Product Description

Now in its third edition, this foremost college ethics text helps students form a basis for practical, ethical decision making in contemporary culture. Substantial updates and revisions include a new chapter on ethics and economics, online resources for instructors, current case studies, new material on bioethics and stem cell research, and much more.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #78285 in Books
• Published on: 2009-08-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 384 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780310291091
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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From the Back Cover
With its unique union of theory and application and its well-organized, easy-to-use design, Moral Choices has earned its place as the standard text for college ethics courses. This third edition offers extensive updates, revisions, and brand new material, all designed to help students develop a sound and current basis for making ethical decisions in today's complex postmodern culture. Moral Choices outlines the distinctive elements of Christian ethics while avoiding undue dogmatism. The book also introduces other ethical systems and their key historical proponents, including Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and Immanuel Kant. After describing a seven-step procedure for tackling ethical dilemmas, author Scott Rae uses case studies to address some of today’s most pressing social issues. He guides students in thinking critically and biblically about: ? Abortion ? Reproductive Technologies ? Euthanasia ? Capital Punishment ? Sexual Ethics ? The Morality of War ? Genetic Technologies and Human Cloning ? NEW: Ethics and Economics NEW FEATURES • Online resources for instructors, with test banks, PowerPoint® presentations, and more • Chapter on ethics and economics covering global capitalism, environmental ethics, and business ethics • Significant new material on bioethics and stem cell and embryo research • Discussion questions at the end of each chapter • Sidebars with case studies for discussion

About the Author
Scott B. Rae (PhD, University of Southern California) is professor of Christian ethics at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University, La Mirada, California.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
INTRODUCTION: WHY STUDY ETHICS?

In Plato’s classic work The Republic, the myth of Gyges sets out the question, Why be moral? Gyges was given the opportunity to live life as an invisible entity, able to do anything he wanted to do with no one ever discovering what he had done. That is, he could do whatever he wanted and would be assured of getting away with it. Given the chance to live life like this, the question Plato raises is, Would a person want to be moral? After a good deal of dialogue, Plato concluded that being moral was inherently valuable, apart from any additional benefits it produced or harm that it enabled a person to avoid.

How would you respond to the question, Why be moral? Since the moral life and moral decision making are the focal points of this book, this question is foundational. If you decide that being moral is not that important, then you probably will not spend much time reading this or any other book on ethics. But if being moral is important to you, then the content of this book will hopefully be helpful in shaping how you view morality.

Most people, when they are genuinely honest with themselves, still associate doing well in life with being a good person. Having moral character is still essential to most people’s conceptions of what makes a person flourish in his or her life. For example, it is difficult to imagine a person being considered a success in life if he has gained his wealth dishonestly. It is equally difficult to call a person a success who is at the top of his profession, but cheats on his wife, abuses his children, and drinks too much. On the other hand, we rightly hold up a person like Mother Teresa as a model of living a good life, even though she lacks most material goods that society values. One of the principal reasons for being moral is that it is central to most concepts of human fulfillment. For the Christian, being moral is critical to a life that seeks to honor God. We could say that being moral is inherently good because it is foundational to a person’s flourishing in life, since doing well in life and being a good person still go together for most people.

The same holds true for society as a whole. Most people would not want to live in a society in which morality was unimportant, in which conceptions of right and wrong carried little weight. In fact, it is unlikely that any sort of civilized society could continue unless it had concern for important moral values such as fairness, justice, truthfulness, and compassion. Ethics are important because they give direction to people and societies, who have some sense that they cannot flourish without being moral.

Ethics are important because moral questions are at the heart of life’s most important issues. Morality is primarily concerned with questions of right and wrong, the ability to distinguish between the two, and the justification of the distinction. Closely related are questions like, What is a good person? What things are morally praiseworthy? What constitutes a good life? and What would a good society look like? These are fundamental to your view of the world. You cannot formulate an adequate worldview without providing answers to these moral questions. A wide variety of professions, whether or not they realize it, actually deal with moral questions. For example, morality is fundamental to politics, since politics and the law concern the way in which people order their lives together in society.

Ethics are also important because you face moral choices every day. Every so often you will face emotionally wrenching moral dilemmas that have no easy answers. Many decisions you will make on a day-to-day basis also involve questions of right and wrong. Ethics provide the basis on which you make those decisions. Most people have some kind of an idea of what sorts of things are right and wrong. Explaining why you think something is right or wrong or whether a particular person is good or evil, however, is altogether another question. The basis on which you make moral choices is often as important as the choices themselves. Yet, few people have thought through the way in which they justify their conceptions of right and wrong.

