Introducing Ethics

Ethics has become a burning issue in moral philosophical thought, raising the specter of responsibility at a time when responsibility seems entirely replaced by uncertainty and relativism. In a climate of instant information, free markets and possible ecological disaster, how do we define "rights", self-interest and civic duties? What are the acceptable limits of scientific investigation, genetic engineering, the rights and wrongs of animal rights, euthanasia and civil disobedience? What is the place of individual choice and consequence in a post-Holocaust world of continuing genocidal ethnic cleansing? Is "identity" now a last-ditch cultural defense of ethnic nationalisms and competing fundamentalisms? Introducing Ethics confronts these dilemmas. It traces in words and images the arguments of the great moral thinkers, including Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes and Kant, and brings the reader up to date with postmodern critics.