A very nice and very brief summary of various philosophical understandings of morality and ethics.

A funny thing though: I was offended and puzzled when I started the book, on page 2, by a comment from the author about a "professional survivor of the nazi concentration camps" that he met on a TV talk show. I don't know quite WTF he meant by that. He might have conceivably only wanted to point out that the man was some sort of professional, as well as being a camp survivor. But why would anyone care? I assume it was really intended as a slur - an accusation that the man had actually made a profession out of being a survivor. If so, I think it was a shockingly rude thing to say. Maybe there's some third explanation that I'm missing? At any rate, I was really on my guard after reading that, but nothing else in the book seemed to me to be rude or bigoted or disrespectful, so I don't know what to make of it... ( )

This book is not specific enough about trends in ethics to be of good use in an Intro to Philosophy class, but it provides a sophisticated and non-condescending account of the subject fit for intelligent people looking for the lay of the land. ( )

This introduction to ethics is more a platform for Blackburn to explain why all attempts to create a ethical system fail. He spends considerable time considering "threats to ethics" before looking at some ethical ideas and foundations for ethics. However he fails to provide an adequate foundation for ethics and one is left with the unfortunate conclusion that "goodness" is unattainable. Especially in reading the appendix which is the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Almost every article is currently being broken by members of the UN without repercussion. If that is the basis for ethics I would rather look elsewhere. ( )

1 170 BLAC

hen faced with an ethical dilemma, should we seek solutions that offer the greatest good or happiness to the greatest number of people? Are there any universal laws or principles by which ethical conduct should be governed? From what sources are ethical principles derived? Cambridge philosopher Blackburn addresses these and other questions in this straightforward introduction to ethics, a companion to his Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy. In part one, he considers seven subjects religion, relativism, evolutionary theory, egoism, determinism, unreasonable demands and false consciousness "that seem to suggest that ethics is somehow impossible." For example, relativism (the idea there is no one truth but different truths), he argues, often ends in nihilism, or the notion that there are indeed no values and no truth. Next, Blackburn discusses several ethical theories, including deontology (the theory that our ethical actions must be governed by rules) and utilitarianism (the theory that our ethical actions must be governed by their consequences), as well as rights theories and Kant's categorical imperative, which elevates duty to universal law. In a final section, Blackburn suggests that neither Kant, rights theories, deontology or utilitarianism provide adequate grounds for being good. Rather, he argues, "ethical principles are those that would be agreed in any reasonable cooperative procedure for coming to one mind about our conduct." Unfortunately, Blackburn never develops his idea about a common point of view for judging our conduct (he doesn't explain, for instance, how such a cooperative transaction can take place when partners in the conversation are using different ethical languages), and that is where this little book, which is so rich in analysis, falters significantly.