Description
Book SynopsisDevelops a pragmatic approach to the pressing moral issues, addressing practical problems by focusing on specific human concerns and multiple values rather than on abstract philosophical principles. This book showcases the author's method in sustained discussion of four controversial areas: abortion, animal rights, environmentalism, and justice.
Trade Review"Toward Better Problems
is a work of considerable merit.... [Weston] is effective in showing how the 'theoretical' approach obscures the real values at issue and hinders their realization."—
James Gouinlock, Emory University
Table of ContentsPreface 1. Practical Ethics in a New Key 2. Pragmatic Attitudes From Puzzles to Problematic Situations * Reconstructive Strategies * Integrative Strategies 3. Rethinking the Abortion Debate Against Drawing Lines * Multiple Relevant values * Deciding the Question: An Integrative Approach * Social Reconstruction and the Abortion Debate 4. Other Animals "Speciesism" * Outlines of an Integrative Approach * Reconstructing the Human Relation to Other Animals 5. The Environment The Need for Environmental Ethics * "Intrinsic Values" in Nature? * Integrating Environmental Values: Toward an Ecology of Values * Reconstruction in Environmental Ethics 6. Justice Justice in Problematic Situations: Between the Prevailing Paradigms * Some Integrative Methods * A Reconstructive View: Beyond the Justice Debate 7. Conclusion The Question of Critical Standpoint * The Question of Optimism Notes Index
