Ethics for A-Level

Reviewed by Chandrika Shah, Adjunct, Bunker Hill Community College on 5/27/20

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

The book covers major Western Philosophers, completely ignores the Feminists philosophers. I do understand that every author has to select, but in today's world not including Feminism, is a must.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

It is accurate and clear to a community college level reading student. It is difficult to be unbiased. The selection of Applied ethics topics reflects bias. But, that is true of most texts. I do understand that one's bias can be unconscious too.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

I doubt it will become obsolete. The cases or examples might become dated. But in philosophy, one can always reflect on them.

Clarity rating: 5

Yes, it is clearly organized and provides adequate context for technical terms. The Common Students Mistake make is a good addition. Helps students avoid those mistakes.

Consistency rating: 5

It is consistent in its structure.

Modularity rating: 5

Well done.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

Well done. It is presented in a logical, clear fashion.

Interface rating: 5

Good.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

None, I came across.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

Well, here they could at least included one chapter on non western point of view.

Comments

I am planning to adopt some aspects of this text. I think students will benefit from it. It is tailored for community college students reading level.

Reviewed by Lisa Kemmerer, professor, TRAILS on 12/10/19

Comprehensiveness rating: 3 see less

It is always difficult to decide which topics will become a focus for applied ethics. This book, apparently written by two men, largely ignores feminist ethics, and in the applied ethics section, moral issues that are likely to be of more concern for women, such as date rape and insurance covering abortion. I am keenly aware, as I read, of a lack of any perspective outside of "Western" ethics--though this is never clearly indicated. (There are, of course, moral theories outside those of the Greek/Western European tradition.)

Even inside the "Western" traditions I note serious omissions beyond feminist thinkers. How is it possible to talk about Rights theory and animals/anymals without including anything from the late Tom Regan? He is as important to Kantian anymal ethics as is Singer is to Utilitarian anymal ethics.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

I suppose it would not be possible to be fully versed on every topic, and I have focused here on my area of specialty, anymal ethics. An example of an error in this section is citing of the Bible as a defense of eating flesh. There are many scholars who disagree. (See, for example "Animals and World Religions.") Note that the deity originally ordains a vegan diet, and only accepts flesh-eating as a concession to human violence/shortcomings.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

Good array of applied ethics topics, though lacking feminist influence.

Clarity rating: 4

The fact that the book is written for a specific institution/courses makes the book less reader-friendly for other students, particularly the inclusion of chapters that belong in an intro to religion book, but not necessarily an ethics book, and vice versa--particularly an entire chapter on Aquinas' Natural Law Theory.

Consistency rating: 5

In the chapter 14, Eating Animals, the authors' meat-eating tendencies and lack of familiarity with the broader topic is apparent in a handful of ways noted elsewhere.

Modularity rating: 5

very well done

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

very well done

Interface rating: 5

none

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

all fine

Cultural Relevance rating: 3

Always better to have more diverse authors for any text. I would prefer to use a text that includes a chapter on ethics from another culture, and of course feminist ethics ought to be included. Sometimes the authors even admit to their narrowness: The authors make clear at the outset where they stand on the issue of diet and ethics, and their bias is apparent in coverage of the topic. I find more omissions and errors in this section than in others. For example, a comment that vegetarian food is less attractive, and another that a vegetarian diet may be nutritionally deficient for children--as if it were broccoli causing all of those heart attacks, as if malnourished vegans were flooding the streets of San Francisco. A final example of the cultural shortcomings of the writing is provided in examples of situations where eating flesh might be acceptable--the examples strike me as petty and upper class, failing to mention, for example, indigenous people who have nothing else to eat, or those living in food deserts.

Comments

The book is an easy and even fun read, well organized, with many important sub-headings, all of which equate to a huge plus.

Reviewed by Laurie Johansen, Professor, MnSCU on 10/11/18

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

This text will be a great supplemental resource while introducing ethics to nursing students. The four major ethical theories covered in the text are appropriate to the profession of nursing. I really appreciate the "problems' sections - very applicable. The resources provided to the readers are very helpful and useful. Nicely done.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

Understanding that the focus of this text is not for the profession of nursing, I don't see a bias that is concerning. This text would be a supplement resource, which would be valuable.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

Relevant and pertinent.

