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SOCIAL AND PERSONAL ETHICS provides students with a sound introduction to ethical theory and contemporary moral issues through engaging readings on today's most hotly debated topics. Among other topics, coverage includes environmental ethics and animal rights, the limits of personal liberty, war and the struggle against terrorism, marriage and sexual morality, the death penalty, gun control, and abortion and euthanasia. The volume begins with two introductory essays written for beginning students by the editor, William H. Shaw, on the nature of morality and competing normative theories. These are followed by five other essays on ethical theory by classical and contemporary authors. The book's next 12 sections explore a wide-range of real-world ethical issues. In all, the book is composed of 53 articles (11 of which are new to this edition). To ensure that the text is as accessible as it is relevant, Shaw has edited every article with an eye toward readability, provided introductions and study questions before the essays, as well as review and discussion questions after them, and highlighted key passages to help students focus on important points and concepts.
About the author
William H. Shaw is the author and editor of numerous books and articles in the areas of ethics and social and political philosophy. Shaw obtained a Ph.D. in political philosophy from the London School of Economics and teaches philosophy at San Jose State University, where he served as chair of the department for 11 years. He has also been a visiting professor at the University of Zimbabwe, the University of Hong Kong and the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. He has two other books with Cengage Learning, SOCIAL AND PERSONAL ETHICS and MORAL ISSUES IN BUSINESS (with Vincent Barry).
