Contemporary ethical issues : a personalistic perspective / Walter G. Jeffko.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Jeffko, Walter G.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Ethical problems.

Personalism.

Macmurray, John, 1891-1976.

Macmurray, John.

Physical Description:

x, 269 pages : illustrations ; 23 cm

Place of Publication:

Amherst, N.Y. : Humanity Books, 1999.

Summary:

Contemporary Ethical Issues explores a series of contemporary ethical problems from a personalistic perspective influenced by the Scottish philosopher John Macmurray (1891-1976). Professor Jeffko utilizes key elements of Macmurray's thought in developing his own viewpoint, and he relates Macmurray's ideas to those of a wide variety of important philosophers, ethicists, and behavioral scientists.

In the opening chapter, Professor Jeffko develops a personalistic anthropological and ethical theory within a framework that views the person as a relational and rational agent, reason as the standard of value, and the principle of community as the supreme moral or ethical standard. In successive chapters, this theory is applied to the issues of suicide, abortion, euthanasia (including assisted suicide), the death penalty, privacy (including private property and capitalism), the moral treatment of animals, and affirmative action.

Walter Jeffko connects ethics with logic, and his style blends scholarship with readability.

Contents:

1. Person, Reason, and Community 1

A Crisis of Values 1

Person as Relational Agent 3

Person as Rational Agent 8

Instrumental and Aesthetic Value 13

Moral Value 17

2. Suicide and the Right to Die 35

Arguments Against Suicide 39

Arguments for Suicide 48

Community, Justice, and Suicide 53

3. Abortion, Personhood, and Community 59

Ontology of the Fetus 60

Moral Implications 72

Abortion and the Law 78

4. Euthanasia: A Reinterpretation 85

Conventional Types of Euthanasia 87

Direct and Indirect Euthanasia 92

5. The Death Penalty and Purposes of Punishment 106

Punishment in General 107

The Death Penalty 116

6. Privacy, Private Property, and Justice 134

Personhood and Privacy 135

Privacy and Society 141

7. The Moral Treatment of Animals 165

Western Civilization and Animals 166

Personalism and Animals 176

8. Affirmative Action and Justice 210

Discrimination and Prejudice 210

Affirmative Action and the Law: A History 213

An Ethics of Affirmative Action 221.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 243-253) and index.

ISBN:

1573926418

157392640X

OCLC:

41039868