LIVING PHILOSOPHY LIVING PHILOSOPHY An Introduction to Moral Thought Third Edition Ray Billington First published in 1988 by Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2004 “To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk.” Third edition first published in 2003 by Routledge 11 New Fetter Lane, London EC4P 4EE Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 29 West 35th Street, New York, NY 10001 © Ray Billington 1988, 1993, 2003 No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher except for the quotation of brief passages in criticism A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-203-42616-9 Master e-book ISBN ISBN 0-203-43970-8 (Adobe eReader Format) ISBN 0–415–28446–5 (hbk) ISBN 0–415–28447–3 (pbk) Without the strength provided by Alcoholics Anonymous this book could have been no more than a shadow of what it has become To all members of the Fellowship, known and unknown, it is therefore dedicated My gratitude will be lifelong, but it can be expressed ‘a day at a time’ A truly good man is not aware of his goodness, And is therefore good A foolish man tries to be good, And is therefore not good A truly good man does nothing, Yet leaves nothing undone A foolish man is always doing, Yet much remains to be done Therefore when Tao is lost, there is goodness When goodness is lost, there is kindness When kindness is lost, there is justice When justice is lost, there is ritual Therefore the truly great man dwells on what is real and not what is on the surface, On the fruit and not the flower Therefore accept the one and reject the other – Tao Te Ching CONTENTS Preface to the first edition Preface to the second edition Preface to the third edition xi xv xvii SECTION General theory of ethics 1 What is philosophy? Case study 1: Tolerance Case Study 2: The best and the good 16 17 The scope of ethics Case Study 3: Love thy neighbour? Case Study 4: A total abstainer’s dilemma Case Study 5: Changes in moral attitudes Case Study 6: Is moral neutrality possible? Case Study 7: Relativism 19 41 42 43 44 44 Facts and values Case Study 8: Censorship Case Study 9: What is truth? 46 56 61 Our knowledge of right and wrong Case Study 10: Why be moral? Case Study 11: Authority and autonomy Case Study 12: Ethics and the law 63 89 91 93 vii CONTENTS SECTION Approaches to ethical theory 97 Ends and means I: Kant Case Study 13: Who shall live? Case Study 14: Do your duty? Case Study 15: The case of the lying chancellor 99 110 114 115 Ends and means II: Mill and Utilitarianism Case Study 16: Dealing with moral dilemmas Case Study 17: Treatment of severely handicapped neonates Case Study 18: Capital punishment 118 131 134 135 Existentialism Appendix: Expressions of existentialist ideas Case Study 19: Passing the buck or carrying the can? Case Study 20: Who’s to blame? Case Study 21: Existentialist dilemmas 137 154 156 157 158 Free will and determinism Appendix: A breakdown of schools Case Study 22: Are you free? Case Study 23: Free will and genetics Case Study 24: Crime and punishment 161 177 178 179 180 SECTION Issues in moral and practical philosophy Morality and religion Case Study 25: The ethics of divine commands Case Study 26: Sexual morality Case Study 27: Religion and homosexuality Case Study 28: The God of the gaps 10 Eastern religions and cultural relativism Case Study 29: The problem of suffering Case Study 30: Moral variations in the world’s religions Case Study 31: Beyond good and evil viii 183 185 199 201 203 204 206 219 222 223 CONTENTS 11 Ethics and politics Case Study 32: Pacifism and war Case Study 33: Human rights Case Study 34: Democracy, autocracy, anarchy Case Study 35: Anarchy Case Study 36: The art of the possible? 