Adrian Corwin
Ethical and moral reasoning is a trainable skill, and this book teaches it from the ground up. Clear definitions first, then the major frameworks laid side by side, then a method you can apply when a real decision is sitting in front of you. Ten chapters move through three stages. You get the terminology, you learn how the big theories work and where each one breaks down, and then you put them to use on cases drawn from business, medicine, engineering, and ordinary life. The chapters cover: - Ethics, morality, and law as three separate categories, and why arguments slide sideways the moment those categories get jumbled together - Where your beliefs came from: upbringing, culture, religion, and the cooperative instincts that predate all of them - Premises, unstated assumptions, the is-ought gap, and the fallacies that run through every debate about right and wrong - Utilitarianism from Bentham and Mill, Kant’s categorical imperative and the murderer at the door, Aristotle’s virtues and the doctrine of the mean, each presented with the objections that hit it hardest - Social contract thinking from Hobbes to Rawls, rights-based reasoning, care ethics, natural law, and the question of whether moral claims are true in any real sense - Trolley cases, the doing and allowing distinction, double effect, and the residue of guilt that lingers after a forced choice - Motivated reasoning, obedience to authority, diffusion of responsibility, scale insensitivity, and moral licensing - A step-by-step method for deciding under time pressure, stakeholder mapping, professional codes that collide with conscience, whistleblowing, and a personal checklist short enough that you will actually use it Supporting material runs throughout the book. A historical timeline traces moral thought from the Code of Hammurabi through Aquinas, Hume, and Rawls to current fights over artificial intelligence and obligations to future generations. Every chapter closes with discussion questions, and worked answers sit in the back so you can test your thinking against a full response. A glossary defines each term in plain language, and recommended readings point toward the primary sources. Written with four readers in mind: - Philosophy and ethics students who need the frameworks organized and comparable - Professionals in medicine, business, law, and technology who work under codes of conduct - Educators building a syllabus or looking for discussion material that produces real argument - General readers who want firmer footing than instinct provides Nobody here will tell you what to conclude about abortion, capital punishment, or any other contested question. What you get instead is the ability to name what a disagreement is actually about, construct positions that hold up under pressure, take apart the ones that don’t, notice yourself rationalizing, and explain your view in terms the person across from you can engage with. That last skill alone changes how arguments end.
