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You Decide! Current Debates in Contemporary Moral Problems

by: Waller, Bruce N.

You Decide! Current Debates in Contemporary Moral Problems

by: Waller, Bruce N.

ISBN 13:
9780321354464
ISBN 10:
032135446X
Edition: 1st
Format: Paperback
Copyright: 08/01/2005
Publisher: Pearson

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Summary

Covering important philosophical issues aimed at today's students, paired articles "talk to each other," thus setting up a clear "pro-con" format. Each pair of readings features an introduction with a list of "Points to Ponder" which focuses students on the issues theyrs"ll encounter as they read and ends with a conclusion entitled "The Continuing Debate" with subheads "What is New" and "Where to Find More" to encourage further study and discussion.

Preface

Introduction

xii

1. CAMPUS SPEECH CODES

(24)

PROTECTION AGAINST INTOLERANCE OR DESTRUCTION OF FREE SPEECH?

Protection Against Intolerance

ADVOCATE: Andrew Altman, Professor of Philosophy, Georgia State University

SOURCE: "Liberalism and Campus Hate Speech: A Philosophical Examination," Ethics, volume 103 (January 1993)

Destruction of Free Speech

ADVOCATE: Jonathan Rauch, writer for The Economist, author of The Kindly Inquisitors: The New Attacks on Free Thought (Chicago: University of Chicago Press)

SOURCE: "In Defense of Prejudice: Why Incendiary Speech Must Be Protected," Harper's Magazine, May 1995.

2. PORNOGRAPHY

(14)

PUBLIC HARM THAT SHOULD BE CENSORED OR PRIVATE CHOICE THAT MUST BE TOLERATED?

Public Harm That Should Be Censored

ADVOCATE: Andrea Dworkin, a writer and lecturer, has been very active in passing ordinances that categorize pornography as sex discrimination, thus increasing opportunities for legal action against pornography.

SOURCE: Letters From a War Zone (New York: Lawrence Hill Books, 1993)

Private Choice That Must Be Tolerated

ADVOCATE: Mark R. Wicclair, Professor of Philosophy and Adjunct Professor of Community Medicine, West Virginia University; Adjunct Professor of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh

3. AFFIRMATIVE ACTION PROGRAMS

(22)

UNFAIR DISCRIMINATION OR BASIC JUSTICE?

Unfair Discrimination

ADVOCATE: Carl Cohen, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Michigan, author of many works in ethics, political philosophy, and logic

SOURCE: "Why Race Preference is Wrong and Bad," from Affirmative Action and Racial Preference: A Debate, by Carl Cohen and James P. Sterba (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003)

Basic Justice

ADVOCATE: Luke Charles Harris, Associate Professor of Political Science, Vassar College and co-founder of the African American Policy Forum; and Uma Narayan, Associate Professor of Philosophy, Vassar College

SOURCE: "Affirmative Action as Equalizing Opportunity: Challenging the Myth of 'Preferential Treatment,'" National Black Law Journal, volume 16, issue 2; 199/2000.

4. NONHUMAN ANIMAL RIGHTS

(16)

SORELY NEGLECTED OR NONEXISTENT?

Sorely Neglected

ADVOCATE: Tom Regan, Professor of Philosophy at North Carolina State University, leader in the animal rights movement, and author of The Case for Animal Rights (Berkeley: The University of California Press, 1983)

SOURCE: "The Case for Animal Rights," From Peter Singer, ed., In Defense of Animals (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, Inc., 1985)

Nonexistent

ADVOCATE: Carl Cohen, Professor of Philosophy at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor

SOURCE: "The Case for the Use of Animals in Biomedical Research," The New England Journal of Medicine, volume 315 (October 2, 1986)

5. ILLEGAL DRUGS

(24)

SHOULD THEY REMAIN ILLEGAL OR SHOULD WE DECRIMINALIZE DRUGS?

Illegal Drugs Should Remain Illegal

ADVOCATE: Theodore Dalrymple, a physician and psychiatrist works in a British prison. A contributing editor of City Journal, he recently wrote Life at the Bottom: The Worldview that Makes the Underclass.

SOURCE: "Don't Legalize Drugs," City Journal, Volume 7, No. 2 (Spring 1997).

Illegal Drugs Should Be Decriminalized

ADVOCATE: Ethan A. Nadelmann, Professor of Politics and Public Affairs at the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University.

SOURCE: "The Case for Legalization," Public Interest, Summer 1998.

6. PERFORMANCE ENHANCING DRUGS

102

(20)

SHOULD THEY BE BANNED FROM ATHLETICS OR SHOULD ATHLETES BE ALLOWED TO USE THEM?