225 243 247 249 250 252 12 Environmental ethics and bioethics Case Study 37: The value of life Case Study 38: Environmental issues Case Study 39: Wonderwoman and Superman Case Study 40: Animal rights Case Study 41: Too many people? 255 271 274 275 276 277 13 Ethics and education Case Study 42: The value of education Case Study 43: Educare and educere 279 295 296 SECTION The moral agent 299 14 Moral maturity Case Study 44: Assessing one’s autonomy Case Study 45: Devising a moral education syllabus Case Study 46: A personal inventory 301 313 314 314 15 Phi beta kappa: the philosophy of experience 316 Appendices: Postscript to Case Study 13 Postscript to Case Study 20 336 336 336 Glossary of terms Notes Further reading Index of names Index of subjects 338 343 345 348 351 ix GLOSSARY OF TERMS Monism: the belief that there is only one kind of substance in the universe, as opposed to dualism, which holds that there are two Usually equated with materialism (q.v.) but, as was noted under idealism (q.v.), there have been exceptions Mores: how a group behaves Nihilism: originally used in nineteenth-century Russia, when it was accepted that any means were justified if the result was the destruction of existing conditions In ethics, nihilism is the denial of all traditional values and moral truths Subject: an observer, thinker, experiencer; object: what he is aware of What is ‘subjective’ proceeds from the subject; ‘objective’ refers to what is independent of the subject or his awareness Optimism: in philosophy (see under Leibniz, Chapter 8, pp 168–9) the belief that this is the best of all possible worlds Phenomenon: whatever is observable Positivism: the view that the description of phenomena, and the order in which they occur, is all that human beings can know Value judgments, statements of belief, expressions of appreciation in the arts, etc., fall outside these limits Pragmatism: in common speech, a pragmatic test of anything is a test of its usefulness In philosophy, it is a test of how a theory works in practice, rather than whether or not it is verifiably true For example, belief in God is justified, according to pragmatists, if it ‘works’ (e.g., in giving strength, direction, comfort, sanity, etc.) for the believer See William James, The Meaning of Truth Prima facie: literally, at first sight; usually implies that the conclusion arrived at from what is observed is the obvious (commonsensical) conclusion Thus if a man is found dead face down with a knife between his shoulder blades there is a prima facie case of murder; if he is found hanging, this will not necessarily be the case Rationalism: has two meanings, both mentioned, if not directly, in the text: (a) the view that no beliefs should be accepted on the basis of authority, or by faith, but only if they can be justified by reason; (b) as opposed to empiricism (see Chapter 15), the view that knowledge can be attained by reason, independently of sense-perception; the view (with differing emphases) of Descartes, Spinoza, and Leibniz Sense: rarely used in philosophy as in such common phrases as ‘good sense’ Usually implies the five senses, and ‘sensible’ means what can be perceived through these senses Perception is often used synonymously with sensation, but there is a tendency to use sensation as sense experience without any 340 GLOSSARY OF TERMS interpretation, while perception adds the interpretation Thus, I sense that the atmosphere has become heavy, and perceive an approaching thunderstorm Solipsism: the belief or assumption that nothing else exists except me (see p 260) Stoical: (from the