thoughts relevant to any organisation grappling with its own ethical code, its primary context is the Ontario College of Teachers (Ontario, Canada), whose work in this area is newly emerging.
Professional Ethics in Teaching: Towards the Development of a Code of Practice |
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On Cultivating Liberty: Reflections on Moral Ecology
By Michael Novak
March 1999 (Edited by Brian C. Anderson)
On Cultivating Liberty, a collection of essays by theologian Michael Novak, is divided into three sections. The first, "Liberty: The Virtue and the Institutions," collects several of Novak's most important essays on the free society, written over the past decade and a half. The section moves from the foundations of liberty (chapters one and two) to specific historical and institutional questions of the free society (chapters three through five) and concludes with a meditation on the family, which is for Novak a school of practical wisdom and a fierce enemy to all projects to engineer the human soul. The second section, "Liberty: The Tradition and Some of Its Heroes," is a look at some of the most profound theorists of freedom: Thomas Aquinas, Jacques Maritain, Reinhold Niebuhr, Irving Kristol, Alexander Solzhenitsyn, and John Paul II. The third section is an afterword containing the intellectual autobiography "Errand into the Wilderness," which traces Novak's disaffection with the Left, his immersion in political economy, and his understanding of his work. In addition, the volume contains a "Readers' Guide" to Novak's major writings.
Michael Novak holds the George Frederick Jewett Chair in Religion, Philosophy, and Public Policy at the American Enterprise Institute.
http://www.aei.org/book424 |
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American Character
By Michael Ledeen
When George W. Bush, in one of the most memorable lines of his acceptance speech, said that "Times of plenty...challenge American character," he was paraphrasing Alexis de Tocqueville, the most brilliant analyst of American democracy and American character. Indeed, for Tocqueville, the pursuit of personal wealth was the fundamental challenge to our utterly unique dynamic, creative and egalitarian character, for, unless it were tempered by religious faith, and unless we were reminded to devote a significant amount of our passion and energy to advancing the common good, the madcap quest for riches threatened American liberty.
Mr. Ledeen holds the Freedom Chair at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. His new book, Tocqueville on American Character, will be published shortly by St Martin's Press.
http://www.aei.org/book256 |
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On Character: Essays (Landmarks of Contemporary Political Thought)
by James
Q. Wilson
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This is a very
worthwhile collection of essays from the past 15 years by one
of America's foremost social policy intellectuals, who, unlike
many of his fellow social and political conservatives, is thoroughly
fair and careful in his arguments. This book traces the emergence
of Wilson's belief that strengthening personal character --
defined by him as empathy and self-control -- is a key component
of solutions to the problems of crime, the schools and the family.
Wilson points out that so defined, character is more a matter
of the heart than the head, which is why he thinks over-intellectual
approaches to the problems of our day have come up so short.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition
of this title. |
On Character: Essays (Landmarks of Contemporary Political Thought) |
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Toward a Sound World Order: A Multidimensional, Hierarchical Ethical Theory
Author: Donald
C. Lee
According to Lee, a hierarchy of biological and individual needs provides an objective basis for ethics. This hierarchy provides a model for examining the needs of the environment as well. Lee asserts that a sound world order must be based on an ethical theory that integrates the needs of humans and the environment of which they are a part. Along with philosophers and psychologists from Plato through Maslow, Lee believes that humans progress through hierarchical stages of biological and moral development. Humans, according to the author, also live at different levels of being and participate in biological, social, rational, cultural, and individual activities. At each developmental stage and in each sphere of activity, people have different needs. A hierarchy of species and individual needs provides an objective basis for ethics. This ethical system extends beyond humanity and embraces environmental ethics as well. The ethical goal of humanity, says Lee, is to create a sound world order that meets human and environmental needs at all levels. (Greenwood Press, 9/30/1992) ISBN: 0-313-27903-9. 240 pages.
