Moral Choices: An Introduction to Ethics, 3rd ed.
Overview
With its unique union of theory and application and its well-organized, easy-to-use design, Moral Choices has earned its place as the standard text for college ethics courses. This third edition offers extensive updates, revisions, and brand new material, all designed to help students develop a sound and current basis for making ethical decisions in today's complex postmodern culture.
Moral Choices outlines the distinctive elements of Christian ethics while avoiding undue dogmatism. The book also introduces other ethical systems and their key historical proponents, including Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, and Immanuel Kant.
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- Addresses some of today’s most pressing social issues
- Guides students in thinking critically and biblically
- Introduces ethical systems and key historical proponents
Top Highlights
“Most people use the terms morality and ethics interchangeably. Technically, morality refers to the actual content of right and wrong, and ethics refers to the process of determining right and wrong. In other words, morality deals with moral knowledge and ethics with moral reasoning. Thus, ethics is both an art and a science. It does involve some precision like the sciences, but like art, it is an inexact and sometimes intuitive discipline. Morality is the end result of ethical deliberation, the substance of right and wrong.” (Page 15)
“Ethics are crucial because moral questions are at the heart of life’s vital issues. Morality is primarily concerned with questions of right and wrong, the ability to distinguish between the two, and the justification of the distinction.” (Page 12)
“Blending divine command, natural law, and virtue, the biblical emphasis seems to be a combination of virtue theory and deontological ethics with periodic appeal to egoism and utilitarianism.” (Page 97)
“Third, metaethics is an area of ethics that investigates the meaning of moral language, or the epistemology of ethics, and also considers the justification of ethical theories and judgments. For example, it focuses on the meaning of the major terms used in ethics, such as right, good, and just. The primary focus of technical philosophers, metaethics has been receiving more attention from a popular audience today since more people are insisting that the language of right and wrong is nothing more than an expression of personal preferences.” (Page 16)
“Nowhere in Scripture does a cultural norm take priority over a clear mandate from God’s character or biblical principles. Culture is certainly taken into account when it comes to applying the virtues and principles, but that is a far different matter than culture determining what the moral norms ought to be.” (Page 28)
I have profitably used Moral Choices as a central textbook in my Christian Ethics courses since it first came out in 1995. This new edition builds on the strengths of the previous editions by deepening the analysis, bringing the discussions up to date, and adding a needful new chapter on ethics and economics. The book remains clear, readable, well-informed, biblical, and pertinent for the moral questions and challenges facing Christians today.
—Doug Groothuis, professor philosophy, Denver Seminary
Moral Choices is characterized by particular strength in its discussion of ethical methodology, its approach to bioethical and business ethics issues, its accessibility and readability, its use of cases and discussion questions, and its engagement with a wide range of both secular and Christian thinkers through the ages. It is conservative and evangelical while remaining irenic and dialogical.
—David P. Gushee, distinguished university professor of Christian ethics, Mercer University
- Title: Moral Choices: An Introduction To Ethics
- Author: Scott B. Rae
- Edition: Third Edition
- Publisher: Zondervan
- Print Publication Date: 2009
- Logos Release Date: 2013
- Pages: 384
- Language: English
- Resources: 1
- Format: Digital › Logos Research Edition
- Subjects: Ethics; Christian ethics
- ISBNs: 9780310514725, 031051472X
- Resource ID: LLS:MORALCHCSRAE3ED
- Resource Type: Monograph
- Metadata Last Updated: 2022-09-30T01:35:44Z
Reviews
1 rating
Michael Farrar
8/18/2020
Unfortunately, this is now an outdated book. Logos should update pages for outdated books to reflect that there are newer versions, even if they do not carry them. Just bought this book thinking that it was the same as what is available elsewhere, whereas my students purchase the kindle version. My instructions said to get the third version, but the only version on Kindle now is the 4th, so they purchased it. there are differences that create issues.J. Remington Bowling
12/4/2015
This is a fantastic textbook on ethics and it is a very useful resource for starting research on an ethical issue. To give an example of how the book approaches a subject, here is the outline of the book's discussion on abortion: I. The Legal Background of Abortion 1. Roe v. Wade 2. Doe v. Bolton 3. The "Jane Roe" in Roe v. Wade 4. Planned Parenthood v. Danforth 5. Webster v. Reproductive Health Services 6. Planned Parenthood v. Casey II. The Biblical Background of Abortion 1. Partial Birth Abortion III. The Arguments for the Pro-Choice Position 1. A woman has the right to do with her own body whatever she chooses 2. If abortion becomes illegal, we will return to the dangerous days of the 'back alley' abortion providers 3. Forcing women, especially poor ones, to continue their pregnancies will create overwhelming financial hardship 4. Society should not force women to bring unwanted children into the world 5. Society should not force women to bring severely handicapped children into the world 6. Soceity should not force women who are pregnant from rape or incest to continue their pregnancies 7. Peter Singer and Infanticide 7. Restrictive abortion laws discriminate against poor women IV. The Personhood of the Fetus The chapter that addresses abortion is combined with the discussion of embryo and stem cell research. Naturally, not every topic receives the same level of detail in discussion. What I've outlined above covers about 22 pages. The embryonic and stem cell topic only receives about 5 pages of discussion. For some issues the author takes a clear position and develops arguments for it. In other cases the author is more reserved. Here is a sample of some issues discussed (with various degrees of detail): various ethical systems (deontology, utilitarianism, etc), reproductive technologies, physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia, capital punishment. Within each of these broad headings sub-issues are addressed: business ethics, masturbation, homosexuality, surrogacy, etc. At the end of each chapter is a list for further reading and review questions.