Greek stoa, or ‘porch’, in Athens, where the followers of Zeno were taught): the belief that one should accept one’s fate without expression of antagonism or regret Originally linked with the belief in a divine plan which cannot be altered, it now describes anyone who suffers without complaint, or exercises strong self-control Universal: a quality or relation which may be common to many things, such as hardness, benevolence The particular instances of a universal are called ‘particulars’ If I state ‘this bread has gone hard’ I mean that, whereas the bread was originally a particular of the universal softness, it is now a particular of the universal hardness Validity: an argument is valid if it obeys the rules of logic; it is sound if its statements are true Thus the deductive (q.v.) argument ‘All Lancastrians are great cricketers; I am a Lancastrian; therefore I am a great cricketer’ is valid but not sound The form of this argument is called a ‘syllogism’ In the text I have used some foreign words/phrases which may be new to you: au fond: basically, fundamentally cor ad cor loquitor: heart speaks to heart deus ex machina: the God outside, or beyond: not involved in the minutiae of human life ex cathedra: literally ‘from the chair’, as of a pronouncement by the Pope: speaking officially faute de mieux: in the absence of anything (anyone) better modus operandi: method of procedure pace (two syllables): by leave of, with all due deference to: expressing disagreement courteously (pronounced pah-say) modus vivendi: a way of cooperating or living harmoniously together; often signifies a compromise per se: by its nature, or in itself reductio ad absurdum: literally, reducing (an argument or situation) to an absurdity In academic debate or human behaviour, the application of a principle or practice of a rule of behaviour so strictly that the terminus ad 341 GLOSSARY OF TERMS quem (final stage, or destination) is ridiculous The reductio ad absurdum of taking the New Testament literally is the demonstration in public worship, by certain religious freaks in the USA, of the fulfilment of the promise, made in Mark 16:18, that Christians will be unharmed by the bites of deadly snakes The reductio ad absurdem of the rule not to be provocative in dress are the Islamic yashmak, the nun’s habit, and the Victorian custom of covering up the bare legs of the piano The reductio ad absurdum of ‘Thou shalt not kill’ is Jainites’ sweeping the path before them clear of insects, or fruitarians declining to mow the lawn sine qua non: essential characteristic(s): music is a sine qua non of opera tant pis: so much the worse, too bad (or ‘hard luck’) 342 NOTES THE SCOPE OF ETHICS Bk II, chs 3, FACTS AND VALUES Pelican edition, pp 146f OUR KNOWLEDGE OF RIGHT AND WRONG Sir Thomas Browne, Religio Medici, pt H L Mencken, Crestomathy This must not be confused with the idea of ‘natural law’ as expounded by the medieval philosopher Thomas Aquinas W D Hudson (ed.), Macmillan, 1969 ENDS AND MEANS I: KANT Human Society in Ethics and Politics Critique of Pure Reason – conclusion Op cit., p 197 ENDS AND MEANS II: MILL AND UTILITARIANISM Adventures of Ideas, p 46 14 MORAL MATURITY The blood, as all visitors to the dog’s shrine in this north Wales village will know, was that of a wolf which the dog had slain when it had attacked the daughter ‘Reason and Habit’, in Moral Education in a Changing Society, ed W R Niblett 343 NOTES 15 PHI BETA KAPPA History of Western Philosophy, p 552 Op cit., p 562 344 FURTHER READING There seems little point in providing an extensive bibliography, impressive though it might look Most of the books which I’ve found