Clarity rating: 5

Appreciate the key terminology available. This creates clarity for the novice reader.

Consistency rating: 5

Content is displayed consistently.

Modularity rating: 5

Chapters are well delineated and organized. Text structure is understandable.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

Chapters are well delineated and organized. Text structure is understandable.

Interface rating: 5

Appreciate the CC by license publication. Easy to use PDF online version of text.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

Free of grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

No concerns.

Comments

Will be a valuable supplemental text.

Reviewed by Ivan Guajardo, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Philosophy , Virginia Western Community College on 3/27/18

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

This textbook is tailored to AQA Philosophy and OCR Religious studies, yet it is comprehensive enough to be easily adapted to introductory surveys in Ethics. It contains a helpful introduction to the field of ethics, discusses some standard ethical theories (Part I), the classic debate in Metaethics between cognitivism/non-cognitivism about moral utterances and realism/anti-realism about the existence of moral facts (Part II), and applies the moral theories covered in part I to important moral issues (Part III).

The introduction defines the field of ‘ethics’, explains basic distinctions and methods like thought-experiments and their role in evaluating moral beliefs, and discusses other important distinctions like the difference between moral and legal reasons. The authors, however, omit any discussion of the logic of moral arguments or standard criteria for evaluating competing moral theories, despite the methodological significance of these topics. Supplementary materials or chapters on these topics must be added for this introduction to be better suited for an ethics class.

Part I covers Utilitarianism, Kant’s Ethics, Aristotelian Virtue Ethics, Natural Law Theory, and Joseph Fletcher’s Situation Ethics. The exposition and evaluation of these theories is clear, concise, engaging, and manage to avoid unnecessary jargon. A central benefit of these chapters is that they are short and to the point, so the reader gets a good sense of the core elements of each theory as well as their pros and cons. For instance, students often struggle to understand the idea that Kant’s Categorical Imperative does not appeal to consequences in evaluating maxims but focuses instead on a maxim’s ability to function consistently if turned into law. The authors manage effectively to explain and illustrate the difference with interesting cases like lying and suicide. Each chapter also contains a nice summary, a very helpful section of common student mistakes, a list of terms covered, and a set of issues that can be used for further reflection. All of these features can be used for discussions, exercises, and quizzes. The list of references at the end of each chapter is also welcomed, although it would be nice to add sections containing “further readings” or “additional resources” in case the reader wants to further pursue the topics.

Part I does not cover Ethical Egoism, Social Contract Theory, The Ethics of Care, or Feminism. This may be understandable if A-Level students are not being tested on these theories but less so if this book is to be used for a class in ethics. Despite that most philosophers reject it, Ethical Egoism is quite popular outside philosophy, so students ought to be given the opportunity to learn why this is so. Social Contract Theory forms the basis of some of the most influential theories of Justice, like John Rawls’ Justice as Fairness, and The Ethics of Care and Feminism represent some of the important contributions that women philosophers have made to our understanding of right and wrong. Accordingly, these topics would have to be added to make the textbook better suited for an ethics class.

The part on Metaethics details the classic positions about the meaning of ethical utterances and the status of moral facts for those who wish to cover this topic in their classes. This part, however, would be enhanced if a chapter discussing relativism were added. Many students think that morality is reducible to individual or cultural preferences. Accordingly, a textbook purporting to introduce students to ethics should cover relativism’s pros and cons, as well as how one could defend a belief in the objectivity of morality against it.

The discussion of how the ethical theories covered in Part I apply to the moral issues and dilemmas posed by Euthanasia, Sexual Ethics, Stealing, Simulated Killing, Lying, and Animal Rights is quite good. These chapters provide the reader with a general sense of how these theories deal with the central issues that define these topics. For instance, the application of Utilitarianism’s emphasis on suffering as the mark of moral status to animal rights is quite good. So is the application of Kant’s ethics to the concept of private property and its relation to stealing. However, teachers focusing on practical issues may be disappointed by the absence of important issues like abortion, cloning, genetic enhancement, same-same marriage, the death penalty, affirmative action, war, terrorism, torture, economic inequality, and other moral issues typically cover in an applied ethics class.

