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Rights and Reason: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Rights by Jonathan Gorman (McGill-Queen’s) In Rights and Reason Jonathan Gorman sets discussion of the "rights debate" within a wide-ranging philosophical and historical framework. Drawing on positions in epistemology, metaphysics, and the theory of human nature as well as on the ideas of canonical thinkers Gorman provides an introduction to the philosophy of rights that is firmly grounded in the history of philosophy as well as the concerns of contemporary political and legal philosophy. More

A Declaration of the Rights of Human Beings: On the Sovereignty of Life as Surpassing the Rights of Man by Raoul Vaneigem, translated by Liz Heron (Pluto Press) Pocket-size English translation of the original work in French, 2001, by one of the founding members of the Situationist movement, this text shows how progress towards true human rights is undermined by globalization. It sets out to create a new declaration of human rights, by updating earlier declarations; from the French Revolution to the UN declaration of 1948. This new manifesto of Human Rights critiques previous versions as holding implicit utilitarian commoditization of human beings because of an unexamined reification of property. Vaneigem creates in this short work a radical vision of the human spirit as fundamentally free and embedded within a social system that is not an inherent shadow of the late Capitalistic market system values and assumptions. This work offers a new anthropology, a implicit humane ethics that calls for a radical revision of laws that govern our social and economic institutions. Its terse formulations should inspire some fundamental re-envisioning of Human Rights especially as deformed by assumptions of property. Though the manifesto is profoundly life affirming, it seems to lack of an overt concern for a deeper ecology as a constraint upon simple human freedom. Read in the light of ethics it provides a clear idea of human rights undeformed by utilitarian trade-offs. Recommended. More

Finite, Contingent, and Free: A New Ethics of Acceptance by Joyce Kloc McClure (Rowman & Littlefield) This book seeks to develop a new approach to ethics that is grounded in our experience as finite, contingent, and free and is consonant with a Christian understanding of what it is to be human and to be obligated to ourselves and others. A few words on the book's methodology are in order. The turn to finitude and contingency as fundamental conditions of existence, as well as the focus on the issue of human freedom, are features that reflect the author's commitment to approach ethics from what is best de-scribed as a Roman Catholic point of view. That is to say, it is deeply in-formed by Roman Catholicism's embrace of turning to nature and reason to make its case, from a perspective that is profoundly and foundationally shaped by the Christian story as told in the New Testament and by the Chris­tian hope for humankind and redemption more generally. As such, it is a proj­ect that is meant to be open and persuasive to Christians and non-Christians alike, although the articulation of religious acceptance in the final chapter will of course resonate more with Christians. More

Heroes, Saints, and Ordinary Morality by Andrew Michael Flescher (Moral Traditions Series: Georgetown University Press) Most of us are content to see ourselves as ordinary people – unique in ways, talented in others, but still among the ranks of ordinary mortals. Andrew Flescher, assistant professor in the Department of Religious Studies at California State University , Chico , probes our contented state by asking important questions: How should “ordinary” people respond when others need help, whether the situation is a crisis or something less? Do we have a responsibility, an obligation, to go that extra mile, to act above and beyond the call of duty? Or should we leave the braver responses to those who are somehow different than we are: better somehow, “heros,” or “saints?” More

Introduction to Contemporary Metaethics by Alexander Miller (Polity Press) provides a highly readable critical overview of the main arguments and themes in twentieth-century and contemporary metaethics. It traces the development of contemporary debates in metaethics from their beginnings in the work of G. E. Moore up to the most recent arguments between naturalism and non-naturalism, cognitivism and non-cognitivism. More

On the Side of the Angels: Ethics and Post-Holocaust Spirituality by Marie L. Baird (Studies in Spirituality: Supplement 7: Peeters) discusses how the Holocaust demands a rethinking of spirituality, both human and Christian. The author, Marie L. Baird, lived as a young person in Europe where she listened to the testimony of Holocaust survivors and that experience led her to write of this book. Traditional definitions of spirituality that focus on the human capacity for self-transcendence in relation to an ultimate horizon of meaning, whether or not that ultimate horizon is called ‘God’, are inadequate after the Holocaust to the degree that they make ethical responsibility a secondary consideration. Because the unthinkable has, in fact, happened, a contemporary spirituality must locate ethical responsibility for the Other at the heart of human subjectivity and self-transcendence. The extreme suffering of the incarcerated and murdered, as well as the ethical engagement of the rescuers cry out for a newly articulated spirituality that defines self-transcendence primarily as ethical responsibility. More

Decoding the Ethics Code: A Practical Guide for Psychologists by Celia B. Fisher (Sage) introduces psychologists, professionals with whom they work, and the public to the 2002 American Psychological Association’s Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. The book helps psychologists apply the Ethics Code to the constantly changing scientific, professional, and legal realities of the discipline. Author Celia B. Fisher addresses the revised format, choice of wording, aspirational rationale, and enforceability of the code and puts these changes into practical perspective for psychologists. More

Morality: Its Nature and Justification by Bernard Gert (Oxford University Press)  For more than thirty years, philosopher Bernard Gert has been developing and refining his distinctive and comprehensive moral theory. His classic work, The Moral Rules: A New Rational Foundation for Morality, was first published in 1970. In 1988, Oxford published a fourth revision titled Morality: A New Justification of the Moral Rules. In this final revision, Gert has produced the fullest and most sophisticated account of this influential theoretical model. Here, he makes clear that morality is an informal system that does not provide unique answers to every moral question but does always limit the range of morally acceptable options, and so explains why some moral disagreements cannot be resolved. The importance placed on the moral ideals also makes clear that the moral rules are only one part of the moral system. A chapter that is devoted to justifying violations of the rules illustrates how the moral rules are embedded in the system and cannot be adequately understood independently of it. The chapter on reasons includes a new account of what makes one reason better than an­other and elucidates the complex hybrid nature of rationality.

Although Gert's moral theory is sophisticated, it is presented with a clarity that enables it to serve as an excellent introduction for beginning philosophy students, as well as fruitful read­ing for advanced undergraduate and graduate courses. Unlike most moral theories, his account of morality is developed in sufficient detail to be useful to those interested in prob­lems of applied ethics. This book will appeal to those engaged in business ethics, engineering ethics, environmental ethics, and especially medical ethics. In the manner of the works of Thomas Hobbes and John Stuart Mill, this book addresses the general philosophical reader and at the same time makes an important contribution to the philosophical literature. More

Rationality, Rules, and Ideals: Critical Essays on Bernard Gert's Moral Theory edited by Walter Sinnott-Armstrong, Robert Audi, Norman K. Risjord (Rowman & Littlefield) Bernard Gert's moral theory is among the clearest and most compre­hensive on the contemporary scene. It touches on elements of the dom­inant ethical orientations-utilitarianism, Kantianism, contractionism, and virtue ethics-without fitting neatly into any of those categories. For that reason, Gert's moral theory appeals to many ethicists dissatis­fied with each of the dominant formulations. More

Memory As a Moral Decision: The Role of Ethics in Organizational Culture by Steven P. Feldman (Transaction) The study of management and organization is not known for its remembrance of things past. In the structure of time‑that is, past­present-future-the past is generally forgotten. Managing the present and mastering the future receive the lion's share of attention. Objects of the past, like yesterday's technology or the stories of the old and retired, are relegated to the status of museum pieces. In the study of management and organization, of a piece with modern culture gener­ally, the chain of memory has been broken. Perhaps nowhere in man­agement has this resulted in more destructive loss than in the area of ethics. Without the thread of continuity between the past, present, and future, moral ideals have decayed; moral commitments have become vague and shallow. More

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