Ethics for Everyone - by Arthur Dobrin (Paperback)

Book Synopsis

Ethics for Everyone

Is it always wrong to lie? Is it always right to try to help another person? Are you bound to keep every promise you make? In Ethics for Everyone: How to Increase Your Moral Intelligence, you'll find out how well you make moral choices and learn how to increase your ability to understand and analyze ethical dilemmas. This sensible, practical guide provides thoughtful-and sometimes surprising-answers to tough real-world questions. You'll sort through dozens of tricky ethical issues with the help of:
* Twenty-one dramatic true stories showing real-life ethics in action- and you are asked to make ethical choices
* A personal ethics quiz to determine your own ethical potential
* Harm and benefits assessments of various courses of action
* Expert opinions from spiritual leaders, counselors, attorneys, psychologists, and other experts

From the Back Cover

Ethics for Everyone

Is it always wrong to lie? Is it always right to try to help another person? Are you bound to keep every promise you make? In Ethics for Everyone: How to Increase Your Moral Intelligence, you'll find out how well you make moral choices and learn how to increase your ability to understand and analyze ethical dilemmas. This sensible, practical guide provides thoughtful-and sometimes surprising-answers to tough real-world questions. You'll sort through dozens of tricky ethical issues with the help of:

• Twenty-one dramatic true stories showing real-life ethics in action- and you are asked to make ethical choices
• A personal ethics quiz to determine your own ethical potential
• Harm and benefits assessments of various courses of action
• Expert opinions from spiritual leaders, counselors, attorneys, psychologists, and other experts

Review Quotes

* There are no cut-and-dried answers to the big ethical problems, says Dobrin, a Hofstra University professor and an active participant in the Ethical Humanist movement for more than 30 years, but discussing the issues can give better insight into what's right. After a mercifully brief discussion of various ethical systems, Dobrin sets out some typical ethical quandaries for readers to analyze, helping them establish their own moral IQ. Homework over, readers can relax and follow Dobrin and his guest experts as they navigate a series of provocative moral dilemmas. Should his father consent to heart surgery for his mother if she's succumbing quickly to Alzheimer's? Should an all-boy athletic team have the right to exclude a girl? Should the West Pointer resign rather than betray his friend or the school's honor code? Many readers will have encountered some of these dilemmas themselves, but other situations will be new. Dobrin's willingness to see all sides will encourage readers to think broadly as well; retaking the preliminary quiz at the end of the book, many will find their own ethical perspectives more nuanced and satisfying. This compelling volume and Randy Cohen's The Good, the Bad and the Difference (reviewed on p. 87) should both hit responsive chords with the ethically questing. But if Cohen is "everyday ethics" (going back on a job offer; senior discounts), Dobrin, while just as accessive, leans toward big-time ethics (assisting a Lou Gehrig's disease sufferer to commit suicide; telling an adopted child about his or her birth parents). (Apr.)
Forecast: The budget cover price and a user-friendly format make this an ideal choice for any ethics-oriented reading group. ( Publishers Weekly, February 18, 2002)

About the Author

ARTHUR DOBRIN, D.S.W., is the Leader Emeritus of the Ethical Humanist Society of Long Island. He is Professor of Humanities at Hofstra University, where he teaches courses in comparative religious ethics, personal ethics, and moral development. He has appeared as a guest on CNN and has been featured in Time magazine.