useful are mentioned in their relevant contexts If you get through them, you’ll be well on the way to becoming au fait with the way philosophers present arguments and pursue discussions It is important to read some of the classical original works, and not just confine yourself to books about great works Because the work is an original, and is classical, it doesn’t necessarily follow that it’s incomprehensible I’ve hinted at some which fall into this latter category, so you would be able to appreciate what not to start with The works by Plato and Mill should provide a relatively painless access to these originals, and the narrations by Russell (on the whole field of western philosophy), Hospers (on moral philosophy), and Barrett (on one school of philosophy) all illustrate the teacher’s authority as described in Chapter 13 There are plenty of books on applied philosophy coming off the presses and I would simply draw attention to one that is both comprehensive and clear: Jonathan Glover’s Causing Death and Saving Lives (Penguin) On the question of animal rights, you could start with Animal Liberation (New York, Avon, 1975) by Peter Singer On moral education, a comprehensive account is found in M Downey and A V Kelly, Moral Education, Theory and Practice If you are interested in the debate on theism (Chapter 9) take a look at Christian Ethics Re-examined by Margaret Knight, together with Anthony Flew, God and Philosophy For eastern philosophy it is difficult to know where to start, but I C Sharma, Ethical Philosophies of India or M Hiriyanna, Outlines of Indian Philosophy, together with A Bahm, Comparative Philosophy and Fung Yu-Lan’s Short History of Chinese Philosophy, will keep you going for a while Don’t miss A Huxley’s The Perennial Philosophy On western ethics generally, despite my strictures on some of the writers, I suggest you read J Mackie, Ethics, J Harrison, Our Knowledge of Right and 345 FURTHER READING Wrong, M Warnock, Ethics Since 1900, W Frankena, Ethics, J D Mabbott, An Introduction to Ethics, and A McIntyre’s book A Short History of Ethics (Routledge 1989) The three books by R M Hare, professor of Moral Philosophy at the University of Oxford, must not be avoided: The Language of Morals, Moral Reasoning, and (especially) Freedom and Reason If you’re interested in reading an account of one man’s experiences under the influence of the (non-addictive) drug mescalin (an example, perhaps, of the ‘dropping out’ approach to life’s shortcomings mentioned in Chapter 15) read A Huxley, The Doors of Perception (see p 273) Don’t forget to see how you get on with the Tao Te Ching; and Stuart Hampshire’s Spinoza is a fine account of a great man If your local library doesn’t subscribe to the Journal of Applied Philosophy, you could start a campaign to persuade them otherwise The publication of the Second Edition allowed me to recommend books which had either been published since or had been overlooked at the time On specific moral dilemmas: (a) Euthanasia: Ending Lives, by R Campbell and D Collinson (b) Capital punishment: Moral Theory and Capital Punishment, by T Sorrell (c) Abortion: Beginning Lives, by R Hursthouse (d) Moral values and the meaning of life: The Quest for Meaning, by O Hanfling (All the above published by Blackwell, and were text books for the Open University course ‘Life and Death’ (A310)) (e) Embryo research and related matters of medical ethics: Wonderwoman and Superman, by J Harris (Oxford) A highly readable outline of an issue which is self-explanatory is: Seven Theories of Human Nature, by L Stevenson (Oxford) – expanded in its 2nd edition to include eastern theories On