Access to Religion and Philosophy: Ethical Theory Third Edition

Summary:
The third edition of Ethical Theory has been updated in line with the revised A level specification requirements. It provides an essential background to ethical issues through giving an outline of major ethical theories and how these may be applied to a range of contemporary moral issues.

The new edition combines all the strengths of the second edition with a new design and features to make the content more accessible to all students in order to develop their understanding of the topic.

New features include:
- Key questions throughout the chapters to help students focus on the key issues
- Key terms defined and explained throughout the chapters
- Profiles of key individuals - their contribution and significance
- More summary diagrams throughout to aid revision
- Photos and illustrations
- Revision checklists at the end of chapters
- New exam-style questions and tips at the end of each chapter.

• Redesigned to allow greater accessibility to a wide range of post-16 students.
• New features such as definitions, summaries and exam tips to aid students' understanding, revision and essay writing techniques.
• Updated to ensure relevant coverage of the revised 2008 A level specifications.
• In-depth coverage of specific issues to help students access higher grades.

Table of Contents:
Preface
1. Introduction
1 Four basic approaches
2 A historical perspective
3 The challenge of ethics
study guide
2. Ethical Arguments
1 Presenting an ethical argument
2 Justifying your views
3 Theory and practice
4 Rights and responsibilities
5 The absolute and the relative
Study guide
Revision checklist
3. What makes Morality Possible?
1 Three basic requirements
2 Causes and conditioning
3 How free do I need to be?
4 Is and ought
Study guide
Revision checklist
4. Moral Language
1 Some ethical terms
2 Can moral claims be justified?
Study guide
Revision checklist
5. Plato and the Quest for Justice
1 Introduction
2 Justice?
3 Reason rules
4 The ideal state?
5 Why is it better to be just than unjust?
Study guide
Revision checklist
6. Aristotle and Happiness
1 The quest for eudaimonia
2 The mean
3 The Epicureans
4 The Stoics
Study guide
Revision checklist
7. Aquinas and Natural Law
1 Two approaches to Christian morality
2 Final Causes
3 Features of 'Natural Law'
Study guide
Revision checklist
8. On What Should Morality be Based?
1 Self-interest?
2 Thomas Hobbes
3 John Locke
4 Jean-Jacques Rousseau
5 Modern contract and rights-based approaches
6 Emotions?
Study guide
Revision checklist
9. Utilitarianism
1 Jeremy Bentham
2 John Stuart Mill
3 Preference and motive utilitarianism
4 Utilitarianism in practice
5 Criticisms of utilitarianism
Study guide
Revision checklist
10. Kant and Moral Choice
1 A sense of moral obligation
2 The 'Good Will'
3 The background to Kant’s moral theory
4 The Postulates: freedom, God and immortality
5 The Categorical Imperative
6 Absolute or relative?
Study guide
Revision checklist
11. Morality and Power
1 Backgrouns
2 God is dead
3 Willing the Superman
4 Master morality and slave morality
5 The threat of the Christian ascetic
6 The eternal recurrence
7 A challenge and a problem
Study guide
Revision checklist
12. An Existential Approach
1 Introduction
2 Soren Kierkegaard
3 Martin Heidegger
4 Jean-Paul Sartre
6 Simone de Beauvoir
5 Ethical implications of the existentialist approach
Study guide
Revision checklist
13. Situation Ethics
1 Introductions
2 The meaning of ‘love’
3 Evaluating situation ethics
study guide
Revision checklist
14. Religion and Ethics
1 Introduction
2 The relationship between morality and religion
3 Religious authority: the Divine Command theory of ethics
4 Ethics and the Religious Traditions
Study guide
Revision checklist
15. Conscience
1 A Christian view
2 The secular conscience
Study guide
Revision checklist
16. Virtue Ethics
1. Background
2. What are the virtues?
3. Virtue ethics in Aristotle
4. The revival of virtue ethics
5. Feminist ethics
6. The distinctiveness of virtue ethics
Study guide
Revision checklist
Postscript: Where do we go from here?
Glossary
Timeline of philosophers
Further reading
Index

About the Author(s):
Mel Thompson is an experienced Religious Studies and Philosophy author

Readership:
A Level Religious Studies students

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