Finally, ethics are important in facing a number of issues, including abortion, euthanasia, homosexuality, war, and capital punishment. Debates on issues such as these seem endless and irreconcilable, and they promise to continue far into the future. What many of these issues share is a fundamental disagreement over the ultimate source of moral authority. Some individuals hold that moral authority is ultimately a human construction, while others insist that moral authority comes from some transcendent source that is beyond human beings, such as a revelation from God or nature. As you read the newspaper and various newsmagazines and listen to television news, you will be increasingly aware of the importance of these issues. You will also notice that, apart from legal intervention, these issues are no closer to being resolved today than they were ten years ago

Customer Reviews

Great Christian introduction to ethics
I found this book when I was browsing through a bookstore in Washington DC a few weeks ago. There were recommendations by Francis J. Beckwith and J.P. Moreland on the book; needless to say these are some of the most learned men in the Christian intellectual world. The book is about ethics (the process of determining right and wrong) and morality (the actual content of right and wrong). Scott B. Rae, in addition to being an academic ethicist (and a Christian committed to Scripture), serves on several California hospital ethics committees. This is apparent by the way he begins many of his chapters; he crafts a real-life scenario where making the moral decision requires some serious thought.

The theoretical part of the book is clear and important; knowing why people have specific moral views is as important as its resolution. I think quoting Professor Beckwith's comments on the book might be illustrative: 'In fact, there's not a better book anywhere that so clearly ties ethical theory and moral practice.'

The book starts with four background chapters: 'Christian Ethics,' 'Major Figures in the History of Ethics,' 'Ethical Systems and Ways of Moral Reasoning,' and, 'Making Ethical Decisions.' For a person new to the study of ethics and tired of media moral reasoning, these chapters were refreshing. In the, "Christian Ethics," chapter, in addition to examining Scripture, Rae makes the conclusion that Christians who use the Bible can still in good conscience use natural law (this is moral information from general revelation; that is the world and Creation, rather than special revelation, the Bible). He makes the point that general revelation morality (i.e. natural law) and special revelation morality (i.e. the Bible) are usually in agreement though the arbiter in rare cases of disagreement should be Scripture. The importance of natural law for the Christian is not to be underestimated. Granted that the Christian wants to be able to influence his/her surrounding culture for Christ, promoting justice, order etc., natural law means that a Christian can make a moral argument without quoting the Bible or compromising the Bible.

The sections on the history of ethics and ethical systems are helpful both to the person who wants to simply learn about ethics, those who want to understand the reasoning people use in the public forum and so on. About half of the book is dedicated to the big moral issues of our day: Abortion, Reproductive Technologies, Genetic Technologies and Human Cloning, Physician-Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia, Capital Punishment, Sexual Ethics, The Morality of War and Legislating Morality.

The general approach that Rae takes is to use a scenario at the beginning of the chapter, offer arguments for and against, evaluate these arguments, look at Scripture, and then offer a conclusion. Also, each section has footnotes and a, 'Further Reading,' list.

One of Rae comments from the, 'Sexual Ethics,' chapter could serve as a reason for all Christians to carefully consider how to present their moral case in the public forum:

'Making the biblical case against homosexuality persuasive to a secular audience that has little regard for biblical authority is difficult, particularly in view of the aggressive gay rights movement and a growing societal tolerance for homosexuality. But that does not mean further attempts to make the Bible's teachings on homosexuality persuasive to the broader culture should not be undertaken.' (page 237) I think this book is a good starting place to help lay people understand ethics and how to carefully think through these issues and the process we go through in coming to moral conclusions.

Nearly very good.
Rae notes in his introduction that "the moral life and moral decision making are the focal points of this book." He has done an admirable job in this regard. While the book is written from a Christian ethicist perspective as an introduction to ethics, his evaluations of different topics are mostly treated with well thought out and logically coherent explanations. He spends two entire chapters giving an honest look at alternative ethical systems including relativism, utilitarianism and ethical egoism. He also spends time looking at several of the significant players historically in ethics including Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Aquinas and Augustine. This edition is expanded and covers topics not included in the first edition.

My one and only major concern with Rae is his position that the removal of nutrition and hydration from a non-terminally ill person, which can be found at the top of page 204, is justifiable. He argues that in such a non-terminally ill person (the example here is someone in a perpetual vegetative state), the act of withdrawing or refusing to initiate nutrition or hydration "does not constitute starving someone to death" He further argues that it is the injury that has put them in this state of not being able to feed themselves orally. This argument does not logically hold. By removing or withholding nutrition and hydration from anyone, regardless of the presence of or absence of injury, they are being starved to death unless the injury is terminal and causes death first. In addition, based on Rae's rational anyone with an injury that prevents them from being able to feed themself would justifiably be able to have hydration and nutrition withheld or refused. Also, Rae's argument is in direct contradiction of his arguments against abortion in chapter 6 making his metaethics internally inconsistent.

A Review of "Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics" by Scott B. Rae
Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics is written by Scott B. Rae. Dr Rae currently teaches at Talbot School of Theology as an associate professor of biblical studies and Christian ethics.

The book in review is a terrific introduction to the discipline of ethics. The author's purpose for writing the book serves to inform the reader in brevity of all the areas that make up ethics. Dr. Rae's thesis is essentially answered in the question, "Why be moral?" He contends that if the reader concerns him or herself with morality, this book will be of much interest. However, if morality is not a concern, then this book will probably be of little value.