existentialism: Six Existentialist Thinkers, by H J Blackham (Routledge) On many of the issues raised in this book: The Rational Foundation of Ethics, by T L S Sprigge (Routledge) A masterly handbook (or ‘crib’) is 50 Major Philosophers, by D Collinson (Routledge) Other reference books worth having by you: A Flew (ed.), A Dictionary of Philosophy (Pan); A R Lacey, A Dictionary of Philosophy; and, for general introductions to philosophy which are highly readable: N Warburton, Philosophy, the Basics (Routledge) and S Blackburn, Think (Oxford) A reference book which I’ve found highly informative is the New Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought, edited by A Bullock and S Trombley, 1999 Many more books have appeared, relating to the themes of this volume, since its 2nd edition was published One massive undertaking is The Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy If you can’t afford the multi-volume 346 FURTHER READING edition of this, persuade your local library to take it and buy the single-volume edition for yourself Considerably briefer, Mary Warnock’s An Intelligent Person’s Guide to Ethics (Duckworth, 1998) is a typically adroit treatment of the main theme of this book Of the multitude of books on environmental ethics which are coming off the presses, two which give a comprehensive perspective are R Attfield: The Ethics of the Global Environment (Edinburgh University Press, 1999); and A Dobson (ed.): The Green Reader (Deutsch, 1991) Three (rather large) volumes which should be particularly helpful in seminar discussions are: A Morton: Philosophy in Practice, Blackwell, 1996 (the themes of philosophy); H LaFollette (ed.): Ethics in Practice, Blackwell, 1997; P Singer (ed.): A Companion to Ethics, Blackwell, 1991 (articles on a very broad range of specific moral issues and dilemmas) Between them, these should keep even the most avid reader in this field busy for some time 347 INDEX OF NAMES Acton, Lord 230, 252–3 Alston, W 185–6, 206 Ambrose, St 198 Anselm, St 198 Aquinas, T 200, 243– 4, 291 Aristotle 1, 12, 33, 68, 119 Arnold, M 199 Arthur, Dr L 134–5 Ayer, A J 55 Bacon, F 44 Bakunin, M 251 Barrett, W 138, 153– Bentham, J 25, 119–20, 128 Bonhoeffer, D 238 Braithwaite, E R 199–200 Brecht, B 146, 216 Buber, M 330 Buddha, The 103, 190, 208–9, 223, 327, 333 Bush, G W 263 Butler, R A 252 Calvin, J 168, 178 Camus, A 141, 154–5, 177 Capra, F 334 Carter, J 239 Chardin, T de 86, 333– Chekhov, A 154 Chuang-Tzu 218, 274 Churchill, W 242 Confucius 222 Connolly, K 310–11 Constantine 208 Cripps, Sir S 45–7 Curran, J P 270 Darwin, C 32, 82–6, 266 Denning, Lord 93 Descartes, R 2, 163, 172 Dewey, J 293– Douglas, K 142 Durkheim, E 178 Emerson, R W 81, 228, 295 Falwell, J 198, 218 Fox, G 212 Freud S 90, 169–70 Galton, F 266 Gasset, Ortega y 155 Godwin, W 251 Goldsmith, O 284–5 Graham, Billy 197–8 Hadrian 14 Hardy, T 76 Hare, R M 177 Harris, A 281–2 Harris, J 271–2, 274–5 Hayek, F A 251 Hegel, W F 8, 138 Heidegger, M 141– 4, 146, 150, 212, 263, 289 Heine, H 100–1 Heller, J 84 Heraclitus 213 Hobbes, T 27–8, 50, 68, 103, 130, 163, 171–2, 174, 229–30, 232–3, 250, 254 Hospers, J 4, 11, 36, 185–6, 326 Hume, D 100, 119, 173– 4, 319 348 INDEX OF NAMES Husserl, E 215–7 Huxley, A 273 Huxley, T H 190 Nietzsche, F 85, 139– 41, 151, 224, 266, 331 Nowell-Smith, P H 196 Nozick, R 251 Illyich, I 297 Jaimini 178 Janov 91, 177–8 Jaspers, K 154 Jefferson, T 231 Jenkins, D 320 Jerome, St 198 Jesus 43, 194–5, 197, 221 Kant, I 2, 24, 30, ch5 passim, 118, 136, 149, 177, 240, 277, 297 Kierkegaard, S 52, 138– 40, 155, 211 King, C H 232 Kissinger, H 225 Knox, J 217 Kohlberg, L 310–1, 314 Kropotkin, P 251 Kuhn, T 