Content Accuracy rating: 3

The textbook handles the material covered fairly accurately. However, it contains a strong bias towards religious thinking, especially in its presentation of Natural Law Theory. For instance, the authors downplay or fail to mention several standard objections against Natural Law Theory, like the difficulty of deriving an “ought” from an “is” or of identifying an activity’s proper function. Also, their decision to cover Joseph Fletcher’s situational ethics instead of more important frameworks, like the Ethics of Care or Feminism, appear gratuitous and gender bias. Anyone wanting to teach ethics more inclusively would have to rely on extra readings or add new chapters to address these shortcomings.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

The textbook presents classic theories, arguments, and examples. These contents should stand the test of time. The book’s format and organization allows for easy incorporation of revisions and updates if needed.

Clarity rating: 5

The textbook stands out for its clarity and concision. It uses technical jargon sparingly and defines technical term well when it does. It also offers a vey useful vocabulary at the end.

Consistency rating: 3

The content is generally consistently developed, but there is a clear bias towards Natural Law Theory and a stronger emphasis on religious arguments than I think is appropriate for a philosophical approach to moral issues. This may be explained by the fact that the textbook was written for OCR Religious Studies. Nevertheless, these issues need to be addressed before I could use it for my classes.

Modularity rating: 5

The textbook is broken down nicely into chapters and sections that stand on their own and can be easily revised, reorganized, or remixed in various ways. Some chapters, e.g., the part on Metaethics, can be skipped completely without undermining the coherence, intelligibility, or flow of the remaining chapters.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

The textbook is well organized. Key concepts are explained and material is appropriately divided into easily digestible chunks. The authors use relevant examples that support well important problems and concepts. Transitions are easy to follow and allow the reader to make important connections within and between chapters and parts. Overall, I really like the way the book is structured and the way its explanations flow.

Interface rating: 5

Students have access to a PDF and an ease-to-navigate, online version of this textbook. Printed copies of the whole or parts of it can be made easily. It is also published under a CC By license, which permits the greatest freedom to retain, reuse, revise, remix, and redistribute its contents.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

The authors mistakenly use the term ‘rationale’ instead of ‘rational’ on page 41; otherwise the book is generally free of grammatical errors.

Cultural Relevance rating: 3

Although in important ways culturally relevant, the book fails to include enough women perspectives.

Comments

Overall, this textbook can work well for an introductory class in ethics if supplemented with additional readings or chapters that address the limitations I have already described.

Reviewed by Sarah Kath, Philosophy Instructor, Central Lakes College on 2/1/18

Comprehensiveness rating: 3 see less

The approach taken in this text, while specific to the AQA philosophy and OCR religious programs, would work quite well with lower level/introductory ethics students, who have no background in philosophy. However, the book covers only 4 major ethical theories: utilitarianism, deontology, virtue theory and natural law theory. So, it misses social contractarianism, divine command theory, ethical relativism, and ethical egoism. I would have to supplement this text.

Part I covers the four classical ethical theories traditionally covered by introductory ethics courses plus one on situational ethics. The chapter content is straightforward and peppered occasionally with direct quotes from relevant philosophers. The thought experiments are effective and useful in helping students further connect with the abstract theories. That there is a section of “Problems” with the various theories is also excellent. The idea of helpful sections like “common student mistakes” was appreciated, and it does capture some of what my students tend to struggle with. Another benefit is that the text itself was very clear, basic and thorough in explaining ethical reasoning processes that many introductory students struggle to grasp. For example, they often struggle with conducting the hedonic calculus and recognizing the difference between act and rule utilitarianism, or applying the categorical imperative to various scenarios. Helpfully, this text goes into depth explaining and demonstrating how to understand apply these approaches to sample cases. So, although there are no exercises or quizzes with this text, the text itself provides plenty of discussion fodder. Additionally, the “Issues to Consider” and “Key Terms” sections which are very helpful and can be adapted for student reflection or discussion. Placing the references section at the end of each chapter with some resources that are “freely available” is very helpful for students who want to quickly look up additional resources. However, that drops off as the chapters progress. A nice addition would be a section containing further readings or additional resources. I certainly think it's possible to locate some freely available resources for the chapter on Virtue Theory.