They Should Be Banned from Athletics

ADVOCATE: Robert L. Simon, Professor of Philosophy at Hamilton College, Coach of the Hamilton varsity golf team from 1986-2000. He is a past president of the Philosophic Society for the Study of Sport and a member of the editorial board for the Journal of the Philosophy of Sport

SOURCE: "Good Competition and Drug-Enhanced Competition," Journal of the Philosophy of Sport, volume 11 (1984)

Athletes Should Be Allowed to Use Them

ADVOCATE: W.M. Brown, a philosophy professor at Trinity College, Hartford, Connecticut, and dean of the faculty, he has written extensively in philosophy of sport.

SOURCE: "As American as Gatorade and Apple Pie: Performance Drugs and Sports," from Joram Graf Haber, ed., Ethics for Today and Tomorrow. (Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett, 1997)

7. HOMOSEXUAL SEX

122

(18)

IMMORAL OR MORAL?

Immoral

ADVOCATE: John Finnis, Professor of law and legal philosophy at Oxford and Biolchini Professor of Law at the University of Notre Dame, is a leader of the new "natural lawyers."

SOURCE: "Law, Morality, and 'Sexual Orientation,'" Notre Dame Journal of Law, Ethics, and Public Policy, volume 9 (1995)

Moral

ADVOCATE: John Corvino, Philosophy Professor at Wayne State Univerisity, specializes in ethical theory and applied ethics, and is a well-known lecturer on topics related to homosexuality.

SOURCE: "Why Shouldn't Tommy and Jim Have Sex? A Defense of Homosexuality," from Same Sex: Debating the Ethics, Science, and Culture of Homosexuality (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1997).

8. THE QUESTION OF ABORTION

140

(18)

IMMORAL OR MORALLY ACCEPTABLE?

Immoral

ADVOCATE: Don Marquis, Professor of Philosophy, University of Kansas

SOURCE: "Why Abortion is Immoral," Journal of Philosophy, vol. 86 (April 1989)

Morally Acceptable

ADVOCATE: Bonnie Steinbock, Professor of Philosophy, State University of New York/Albany

SOURCE: "Why Most Abortions Are Not Wrong," Advance in Bioethics, volume 5, 1999.

9. CLONING

158

(26)

SCIENTIFIC HORROR OR POTENTIAL BENEFIT?

Scientific Horros

ADVOCATE: Leon Kass, Chairman of the President's Council on Bioethics, Addie Clark Harding Professor in The Committee on Social Thought and the College at the University of Chicago, and Hertog Fellow in Social Thought at the American Enterprise Institute

SOURCE: "Preventing A Brave New World: Why We Should Ban Human Cloning Now," The New Republic, May 21, 2001: 30-39.

Potential Benefit

ADVOCATE: Dan W. Brock, Charles C. Tillinghast, Jr. University Professor of Philosophy and Biomedical Ethics, and Director, Center for Biomedical Ethics at Brown University

SOURCE: "Cloning Human Beings," Commissioned paper for the National Bioethics Advisory Commission, contained in Cloning Human Beings, Volume II: Commissioned Papers, Report and Recommendation of the National Bioethics Advisory Commission (Rockville, MD: June 1997): E1—E23, 1997.

10. THE ETHICS OF MEDICAL RESEARCH IN IMPOVERISHED COUNTRIES

184

(12)

MUST RESEARCHERS IN IMPOVERISHED COUNTRIES FOLLOW THE SAME PROCEDURES AS IN THE WEALTHY COUNTRIES OR CAN DIFFERENT PROCEDURES BE FOLLOWED?

Researchers Must Follow the Same Procedures as in Wealthy Countries

ADVOCATE: Marcia Angell, Executive Editor (1988-1999) and Editor-in Chief (1999-2000) of New England Journal of Medicine; currently Senior Lecturer in Department of Social Medicine at Harvard Medical School

SOURCE: "The Ethics of Clinical Research in the Third World," The New England Journal of Medicine, Volume 337, Number 12, September 18, 1997.

Researchers Can Use Different Procedures in Impoverished Countries

ADVOCATE: Salim S. Abdool Karim, Deputy Vice-Chancellor for Research and Development at the University of Natal in Durban, South Africa; Professor in Clinical Epidemiology at the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University; and Director of the Centre for the AIDS Program of Research in South Africa

SOURCE: "Placebo Controls in HIV Perinatal Transmission Trials: A South African's Viewpoint," American Journal of Public Health ,Volume 88, Number 4, April 1998.

11. PHYSICIAN-ASSISTED SUICIDE

196

(18)

SHOULD IT BE PROHIBITED OR ALLOWED?

