Table of Contents

Preface:
New to the Fourth Edition:
Instructor's Manual and Companion Website:
A Note on the Companion Volume:
Acknowledgments:
INTRODUCTION
The Lay of the Land
Skepticism about Ethics
Ethical Starting Points
What Is Morality?
Moral Reasoning
The Role of Moral Theory
Looking Ahead
PART ONE. THE GOOD LIFE
1. Hedonism: Its Powerful Appeal
Happiness and Intrinsic Value
The Attractions of Hedonism
There Are Many Models of a Good Life:
Personal Authority and Well-Being:
Misery Clearly Hampers a Good Life; Happiness Clearly Improves It:
The Limits of Explanation:
Rules of the Good Life--and Their Exceptions:
Happiness Is What We Want for Our Loved Ones:
2. Is Happiness All That Matters?
The Paradox of Hedonism
Evil Pleasures
The Two Worlds
False Happiness
The Importance of Autonomy
Life's Trajectory
Unhappiness as a Symptom of Harm
Conclusion
3. Getting What You Want
A Variety of Good Lives
Personal Authority
Avoiding Objective Values
Motivation
Justifying the Pursuit of Self-Interest
Knowledge of the Good
4. Problems for the Desire Theory
Getting What You Want May Not Be Necessary for Promoting Your Good
Getting What You Want May Not Be Sufficient for Promoting Your Good
Desires Based on False Beliefs:
Disinterested and Other-Regarding Desires:
Disappointment:
Ignorance of Desire Satisfaction:
Impoverished Desires:
The Paradox of Self-Harm and Self-Sacrifice:
The Fallibility of Our Deepest Desires:
Conclusion
PART TWO. NORMATIVE ETHICS: DOING THE RIGHT THING
5. Morality and Religion
Three Assumptions about Morality and Religion
First Assumption: Religious Belief Is Needed for Moral Motivation:
Second Assumption: God Is the Creator of Morality:
Third Assumption: Religion Is an Essential Source of Moral Guidance:
Conclusion
6. Natural Law
The Theory and Its Attractions
Three Conceptions of Human Nature
Human Nature as Animal Nature:
Human Nature Is What Is Innate:
Human Nature Is What All Humans Have in Common:
Natural Purposes
The Argument from Humanity
Conclusion
7. Psychological Egoism
Egoism and Altruism
Does It Matter Whether Psychological Egoism Is True?
The Argument from Our Strongest Desires
The Argument from Expected Benefit
Two Egoistic Strategies
Appealing to the Guilty Conscience:
Expanding the Realm of Self-Interest:
Letting the Evidence Decide
Conclusion
8. Ethical Egoism
Why Be Moral?
Two Popular Arguments for Ethical Egoism
The Self-Reliance Argument:
The Libertarian Argument:
The Best Argument for Ethical Egoism
Three Problems for Ethical Egoism
Egoism Violates Core Moral Beliefs:
Egoism Cannot Allow for the Existence of Moral Rights:
Egoism Arbitrarily Makes My Interests All-Important:
Conclusion
9. Consequentialism: Its Nature and Attractions
The Nature of Consequentialism
Structure:
Maximizing Goodness:
Moral Knowledge:
Actual Versus Expected Results:
Assessing Actions and Intentions:
The Attractions of Utilitarianism
Impartiality:
The Ability to Justify Conventional Moral Wisdom:
Conflict Resolution:
Moral Flexibility:
The Scope of the Moral Community
Slippery Slope Arguments
10. Consequentialism: Its Difficulties
Measuring Well-Being
Utilitarianism Is Very Demanding
Deliberation:
Motivation:
Action:
Impartiality
No Intrinsic Wrongness (or Rightness)
The Problem of Injustice
Potential Solutions to the Problem of Injustice
Justice Is Also Intrinsically Valuable:
Injustice Is Never Optimific:
Justice Must Sometimes Be Sacrificed:
Rule Consequentialism
Conclusion
11. The Kantian Perspective: Fairness and Justice
Consistency and Fairness
The Principle of Universalizability
Morality and Rationality
Assessing the Principle of Universalizability
Integrity
Kant on Absolute Moral Duties
12. The Kantian Perspective: Autonomy and Respect
The Principle of Humanity
The Importance of Rationality and Autonomy
The Good Will and Moral Worth
Five Problems with the Principle of Humanity
Vagueness:
Determining Just Deserts:
Are We Autonomous?:
Moral Luck:
The Scope of the Moral Community:
Conclusion
13. The Social Contract Tradition: The Theory and Its Attractions
The Lure of Proceduralism
The Background of the Social Contract Theory
The Prisoner's Dilemma
Cooperation and the State of Nature
The Advantages of Contractarianism
Morality Is Essentially a Social Phenomenon:
Contractarianism Explains and Justifies the Content of the Basic Moral Rules:
Contractarianism Offers a Method for Justifying Every Moral Rule:
Contractarianism Explains the Objectivity of Morality:
Contractarianism Explains Why It Is Sometimes Acceptable to Break the Moral Rules:
More Advantages: Morality and the Law
Contractarianism Justifies a Basic Moral Duty to Obey the Law:
The Contractarian Justification of Legal Punishment:
Contractarianism Justifies the State's Role in Criminal Law:
Contractarianism and Civil Disobedience:
14. The Social Contract Tradition: Problems and Prospects
Why Be Moral?
The Role of Consent
Disagreement among the Contractors
The Scope of the Moral Community
Conclusion
15. Ethical Pluralism and Absolute Moral Rules
The Structure of Moral Theories
Is Torture Always Immoral?
Preventing Catastrophes
The Doctrine of Double Effect
A Reply to the Argument from Disaster Prevention:
How the DDE Threatens Act Consequentialism:
Distinguishing Intention from Foresight:
Moral Conflict and Contradiction
Is Moral Absolutism Irrational?
The Doctrine of Doing and Allowing
Conclusion
16. Ethical Pluralism: Prima Facie Duties and Ethical Particularism
Ross's Ethic of Prima Facie Duties
The Advantages of Ross's View
Pluralism:
We Are Sometimes Permitted to Break the Moral Rules:
Moral Conflict:
Moral Regret:
Addressing the Anti-absolutist Arguments:
A Problem for Ross's View
Knowing the Fundamental Moral Rules
Self-Evidence and the Testing of Moral Theories
Knowing the Right Thing to Do
Ethical Particularism
Three Problems for Ethical Particularism
Its Lack of Unity:
Accounting for Moral Knowledge:
Some Things Possess Permanent Moral Importance:
Conclusion
17. Virtue Ethics
The Standard of Right Action
Moral Complexity
Moral Understanding
Moral Education
The Nature of Virtue
Virtue and the Good Life
Objections
Tragic Dilemmas:
Does Virtue Ethics Offer Adequate Moral Guidance?:
Is Virtue Ethics Too Demanding?:
Who Are the Moral Role Models?:
Conflict and Contradiction:
The Priority Problem:
Conclusion
18. Feminist Ethics
The Elements of Feminist Ethics
Moral Development
Women's Experience
The Ethics of Care
The Importance of Emotions:
Against Unification:
Against Impartiality and Abstraction:
Against Competition:
Downplaying Rights:
Challenges for Feminist Ethics
Conclusion
PART THREE. METAETHICS: THE STATUS OF MORALITY
19. Ethical Relativism
Moral Skepticism
Two Kinds of Ethical Relativism
Some Implications of Ethical Subjectivism and Cultural Relativism
Moral Infallibility:
Moral Equivalence:
Questioning Our Own Commitments:
Moral Progress:
Ethical Subjectivism and the Problem of Contradiction:
Cultural Relativism and the Problem of Contradiction:
Ideal Observers
Conclusion
20. Moral Nihilism
Error Theory
Expressivism
How Is It Possible to Argue Logically about Morality?:
Expressivism and Amoralists:
The Nature of Moral Judgment:
Conclusion
21. Eleven Arguments Against Moral Objectivity
1. Objectivity Requires Absolutism
2. All Truth Is Subjective
3. Equal Rights Imply Equal Plausibility
4. Moral Objectivity Supports Dogmatism
5. Moral Objectivity Supports Intolerance
6. Moral Objectivity Cannot Allow for Legitimate Cultural Variation
7. Moral Disagreement Undermines Moral Objectivity
8. Atheism Undermines Moral Objectivity
9. The Absence of Categorical Reasons Undermines Moral Objectivity
10. Moral Motivation Undermines Moral Objectivity
11. Values Have No Place in a Scientific World
Conclusion
References:
Suggestions for Further Reading:
Glossary:
Index:

About the Author

Russ Shafer-Landau is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is the author, editor, or coeditor of several books including Living Ethics (OUP, 2018) and The Ethical Life, Fourth Edition (OUP, 2017). He is also the editor of Oxford Studies in Metaethics.

Reviews

"The Fundamentals of Ethics is quite simply the best introductory ethics book out there."--Philip Robbins, University of Missouri
"The writing style is perfectly pitched, the examples are vivid and memorable, and the concepts are thoroughly discussed."--Scott James, University of North Carolina Wilmington
"The clarity of Shafer-Landau's writing is almost unparalleled, and the examples that he uses (both real and imagined) are pedagogical treasures. He does a remarkable job of explaining very complex philosophical theories in a thoroughly engaging yet eminently clear fashion."--Aleksander Pjevalica, University of Texas at El Paso
"The Fundamentals of Ethics is an outstanding introductory text. It does an excellent job of presenting complex ideas at an introductory level, while deftly helping students understand the practical import of ethical theory. Its analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of each of the normative theories is cogently presented. Perhaps its most salient feature is its handling of metaethical issues, which speaks directly to the presuppositions students
often have about ethical reasoning. Shafer-Landau's approach clearly shows the experience of someone who has taught this material in the classroom and understands common student assumptions and concerns. This is a
very impressive introduction. And the price is substantially lower than that of the Rachels text."--Matthew J. Fitzsimmons, University of North Alabama