http://www.praeger.com/books/BookDetail.asp?dept_id=1&sku=LTA/ |
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The Wisdom of Solomon at Work: Ancient Virtues for Living and Leading Today
by Charles
C. Manz, Ph.D., Karen
P. Manz, Robert
D. Marx, Christopher
P. Neck. 150 pages (May 2001) ISBN: 1-57675-085-X.
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The Wisdom
of Solomon at Work helps readers examine their own lives
and work as they journey toward wisdom. Those with a Judeo-Christian
background will reconnect with spiritual views, history, and
symbols from the Old Testament. Those from other faith traditions,
will learn from stories about work and relationships that have
withstood the test of time. The authors draw on the dramatic
stories of Job, David, Ruth, Moses, and Solomon to raise timeless
questions of the human condition that have existed since ancient
biblical times. This book opens a valuable wisdom source that
is relevant to contemporary work and life. Real-life stories-like
that of Aaron Feuerstein who risked his life savings to breath
life back into his company, Malden Mills, after a devastating
fire-show how spiritual wisdom can intersect with work life.. |
The Wisdom of Solomon at Work: Ancient Virtues for Living and Leading Today |
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Social Rights and Duties
by Leslie Stephen, With a new Introduction by Mark Reger, Johnson
C. Smith University
Leslie Stephen (1832-1904) was a well-known and prolific man of letters
in Victorian England. Social Rights and Duties consists of a collection
of twelve lectures, originally delivered between 1890 and 1895 to
the newly established Ethical Societies in London and Cambridge. Here,
Stephen applies his evolutionary ethics to a series of specific social
and political issues, such as punishment, equality, competition, the
struggle for existence, heredity, luxury, and the vanity of philosophizing.
The books thus constitute an important record in the history of the
ethical movement in England, as well as being an indispensable complement
to Stephen's earlier theoretical treatise The Science of Ethics.
- companioning volumes to Leslie Stephen's famous The Science
of Ethics
- an important record in the history of Ethical Societies in England
- first edition, with a new introduction by Mark Reger
http://195.12.26.123/19cphil/stephen.htm |
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Handbook of Administrative Ethics, Second Edition, Revised and Expanded Edited
By: Terry L. Cooper, 10/12/2000, 788 pages
Print ISBN: 0-8247-0405-3
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This rewritten, revised, and expanded reference/text follows the discussion of ethics in significant pieces of public administration literature from the late 19th century to the present-offering theoretical perspective, illustrative cases, and empirical research describing the evolution, scope, types, and effectiveness of ethics training in the public sector. Second Edition details the International City Management Association's public sector ethical code and includes a new chapter on military ethics! Over 40 leading ethics scholars have contributed to the Second Edition of the Handbook of Administrative Ethics. |
Handbook of Administrative Ethics, Second Edition, Revised and Expanded Edited |
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Classics Of Administrative Ethics
by Willa Bruce, University of Illinois
Paperback, 03/14/01: Westview
Press ISBN: 0-8133-9811-8
Series: An ASPA Classics Volume
This anthology will be appropriate for administrative ethics classes
and professional thinking in public administration at both the masters
and doctoral levels. It is a collection of administrative ethics articles
published in journals of the American Society for Public Administration
(ASPA) from 1941 (the earliest publication) through 1983 (the year
that the first ASPA Code of Ethics was established). The articles
are organized by themes of enduring importance to the field in order
to provide graduate students with ready access to the classic works
on ethics in public administration. Reading this collection will enhance
student's knowledge and skills to think and act ethically and contribute
to their ability to view current practices in light of traditional
perspectives. The ASPA Classics volume serves to bridge the practice
of public policy and administration with the empirical research base
that has accrued and the models for practice that may be deduced from
the research.
Willa Bruce is professor in the Doctor of Public Administration
program at the University of Illinois at Springfield and Managing
Editor of Public Voices.
Classics Of Administrative Ethics |
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Postmodern Ethics
Richard Rorty & Michael Polanyi
The editors of the Southern Humanities Review honored this
essay with the Theodore Christian Hoepfner Award for the best essay
published by the journal in 1995.
In this essay I hope to answer some of the charges made against postmodernism
in general and against Richard Rorty's work in particular by critics
who often feel caught in the position of being attracted by the philosophical
allure of postmodern epistemology but angry at finding themselves
on a slippery slope sliding towards what they fear is moral decay
and intellectual anarchy. Christopher Norris' prolific work may speak
for many who feel this way. In "Consensus 'Reality' and Manufactured
Truth" (Southern Humanities Review, 26.1; Winter, 1992),
Norris excoriated the least restrained -- or most poetic -- member
of the French postmodern contingent, Jean Baudrillard, for being so
caught up in his enthusiasm for the simulated "realities" of computer
"worlds" that he found it difficult to tell the difference between
an arcade game, CNN programming, and the actual military event of
the Persian Gulf War. The consequence was a loss of moral judgment.
