The Right Thing To Do: Basic Readings in Moral Philosophy

The Right Thing to Do: Basic Readings in Moral Philosophy is a companion reader to the best-selling text: The Elements of Moral Philosophy (0-07-8119065). Authors James Rachels and Stuart Rachels offer engaging, thought-provoking essays on compelling issues that students are familiar with and understand. This rich collection of essays can be used on its own for a course on moral philosophy, or it can be used to supplement other introductory texts.

Table of Contents:
RACHELS, THE RIGHT THING TO DO: BASIC READINGS IN MORAL PHILOSOPHY, 7ETABLE OF CONTENTSPreface About the AuthorsINTRODUCTION 1. A Short Introduction to Moral Philosophy James Rachels 2. Some Basic Points about Arguments James Rachels UTILITARIANISM 3. Utilitarianism John Stuart Mill 4. Utilitarianism and Integrity Bernard Williams 5. The Experience Machine Robert Nozick OTHER THEORETICAL ESSAYS 6. The Subjectivity of Values J. L. Mackie 7. Our Sense of Right and Wrong C. S. Lewis 8. The Categorical Imperative Immanuel Kant 9. The Virtues Aristotle 10. Master Morality and Slave Morality Friedrich Nietzsche 11. Caring Relations and Principles of Justice Virginia Held ABORTION 12. On the Moral and Legal Status of Abortion and Postscript on Infanticide Mary Anne Warren 13. Why Abortion Is Immoral Don Marquis 14. A Defense of Abortion Judith Jarvis Thomson ANIMALS 15. All Animals Are Equal Peter Singer 16. Torturing Puppies and Eating Meat: It’s All in Good Taste Alastair Norcross 17. Do Animals Have Rights? Tibor R. Machan POVERTY 18. Famine, Affluence, and Morality Peter Singer 19. Poverty and Parenthood Stuart Rachels THE DEATH PENALTY 20. A Defense of the Death Penalty Louis P. Pojman 21. Why the United States Will Join the Rest of the World in Abandoning Capital Punishment Stephen B. Bright WAR, TERRORISM, AND TORTURE 22. Hellhole Atul Gawande 23. The Ethics of War and Peace Douglas P. Lackey 24. Fifty Years after Hiroshima John Rawls 25. What Is Wrong with Terrorism? Thomas Nagel 26. Liberalism, Torture, and the Ticking Bomb David Luban SEX AND DRUGS 27. America’s Unjust Drug War Michael Huemer 28. Our Sexual Ethics Bertrand Russell 29. A Few Words about Gay Marriage Andrew Sullivan 30. Same-Sex Marriage and the Argument from Public Disagreement David Boonin 31. Alcohol and Rape Nicholas Dixon RACE, WOMEN, AND IMMIGRATION 32. Letter from the Birmingham City Jail Martin Luther King Jr. 33. Is Racial Discrimination Arbitrary? Peter Singer 34. In Defense of Quotas James Rachels 35. Homeward Bound Linda Hirshman 36. The Case for Open Immigration Michael Huemer BIOETHICS 37. The Morality of Euthanasia James Rachels 38. The Wrongfulness of Euthanasia J. Gay-Williams 39. The New Eugenics Matt Ridley 40. Human Cloning and the Challenge of Regulation John A. Robertson 41. Selling Organs for Transplantation Lewis Burrows 42. A Free Marked Would Reduce Donations and Would Commodify the Human Body James F. Childress

About the Author :
James Rachels, the distinguished American moral philosopher, was born in Columbus, Georgia. He graduated from Mercer University in Macon in 1962. He received his PhD in 1967 from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He taught at the University of Richmond, New York University, the University of Miami, Duke University, and the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where he spent the last twenty-six years of his career. 1971 saw the publication of Rachels groundbreaking textbook Moral Problems, which ignited the movement in America away from teaching ethical theory towards teaching concrete practical issues. Moral Problems sold 100,000 copies over three editions. In 1975, Rachels wrote Active and Passive Euthanasia, arguing that the distinction so important in the law between killing and letting die has no rational basis. Originally appearing in the New England Journal of Medicine, this essay has been reprinted roughly 300 times and is a staple of undergraduate education. The End of Life (1986) was about the morality of killing and the value of life. Created from Animals (1990) argued that a Darwinian world-view has widespread philosophical implications, including drastic implications for our treatment of nonhuman animals. Can Ethics Provide Answers? (1997) was Rachels first collection of papers (others are expected posthumously). Rachels McGraw-Hill textbook, The Elements of Moral Philosophy, is now in its fourth edition and is easily the best-selling book of its kind.Over his career, Rachels wrote 5 books and 85 essays, edited 7 books and gave about 275 professional lectures. His work has been translated into Dutch, Italian, Japanese, and Serbo-Croatian. James Rachels is widely admired as a stylist, as his prose is remarkably free of jargon and clutter. A major theme in his work is that reason can resolve difficult moral issues. He has given reasons for moral vegetarianism and animal rights, for affirmative action (including quotas), for the humanitarian use of euthanasia, and for the idea that parents owe as much moral consideration to other peoples children as they do to their own. James Rachels died of cancer on September 5th, 2003, in Birmingham, Alabama. Stuart Rachels is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of Alabama. He has revised several of James Rachels books, including Problems from Philosophy (second edition, 2009) and The Right Thing to Do (fifth edition, 2010), which is the companion anthology to this book. Stuart won the United States Chess Championship in 1989 at the age of 20, and he is a Bronze Life Master at bridge. His website is www.jamesrachels.org/stuart.