10 Laing, R D 91, 177–8 Leibniz, G W 163, 168–9 Lau-Tzu 209–10, 276, 292 Lawrence, D H 152–3, 224 Lewis, C S 196 Lincoln, Abe 102–3 Locke, J 231–2, 319 Lovelock, J 256–7 Luther, M 66, 152 Machiavelli 230 MacIntyre, A 99, 108–9 Mandela, N 192–3, 239 Marcel, G 155 Marx, K 178, 238 Mencken, H L 205 Mendel 265–6 Midgley, M 257 Mill, Jas 120 Mill, J S 45, ch7 passim, 152, 233–6, 241, 326 Milligan, S 134–5 Milner, R 256 Milton, J 39 Muggeridge, M 135 Mumford, L 154 Murdoch, I 329 Newton, I 31, 100 Odo of Cluny 198 Omar Khayyam 161–2 Orwell, G 154, 235 Otto, R 200 Piaget, J 309–10, 314 Paine, T 250 Pascal, B 154 Paul, St 108, 198, 203, 223, 243– Peters, R S 289, 291, 308–9 Plato 1, 12–3, 30–1, 147, 162–3, 172, 228–31, 290, 292 Pope, A 294 Popper, K 10, 170, 293 Proudhon, P J 251 Pythagoras Rand, A 85, 153, 178 Read, A 1, 153 Rice-Davis, M 242 Robertson, Pat 218 Robinson, J A T 204 Rousseau, J.-J 100, 164, 292–3 Russell, B 1, 15, 103, 137, 143, 145, 149, 174, 191, 262, 289, 294, 316–7, 330, 332 Ryder, R 261 Ryle G 178 Sartre, J.-P 94, 138, 145–51, 154–5, 171, 294, 329 Scarisbrick, N 134 Scott, C P 215 Shankara, Adi 178, 211–2 Shaw, G B 27, 148, 230 Shelley, P B 187–8 Singer, P 261, 264 Skinner, B F 175–6, 178, 283 Smith, Adam 251 Smith, Ian 246 Spinoza, B 330–2, 334 Steiner, R 221 Stirner, M 251 Taylor, H 121 Tennyson, A 143, 197 Teresa, Mother 53 Tertullian 198 349 INDEX OF NAMES Thatcher, M 253 Thomas, Dylan 155, 222 Tolstoy, L 251 Trotsky, L 251 Truman, H 143 Tucker, A 251 Twain, M 66 Wesker, A 157–8, 336–7 Wesley, J 100 Whitehead, A N 121, 124 Wilson, J 302, 30407, 313 Winstanley, G 251 Wittgenstein, L 1, 11, 104, 163, 316–8 Wordsworth, W 30, 103, 333 Voltaire 17, 40, 169, 233 Young, Baroness 203 Watson, J 266, 271 Zoroaster 140 350 INDEX OF SUBJECTS abortion 25, 272 absolutism 35–6 Adonais 187–8 advaita vedanta 206, 211–3, 224, 333 Adventures of Ideas 124 agape 194–5, 328–30 agnosticism 190–1 altruism 26–7; Hobbes on 27–9 anarchy 34, 68–9, 250–2; defenders of 251 anguish, abandonment, despair (Sartre on) 149–50 animal welfare 36–7, 261–5; questions on 276–7 Art of the Possible, The 252 atheism 190 authenticity, Sartre on 150–1 authority, teacher’s 284–90; traditional 284–5; physical 285–6; charismatic 286; delegated 286–7; academic 287–8; moral 288–90 Autobiography of J S Mill 120 autocracy 249–50 autonomy and authority 91–3; and education 282–3; and reason 302–6; and freedom 306–7; and disposition 307–8; assessing 313 axiology 49–50 Being and Nothingness 145 Being and Time 141 Beyond Good and Evil 141 beyond good and evil 188, 210, 223– Bhagavadgita, The 223 bioethics 265–71; questions on 273– Brahman 208, 223 Brave New World 273 buddhism 186, 190, 206, 208–9, 218, 221, 260, 327, 333 capital punishment, case study on 135–6 Catch 22 84 categorical imperative 104–9 causation and determinism 172–5; Hume on 173–5; inevitability of? 174–5 censorship 56–60 Christianity and sex 223 choice, in moral decision-making 23–5 collective unconscious 333 Common Sense 250 concept, fallacy of 32, 163 Concluding Unscientific Postscript 139 Confucianism 206 Conjectures and Refutations 10, 293 conscience 66–8 Contrat Social, Le 164 Council of Trent 198 crime and punishment, case study on 180–1 Critique of Pure Reason 100 death, Heidegger on 143– Declaration of Independence 236, 238 deism 188–9 de jure, de facto 238–9, 286–7 democracy 231–3, 242, 249 deontology: see duty DNA 265–6, 269 Descent of Man 83 Deserted Village, The 284 351 INDEX OF SUBJECTS extrinsic see instrumental Ezekiel 335 determinism 167–8; theological 168–9; psychological 169–70; historical 170–1; environmental 171; mechanistic 171–2; schools of 178 