Part II could be skipped in an intro to ethics course, or used in an intro to philosophy course. I didn’t review this section as I prefer to take an applied approach to philosophy.

Part III: Applied Ethics is pertinent to anyone who likes to incorporate some popular moral arguments and it nicely covers several major ethical dilemmas. The section on euthanasia is structured well in that it provides multiple pro and con arguments for the students to analyze. Initially I was unsure how relevant a section on “Stealing” is for students, but the application of Kantian ethics to the concept of property is quite good. The remaining sections contain theoretical reasoning by applying the ethical theories to the moral issues. These should make for a good beginning to discussion. However, they would be strengthened by the inclusion of pro/con arguments so students would have something to analyze.

Content Accuracy rating: 3

Generally the text accurately summarizes the theories themselves and supplies relevant critiques of the theories. However, there is a strong bias toward religious reasoning that is evident throughout and particularly apparent in the treatment of natural law theory and euthanasia. There is also some inconsistency in the headings/section titles used throughout the book, which is confusing at best and at times appears deceptive. For example, the switch in category headings from “Problems” to “Objections” might be confusing to some.

As an example of the weaknesses of this text, the chapter on natural law theory only very briefly covers divine command theory, but students usually need more of an explanation on why religious ethics like this are abandoned. Although, I do recognize that even with a thorough analysis many students fail to fully grasp the implications of the Euthyphro dilemma; so, perhaps it is better to gloss over it in favor of Natural Law.

Another problem is that while the explication of the Natural Law position is solid, the critique is downplayed and ultimately hidden under a deceptive section title. First the critiques were called “Problems,” then “Objections,” and in this chapter they changed to “Some thoughts.” This is a letdown. It appears biased. The authors, as philosophers (lovers of wisdom and truth) have an obligation to maintain an evenhanded critique of strengths and weaknesses for all theories.

It is also an interesting choice to structure the last section as Fletcher’s situationism when I see more problems with relativism and a far greater need to clarify and critique that position. Moderate objectivism or ethical situationalism (see Pojman) would have been a better choice; however, I think again the author’s loyalties/origins have affected its inclusion.

In Part III, particularly the section on euthanasia, the authors also skew the analysis toward religion. Since I can’t assume all my students are Catholic, nor do I think that strictly faith based religious or Biblical reasoning is relevant as a critique, this section of the text falls short in modeling true philosophical reasoning and rational critique. However, the analysis of sexual ethics appears forthright and objectively handled, although instead of pro or con arguments we are given the various theories’ treatment of sexual ethics.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

I don't think there will be an issue of this book going out of date. The examples/issues remain relevant. The theories are classics.

Clarity rating: 5

The text appears very clear and any jargon used is fully defined and explained through copious examples and applications.

Consistency rating: 4

As noted above, the switch in headings from "problems" to "objections" to "thoughts" is misleading and confusing. Additionally, there is a definite propensity toward religion and religious reasoning, which leads to uneven analysis in some points.

Modularity rating: 5

The layout of this text is lovely. The chapters could be reorganized and as I stated above, the entirety of part two could be skipped. Additionally, the effective use of headings allows certain sections of the text to be cut or supplemented.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The text's flow and organization is consistent and appealing. It is easy to section out, and the examples are appropriately inserted to support and clarify key concepts.

Interface rating: 5

The interface is nice. It is published both as a PDF and online, so readers can choose their preference. The PDF has a nice book like setup, so you can flip to the next page and don't have to scroll downward through pages. Both the web and PDF version are very clear and clean. Additionally, for students who desire a print copy, the web version allows printing of chapters, sections, etc.

Grammatical Errors rating: 4

While I did not do a close study, I only noticed a few minor grammatical issues like pluralization and possessives.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

The text is fine. It might even be too wary of offending at the expense of sound analysis.

Comments

Overall, when paired with some additional readings in moral theories and arguments in applied ethics, this secondary text provides a solid basis for a lower level intro to ethics course.