Description
Book SynopsisHuman Kindness and the Smell of Warm Croissants makes philosophy fun, tactile, and popular. Moral thinking is simple, Ruwen Ogien argues, and as inherent as the senses. In our daily experiences, in the situations we confront and in the scenes we witness, we develop an understanding of right and wrong as sophisticated as the moral outlook of the world's most gifted philosophers. By drawing on this knowledge to navigate life's most perplexing problems, ethics becomes second nature. Ogien explores, through experimental philosophy and other methods, the responses nineteen real-world conundrums provoke. Is a short, mediocre life better than no life at all? Is it acceptable to kill a healthy person so his organs can save five others? Would you swap a natural life filled with frustration, disappointment, and partial success for a world in which all of your needs are met, but through artificial and mechanical means? Ogien doesn't seek to show how difficult it is to determine right from wrong
Trade ReviewHuman Kindness and the Smell of Warm Croissants is Ruwen Ogien at his very best. The book's richness lies in Ogien's endeavor to do philosophy from the reality of lived experience rather than the kind of imaginary reflection that is characteristic of so much of philosophy. -- Laurence Thomas, Syracuse University A lucid translation of a wide-ranging intellectual foray. Booklist (starred review)
Table of ContentsPreface: An Antimanual of Ethics Acknowledgments Introduction: What Is the Use of Thought Experiments? Part I. Problems, Dilemmas, and Paradoxes: Nineteen Moral Puzzles 1. Emergencies 2. The Child Who Is Drowning in a Pond 3. A Transplant Gone Mad 4. Confronting a Furious Crowd 5. The Killer Trolley 6. Incest in All Innocence 7. The Amoralist 8. The Experience Machine 9. Is a Short and Mediocre Life Preferable to No Life at All? 10. I Would Have Preferred Never to Have Been Born 11. Must We Eliminate Animals in Order to Liberate Them? 12. The Utility Monster 13. A Violinist Has Been Plugged Into Your Back 14. Frankenstein, Minister of Health 15. Who Am I Without My Organs? 16. And If Sexuality Were Free? 17. It Is Harder to Do Good Intentionally Than It Is to Do Evil 18. We Are Free, Even If Everything Is Written in Advance 19. Monsters and Saints Part II. The Ingredients of the Moral "Cuisine" 20. Intuitions and Rules 21. A Little Method! 22. What Remains of Our Moral Intuitions? 23. Where Has the Moral Instinct Gone? 24. A Philosopher Aware of the Limits of His Moral Intuitions Is Worth Two Others, Indeed More 25. Understand the Elementary Rules of Moral Reasoning 26. Dare to Criticize the Elementary Rules of Moral Argument Conclusion Glossary Notes Index