In "'New Times,' Postmodernism, and the Politics of Distraction" (Southern
Humanities Review, 26.3; Summer, 1992) Norris argued that postmodernism
is a "convenient alibi for thinkers with a large (if unacknowledged)
stake in the 'cultural logic of late capitalism'" (269). The suggestion
is that moral judgment is subsumed by ideological rhetoric.
Postmodern Ethics |
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New Public Management And Substantive Democracy
Public Administration Review; Washington; Sep/Oct 2001; Richard
C Box; Gary S Marshall; B J Reed; Christine M Reed
There is a concern that a remaining refuge of substantive democracy in America, the public sector, is in danger of abandoning it in favor of the market model of management. It is argued that contemporary American democracy is confined to a shrunken procedural remnant of its earlier substantive form. The classical republican model of citizen involvement faded with the rise of liberal capitalist society in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Capitalism and democracy coexist in a society emphasizing procedural protection of individual liberties rather than substantive questions of individual development. Today's market model of government in the form of New Public Management goes beyond earlier "reforms," threatening to eliminate democracy as a guiding principle in public-sector management.
New Public Management And Substantive Democracy |
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Ethical Theories
Notes from H. Rex Hartson, Vermont University
Ethical Theories |
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Moral Philosophy Meets Social Psychology
Gilbert Harman argues that the belief that `strong character attributes exist' is both grounded in common sense and a mistake.
Moral Philosophy Meets Social Psychology |
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Virtue Ethics (Not Too) Simplified
Philip Cafaro, Southwest State University
There are two basic types of ethical judgments: deontological judgements that focus on focus on duty and obligation and eudaimonist judgements that focus on human excellence and the nature of the good life. I contend that we must carefully distinguish these two types of judgement and not try to understand one as a special case of the other. Ethical theories may be usefully divided into two main kinds, deontological or eudaimonist, on the basis of whether they take one of the other of these types of judgement as primary. A second important contention, which this paper supports but does not attempt to justify fully, is that neither type of theory trumps the other, nor should we subsume them under some more encompassing ethical synthesis.
Virtue Ethics (Not Too) Simplified |
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Does Hume Have an Ethics
of Virtue? Some Observations on Character and Reasoning in Hume and
Aristotle
Marcia L. Homiak, Occidental College
homiak@oxy.edu
I argue that Hume's ethics can be characterized as a virtue ethics, by which I mean a view according to which character has priority over action and the principles governing action: virtuous character guides and constrains practical deliberation. In a traditional utilitarian or Kantian ethics, character is subordinate to practical deliberation: virtue is needed only to motivate virtuous action. I begin by outlining this approach in Aristotle's ethics, then draw relevant parallels to Hume. I argue that virtuous character in Aristotle is understood in terms of "self-love." A true self-lover enjoys most the exercise of the characteristic human powers of judging, choosing, deciding and deliberating. A virtuous agent's self-love enables sizing up practical situations properly and exhibiting the virtue called for by the situation. But if an agent's character is defective, the practical situation will be misapprehended and responded to improperly
Does Hume Have an Ethics
of Virtue? Some Observations on Character and Reasoning in Hume and
Aristotle |
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The Profession of Public Administration: An Ethics Edge in Introductory Textbooks?
Public Administration Review; Washington; Mar/Apr 2001; James
S Bowman; Evan M Berman; Jonathan P West
Given the substantial interest in public service ethics, this study examines its foundations as reflected in paradigmatic textbooks - a unit of analysis that informs both theory and practice in the field. The interpretative framework employed evaluates the context (the amount and placement of the topic, the use of graphics, and sources cited) as well as the content (conceptualization of management ethics and inclusion of implementation issues) of ethics found in the publications. A limited definition of a professional - on in possession of largely technical skills - is reflected in the textbooks. The implications of the findings are explored.
The Profession of Public Administration: An Ethics Edge in Introductory Textbooks? |
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ETHICS: International Journal of Social Political and International Philosophy, University of Chicago Press.
Founded in 1890, Ethics is an international journal of moral, political, and legal philosophy. It publishes work from disciplines that have a normative dimension, including philosophy, law, economics, and social and political theory.
http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/ET/journal/ |
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SOUTH ASIAN HISTORY: Philosophical Paradigms from Ancient India: Ethics, Doctrines of Impermanence and Change; Buddhist Ideology.
SOUTH ASIAN HISTORY |
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