Dictionary of Philosophy (Voltaire) 17 Discourse on Metaphysics 168–9 disposition and moral maturity 307–8 duty 101– 4, 114–5, 118, 123 East of Existentialism 144, 213 Ecclesiastes 56, 193, 261 ecology 255–60; anthropocentric 257–8; ‘deep’ 258; land ethic 258–9 educare and educere 280–2; questions on 296–7; Kant on 297 education – and the slow learner 88–9; etymology 279–82; Plato on 290–1; Aquinas on 291–2; Rousseau on 292–3; Dewey on 293– 4; value of 295–6 Emile 292 empirical and normative 5–6 empiricism 100, 319–20 Encyclopaedia of Evolution 256 Encyclopaedia of Philosophy 196, 250 ends and means 99, 118 Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding – environmental ethics 255–60; problems for 258–9; questions on 274–5 epistemology 12–3 Essay Concerning the Principles of Morals 119 Essay on Man 294 ethics 15; and morals 19–20; distinctness of 20–6; vedanta on 211–2 Ethics (Spinoza) 330–2 Ethics and Education 289 eugenics 266 euthanasia 273 Everlasting Gospel, The 213 Evolution as a Religion 257 evolutionary ethics 32, 81–6 existentialism ch passim; critique of 151–3; 317, 325–6 existence and essence 145–6 Existentialism and Humanism 45, 151 Exodus 197 experience, philosophy of 318–25; interpretation of 320–1 feelings and morality 79–81 field of being, Heidegger on 141–2 forms, Platonic 147 Four Noble Truths 208–9 four states of Advaita Vedanta 211, 332–3 foxhunting 253 freedom: meaning of 162–6; moral 166–7; and moral maturity 192; and autonomy 306–7 freewill: in existentialism 147–8; and genetics 179–80 Gaia hypothesis 256–7 Gaia: a New Look at Life on Earth 256 Genesis 198, 261 generation gap 65 genetic engineering 266–71 genetics and freewill 179–80 GM crops 270–1 God 53, 103, 186, 217, 222; and morality 90, 92–3, 191–6; death of 140; and pre-established harmony 168–9; in deism 188–9; in theism 189–90; case study on 199–201; as filler of gaps 204–5 God’s will, channels of: Bible 197–8; church 198; conscience 199 good: meaning of 51–3; as source of morality 73–6 goodwill, Kant on 101–2 government, forms of 225–7; Plato on 228–9; Hobbes on 229–30; Locke on 231; Mill on 233–6 habits and moral maturity 308–9 happiness 125–7; as an unavoidable pursuit 321–5 hedonism 118 higher and lower pleasures 127 Hinduism 188, 218 Hiroshima, case study on 133– History of Western Philosophy 137, 174, 332 homosexuality and theism 203–4 Honest to God 204 Hosea 75 I and Thou 330 352 INDEX OF SUBJECTS Idle Thoughts of an Idle Fellow 146 images, self and others 142–3 impartiality, unnaturalness of 128 instrumentalism 118 Introduction to Moral Education 302–4 Introduction to Philosophical Analysis 4, 11, 185–6 intrinsic knowledge 118 in vitro fertilisation 272 Irrational Man 138, 153– Isaiah 219 Islam: values 50; on women 199 Jainism 187, 223 Jehovah’s Witnesses 65 Jeremiah 75 Job 190, 221 John’s Gospel 75 Judaism 223 Julius Caesar 81 justice 29, 32, 70; Mill on 123, 129 Kama Sutra 223 karma 208–9, 216, 260 knowledge 12–3 King Lear 285 Koran 198 Language, Truth and Logic 55 law and morality 68–76, 93– Le Misanthrope 78, 95 Leviathan 229–30 Leviticus 26, 197, 203, 327 Life and Literacy 48 logic 14 logical positivism 153 Logic, the Theory of Inquiry 293– love 26–7; case study on 41–2; as agape 194–5; its four meanings 227–30 Mark’s Gospel 43 materialism, monistic 172 Matthew’s Gospel 34, 75, 197 marxism 239 maturity, moral 191–2; Piaget on 309–10; Kohlberg on 310–1 Mein Kampf 57 metaphysics 13– Minority Report 205 moral attitudes, changes in 43– moral decisions: involvement of others 21; no final solution 22–3; choice essential/unavoidable 23–5; involve action 25–6 moral education 311–3; syllabus 314 moral