Philosophical Ethics: An Introduction to Moral Philosophy - Softcover

This accessible overview of classical and modern moral theory with short readings provides comprehensive coverage of ethics and unique coverage of rights, justice, liberty and law. Real-life cases introduce each chapter. While the book's content is theoretical rather than applied ethics, Beauchamp consistently applies the theories to practical moral problems. Aristotle, Hume, Kant, and Mill are at the book’s core and they are placed in the context of moral philosophical controversies of the last 30 years. In this edition one-third of the reading selections are new and all the selections in chapter 8 on rights are new. Chapter 7 on Hume has been heavily reshaped. Chapter 1 has been reduced to get students past introductory material and into the philosophers.

Tom Beauchamp is a well known and highly respected ethics professor. In addition to teaching at Georgetown University, he has served as a senior research scholar the Kennedy Instiute for the Study of Human Reproduction and Ethics. He has authored numerous successful texts, including Contemporary Issues in Bioethics (WAdsworth) and Ethical Theory in Business (PH). He was the General Editor with David Norton and M.A. Stewart of The Critical Ediotn of the Works of David Hume (Princeton U Press). He was formerly the Chairman of the Committee on Philosophy and Medicine of the American Philosophical Association and earned his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University.