Contemporary Debates in Applied Ethics

This new edition of compelling commentary on substantive ethical issues has been updated to encompass high–profile contemporary concerns such as torture, same–sex marriage, and reparations for the violent injustices of the past. Six pairs of newly commissioned essays join a revised selection of the book′s vigorous debates between leading philosophers with contrasting views. Also included in this new edition is a concise and insightful overview essay from Stephen Darwall, outlining the current landscape of ethical theory — vital context for students grappling with concepts that shape the shifting mores of human societies. The rhetorical power of the first edition′s adversarial format was a potent catalyst for scholarly engagement. This fresh edition benefits from the same editorial finesse, enhanced by a broadened academic purview, with themed sections exploring life and death, concepts of justice, privacy and the common good, and issues relating to human communities in our restless, hungry, warming world. This accessible text locates the pressure points of core issues in applied ethics. It aims to foster the informed discussion required to nourish a new generation of philosophers.

Andrew I. Cohen is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Georgia State University, USA, and Director of its Jean Beer Blumenfeld Center for Ethics. His published work focuses on rights theory and political philosophy and includes co–editorship of this volume’s first edition (Blackwell, 2005). Professor Cohen is currently researching issues concerning reparations and public contrition for past injustices that in many cases continue to inflame geopolitical sensibilities. Christopher Heath Wellman is Professor of Philosophy at Washington University in St. Louis, USA. A specialist in the ethical aspects of political and legal philosophy, his books include the forthcoming Liberal Rights and Responsibilities: Debating the Ethics of Immigration (due for publication in 2013), and A Liberal Theory of International Justice (2009, with Andrew Altman), in addition to co–editing the first edition of this work.