neutrality, impossibility of 20–1; case study on 44 moral philosophy: see ethics motives 26–9, 118, 123 natural, meaning of 203, 262 Nichomachaean Ethics 33 1984 235 nirvana 208 Noble Eightfold Path 209 No Exit 3229 normative see empirical objectivism 85, 153, 159 Ode to Duty 103 Ode on the Intimations of Immortality 30, 333 Of Liberty and Necessity 171–2 On Liberty 121, 233–5 Origin of Species 82–3 ought 50–5, 63– 4, 77; and ‘is’ 86–9 pacifism 243–6 panentheism 190 pantheism 187–8 parents, as source of right and wrong 64–5, 91–2 Peer Gynt 27 perception 13 phenomenology 215–8; and empathy 216–7 Phenomenon of Man 86 philosophy: its etymology 2–3; analysis 3–7; and history 7–8; and art 8–9; and science 9–10; in vocational fields 10; of religion 10–11; of language 11 Philosophy of Language, The 185 population growth, questions on 277–8 Portraits from Memory 317 pour-soi, en-soi, Sartre on 146–7 Prince, The 230 principles, ethical 29–33; in Plato 30–1; origin of 31–3 Problems of Philosophy, The 15 promise-keeping 106–7 proportional representation 241–2 Proverbs 193 Psalms 189 353 INDEX OF SUBJECTS punishment – see crime reason and morality 76–9; and altruism 77–9; and moral maturity 192, 207 referenda 241–2 relativism, moral 36– 41; sceptical 36; nihilistic 36–7; sociological 37–9; geographical 37–8; historical 38–9; case study on 44–5; religious and cultural 213–9; ethical: see situation ethics religion, its characteristics 185, 206 Religion Without God 144, 199, 334 Republic, The 228–9, 233 Revelations 75, 197, 218 rights, human, case study on 44–5; of minorities 232–3; naturalness of 236–7, 239– 41; of revolutionaries 237–9; origin of 239– 41; meaning of 241; case study 247–9 Romans, Paul’s letter to 223 Roots 157–8, 336–7 Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam 161–2 rule utilitarianism 71, 130 rules, moral 33– 41, case study on 42–3 I Samuel 218 September 11, 2001 217–8 sexism 201–3 Short History of Ethics, A 99, 108 situation ethics 39– 40 social Darwinism 55 society as source of morals 71–3, 92 solipsism, generational 260 Sovereignty of Good, The 329 speciesism 261–5 Studies in Classical American Literature 152–3 suffering, problem of 219–222 sunyata (the void) 208 tantrism 223 Taoism 109, 147, 206, 208–10, 218, 223 Tao of Physics, The 334 Tao Te Ching 209–10, 256, 276 theism 189; and ethics 191–5; as sanction for morals 195–6 thrownness (Geworfenheit) 141, 212 Thus Spake Zarathustra 140–1 I Timothy 198 tolerance 16–7 Toward the Genealogy of Morals 141 Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus 11 tribalism 83 truth see value judgments truth-telling 107, 115–7 Übermensch 140, 224 Understanding Eastern Philosophy 206 utilitarianism ch passim vagueness 11 value judgments 6–7, 47–50, 301–2; and truth 12–3, 61–2, 262 Value of Life, The 271– Vedas 206 vegetarianism 277 verification 5, 8, 12–3, 34, 46–9, 260, 333 Waldorf school 221 War and Peace 244 welfare, animal see animal welfare Wonderwoman and Superman 275 world government 245–6 yin and yang 208, 210, 219, 329–30 zen 223 354 .. .LIVING PHILOSOPHY LIVING PHILOSOPHY An Introduction to Moral Thought Third Edition Ray Billington First published in 1988 by Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd This edition published... is an unending process and pursue this by means of evening and other extension classes; I hope it can be put into the hands of sixth-formers, together with those of any one else who seeks to. .. AIDS virus; experiments on human embryos and the transplanting of human organs have ceased to be seven-day wonders; and the world generally has plummeted downhill into an abyss of such self-indulgent