Physician-Assisted Suicide Should Be Prohibited

ADVOCATE: John D. Arras, Will and Linda Porterfield Professor of Bioethics and Professor of Philosophy, University of Virginia

SOURCE: "Physician-Assisted Suicide: A Tragic View," Journal of Contemporary Health Law and Policy, volume 13 (1997)

Physician-Assisted Suicide Should Be Allowed

ADVOCATE: Margaret P. Battin, Professor of Philosophy and Adjunct Professor of Internal Medicine in the Division of Medical Ethics, University of Utah

SOURCE: "Euthanasia: The Way We Do It, The Way They Do It." This recently revised version of Margaret Battin's influential essay was originally published in Bruce N. Waller, Consider Ethics: Theory, Readings, and Contemporary Issues (New York: Pearson Longman, 2005); the original version of the article first appeared in the Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, vol. 6, no. 5 (1991)

12. CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

214

(18)

IS IT APPROPRIATE FOR SOME CRIMES OR SHOULD IT BE ABOLISHED

Capital Punishment Is Appropriate for Some Crimes

ADVOCATE: Walter Berns, Resident Scholar, American Enterprise Institute; Professor Emeritus and former John M. Olin University Professor, Georgetown University

SOURCE: "The Morality of Anger," from his book For Capital Punishment: Crime and the Morality of the Death Penalty (NY: Basic Books, 1979)

Capital Punishment Should Be Abolished

ADVOCATE: Stephen Nathanson, Professor of Philosophy, Northeastern University

SOURCE: "The Death Penalty as a Symbolic Issue, from An Eye for an Eye? The Morality of Punishing by Death (Totwa, N.J.: Rowman & Littlefield, 1987)

13. CAMPAIGN FINANCE REFORM

232

(16)

DESTRUCTION OF FREEDOM OR PROMOTION OF DEMOCRACY?

Destruction of Freedom

ADVOCATE: Bobby Burchfield, Partner in the law firm Covington and Burling

SOURCE: "Enemies of the First Amendment," Weekly Standard, October 11, 1999.

Promotion of Democracy

ADVOCATE: Ronald Dworkin, Somer Professor of Law and Philosophy, XXX; and Quain Professor of Jurisprudence at University College, London

SOURCE: "The Curse of American Politics," New York Review of Books, October 17, 1996.

14. JURY NULLIFICATION

248

(16)

SHOULD A JURY MEMBER FOLLOW HER CONVICTIONS OR FOLLOW THE LAW?

Follow Her Convictions

ADVOCATE: Jeffrey Abramson, Louis Stulber Distinguished Professor of Law and Politics, Brandeis University

SOURCE: We, the Jury: The Jury System and the Ideal of Democracy, Chapter 2 (New York: Basic Books, 1994)

Follow the Law

ADVOCATE: Erick J. Haynie, Attorney, Perkins Coie, Portland, OR

SOURCE: "Populism, Free Speech, and the Rule of Law: The 'Fully Informed' Jury Movement and Its Implications," The Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, Volume 88, number 1, 1998.

15. THE MILITARY DRAFT

264

(18)

IS IT TIME TO RESTORE THE DRAFT OR SHOULD WE HAVE AN ALL-VOLUNTEER ARMED FORCES?

It Is Time to Restore the Draft

ADVOCATE: William A. Galston, Saul I. Stern Professor of Civic Engagement and Director of both the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy and the Center for Information and Research on Civic Learning and Engagement at the School of Public Affairs, University of Maryland

SOURCE: Philosophy & Public Policy Quarterly, volume 23, number 3 (Summer 2003)

We Should Have an All-Volunteer Armed Forces

ADVOCATE: Robert K. Fullinwider, a fellow at the Institute for Philosophy and Public Policy at the School of Public Affairs, University of Maryland.

SOURCE: Philosophy Public Policy Quarterly, volume 23, number 3 (Summer 2003)

16. ACTS OF TERRORISM

282

(20)

ALWAYS MORALLY WRONG OR SOMETIMES MORALLY JUSTIFIED?

Always Morally Wrong

ADVOCATE: C.A.J. (Tony) Coady, Australian Research Council Senior Research Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Melbourne.

SOURCE: "Terrorism, Just War and Supreme Emergency," in C.A.J. (Tony) Coady and Michael O'Keefe, ed., Terrorism and Justice: Moral Argument in a Threatened World (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 2002).

Sometimes Morally Justified

ADVOCATE: Gabriel Palmer-Fernandez, Professor, Department of Philosophy and Religion and Director, Dale Ethics Center, Youngstown State University

SOURCE: "Terrorism, Innocence, and Justice," Philosophy & Public Policy Quarterly, Spring 2005.

CREDITS

302

Amazon no longer offers textbook rentals. We do!

You Decide! Current Debates in Contemporary Moral Problems

You Decide! Current Debates in Contemporary Moral Problems

9780321354464

032135446X

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