, D O I N G
E T H I C S
‘’
Moral Reasoning and Contemporary Issues
Fourth Edition
Lewis Vaughn
BW . W . N O R T O N & C O M P A N Y Independent and Employee-Owned New York . London
,W. W. Norton & Company has been independent since its founding in 1923, when William
Warder Norton and Mary D. Herter Norton first published lectures delivered at the People’s
Institute, the adult education division of New York City’s Cooper Union. The firm soon expanded
its program beyond the Institute, publishing books by celebrated academics from America and
abroad. By midcentury, the two major pillars of Norton’s publishing program—trade books and
college texts—were firmly established. In the 1950s, the Norton family transferred control of the
company to its employees, and today—with a staff of four hundred and a comparable number
of trade, college, and professional titles published each year—W. W. Norton & Company stands
as the largest and oldest publishing house owned wholly by its employees.
Copyright © 2016, 2013, 2010, 2008 by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Editor: Peter J. Simon
Project Editor: Rachel Mayer
Assistant Editor: Gerra Goff
Manuscript Editor: Barbara Curialle
Managing Editor, College: Marian Johnson
Managing Editor, College Digital Media: Kim Yi
Production Manager: Ben Reynolds
Media Editor: Erica Wnek
Assistant Media Editor: Cara Folkman
Marketing Manager, Philosophy: Michael Moss
Design Director: Rubina Yeh
Permissions Manager: Megan Jackson
Permissions Clearer: Elizabeth Trammell
Composition: Jouve International—Brattleboro, VT
Manufacturing: RR Donnelley Crawfordsville
Permission to use copyrighted material is included as a footnote on the first page of each
reading.
ISBN 978-0-393-26541-5
W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110-0017
wwnorton.com
W. W. Norton & Company Ltd., Castle House, 75/76 Wells Street, London W1T 3QT
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
, CO NTE NTS
‘’
PREFACE xvii
PART 1: FUNDAMENTALS
CHAPT E R 1 Ethics and the Examined Life 3
The Ethical Landscape 5
The Elements of Ethics 6
The Preeminence of Reason 6
Q UICK R EVIEW 7
The Universal Perspective 7
The Principle of Impartiality 8
The Dominance of Moral Norms 8
Religion and Morality 8
Believers Need Moral Reasoning 9
When Conflicts Arise, Ethics Steps In 9
C RITICAL T HOUGHT : E THICS , R ELIGION , AND T OUGH M ORAL I SSUES 10
Moral Philosophy Enables Productive Discourse 10
Summary 1 2
Exercises: Review Questions / Discussion Questions 12
READINGS
from What Is the Socratic Method? by Christopher Phillips 13
from The Euthyphro by Plato 16
CHAPT E R 2 Subjectivism, Relativism, and Emotivism 20
Subjective Relativism 21
Q UICK R EVIEW 21
J UDGE N OT ? 2 2
iii
E T H I C S
‘’
Moral Reasoning and Contemporary Issues
Fourth Edition
Lewis Vaughn
BW . W . N O R T O N & C O M P A N Y Independent and Employee-Owned New York . London
,W. W. Norton & Company has been independent since its founding in 1923, when William
Warder Norton and Mary D. Herter Norton first published lectures delivered at the People’s
Institute, the adult education division of New York City’s Cooper Union. The firm soon expanded
its program beyond the Institute, publishing books by celebrated academics from America and
abroad. By midcentury, the two major pillars of Norton’s publishing program—trade books and
college texts—were firmly established. In the 1950s, the Norton family transferred control of the
company to its employees, and today—with a staff of four hundred and a comparable number
of trade, college, and professional titles published each year—W. W. Norton & Company stands
as the largest and oldest publishing house owned wholly by its employees.
Copyright © 2016, 2013, 2010, 2008 by W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
All rights reserved
Printed in the United States of America
Editor: Peter J. Simon
Project Editor: Rachel Mayer
Assistant Editor: Gerra Goff
Manuscript Editor: Barbara Curialle
Managing Editor, College: Marian Johnson
Managing Editor, College Digital Media: Kim Yi
Production Manager: Ben Reynolds
Media Editor: Erica Wnek
Assistant Media Editor: Cara Folkman
Marketing Manager, Philosophy: Michael Moss
Design Director: Rubina Yeh
Permissions Manager: Megan Jackson
Permissions Clearer: Elizabeth Trammell
Composition: Jouve International—Brattleboro, VT
Manufacturing: RR Donnelley Crawfordsville
Permission to use copyrighted material is included as a footnote on the first page of each
reading.
ISBN 978-0-393-26541-5
W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 500 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10110-0017
wwnorton.com
W. W. Norton & Company Ltd., Castle House, 75/76 Wells Street, London W1T 3QT
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
, CO NTE NTS
‘’
PREFACE xvii
PART 1: FUNDAMENTALS
CHAPT E R 1 Ethics and the Examined Life 3
The Ethical Landscape 5
The Elements of Ethics 6
The Preeminence of Reason 6
Q UICK R EVIEW 7
The Universal Perspective 7
The Principle of Impartiality 8
The Dominance of Moral Norms 8
Religion and Morality 8
Believers Need Moral Reasoning 9
When Conflicts Arise, Ethics Steps In 9
C RITICAL T HOUGHT : E THICS , R ELIGION , AND T OUGH M ORAL I SSUES 10
Moral Philosophy Enables Productive Discourse 10
Summary 1 2
Exercises: Review Questions / Discussion Questions 12
READINGS
from What Is the Socratic Method? by Christopher Phillips 13
from The Euthyphro by Plato 16
CHAPT E R 2 Subjectivism, Relativism, and Emotivism 20
Subjective Relativism 21
Q UICK R EVIEW 21
J UDGE N OT ? 2 2
iii