Dr. Scott Rae does more than just write a book about ethical systems and views. He illuminates the reader to a whole new worldview, so to speak. If someone had an interest in learning more about ethics---the foundational theories and relevant applications---than this book is a terrific starting point. Scott Rae starts the book off by giving a basic, informative preface to why an individual should study ethics. In chapter two, the author goes through the Old and New Testaments and creates for the reader a foundational understanding of biblical/Christian ethics. During this chapter, the writer analyzes the systems of thought that fall under this umbrella of ethics (e.g. Divine Command Theory, Natural Law, et cetera). The next chapter highlights the major proponents of ethics. From pre-philosophy to the Greeks, the author writes on the pluses and minuses of each of the major figures in this area of study. Dr. Rae also emphasizes the role that Christian theologians and philosophers play on the topic of ethics and where the idea of Christian ethics came from. The writer takes the fourth chapter to write extensively on some of the primary ethical systems and their ways of moral interpretation. He introduces a plausible case study in the first few pages of the chapter. The author writes what each system of ethical thought discussed would think about that particular case study. Later on in the chapter, he goes into more detail about what each of the systems would say about certain ethical dilemmas, as well as giving the problems with each of the methods. The next chapter then gives three more ethical dilemmas: a medical, business, and parental rights and patient's best interest situation and has the reader follow an outline and come to his or her own conclusions about what he or she should do in making an ethical decision. Dr Rae even asks, "What would you do?"

Following those theoretical notions, the subsequent chapters each emphasize one of the major issues, respectively, in ethics today. The chapter addresses a brief history, significant findings, court cases, and what secular ethicists would say regarding each of those issues. However, the author makes the case for what a Christian should continue to do to fight for a world more like the one God intended his people to dwell in. The issues addressed in chapters six through thirteen are as follows: abortion, reproductive technologies, genetic technologies and human cloning, physician assisted suicide and euthanasia, capital punishment, sexual ethics, morality of war, and finally the issue of legislating morality. These are very pertinent topics, which are not only relevant to the world that is outside the church doors, but to the people inside the church itself. This book equips the reader who wants to study and understand the complexities that surround these issues.

Moral Choices seems to leave no stone unturned with regard to finding and inserting ethical problems into their rightful places. The author doesn't make the reader feel the need to be a scholar, but moreover, the necessity to make him or herself familiar with the situations and issues that arise in the world today. This makes the book a lot easier to read than some other volumes on the same subject. Another fantastic feature of the books is it's relevancy to the Christian life. This is a vital point for the believer because the Christian needs to be aware of such issues, and constantly has to study to be on the lookout for the new questions raised with consideration to the moral life.

The first half of the book focused on the history of ethics and some of the main schools of thought. While giving me a more detailed understanding of those views, it was the latter half of the work that challenged my beliefs more intently. Dr. Rae brought practicality forth and gave the audience real circumstances to think about. The author was trying to get the reader to think about what he or she might do in some intense ethical situations. This is where my thoughts were challenged the most. I had my own preconceived notions of the problems and solutions, but I was exhorted to rethink some of those thoughts and to see where the answers might actually lie.

After reading this book, one gains a better sense of understanding when thinking about the ethical questions that are raised today. Though succinctness is a limit in itself, the author has to be choosey about what he addresses. However, the thoroughness of what the book actually does discuss is astounding. Moral Choices helped me to make myself aware of the moral and immoral; ethical and unethical. Not only why something is one way or another, but to use sensible analysis and critique to find it. This book also serves as a guide to anyone in the church who would read it. Not only is it useful for the minister or professor, but to the layperson as well.

Dr. Rae writes this book with the student's perspective in mind. He does not write as if the reader already knows the information, nor does he write in such a way that makes the audience feel like he is not capable of explaining this information to a child or an intellectual. That's the beauty in itself because this is a thoughtful, scholarly work that competes with any other secular book on ethics. That is definitely a multifunctional strength of the book. Another strength is the way the writer presents the ethical circumstances in the latter half of the book. He informs the reader meticulously and yet, has the ability and room to write about eight of the most controversial topics on planet Earth today. One more highlight of the book is the author's gracious distinction to name key terms and define words used throughout each chapter. This assists the reader in fully understanding what the author is trying to say. With that being said, there is a weakness to this semi-tome too. While I emphatically praise the second part of the book, the first half is quite dull at times. Not because of its historicity, but because it is written in such a way that reads more like a textbook than a fresh look at Christian ethics (which is what it is). You can tell the author is more excited about the issues rather than the conjectural and theoretical notions. Again, this is a small flaw, but an imperfection nonetheless. This is the biggest and most noticeable flaw in the book. However, there are many more praise worthy statements one could make about the presentation of the book.

Finally, I ardently recommend this book to anyone who wishes to gain more knowledge on the subject of ethics. I'll even go so far as to say that any Christian who wants to take a stand for the moral life needs to read this book. Ethics is the ability and process of determining whether an action or thought is moral or not. Once examined, this book will inform the reader, Christian or not, how to do just that.