Morality and moral philosophy / William K. Frankena -- Crito / Plato -- Challenges to morality -- How not to answer moral questions / Tom Regan -- God and morality / Steven M. Cahn -- The challenge of cultural relativism / James Rachels -- Right and wrong / Thomas Nagel -- Egoism and moral scepticism / James Rachels -- Happiness and immorality / Steven M. Cahn and Jeffrie G. Murphy -- The nature of ethical disagreement / Charles L. Stevenson -- Moral theories -- The categorical imperative / Immanuel Kant -- A simplified account of Kant's ethics / Onora O'Neill -- Utilitarianism / John Stuart Mill -- Strengths and weaknesses of utilitarianism / Louis P. Pojman -- The nature of virtue / Aristotle -- Ethics and the moral life / Bernard Mayo -- Master morality and slave morality / Friedrich Nietzsche -- Moral saints / Susan Wolf -- The social contract / Thomas Hobbes -- A theory of justice / John Rawls -- The idea of a female ethic / Jean Grimshaw -- Moral problems -- A defense of abortion / Judith Jarvis Thomson -- On the moral and legal status of abortion / Mary Anne Warren -- Why abortion is immoral / Don Marquis -- Active and passive euthanasia / James Rachels -- Active and passive euthanasia : a reply to Rachels / Thomas D. Sullivan -- Famine, afluence, and morality / Peter Singer -- World hunger and moral obligation : the case against Singer / John Arthur -- Terrorism / Michael Walzer -- Is terrorism distinctively wrong? / Lionel K. McPherson -- Pornography, oppression, and freedom : a closer look / Helen E. Longino -- The feminist case against pornography / Joel Feinberg -- Two concepts of affrmative action / Steven M. Cahn -- What good am I? / Laurence Thomas -- The case for animal rights / Tom Regan -- The case for the use of animals in biomedical research / Carl Cohen -- We are what we eat / Tom Regan -- People or penguins : the case for optimal pollution / William F. Baxter -- In defense of the death penalty / Ernest van den Haag -- Capital punishment / Hugo Adam Bedau -- Letter from a Birmingham jail / Martin Luther King, Jr.

This is a collection of readings in moral philosophy intended to provide a clear and definite understanding of ethics. Chosen for maximum accessibility, the 40 selections are organized into three parts - Challenges to Morality, Moral Theories and Moral Problems. The readings are accompanied by introductions and study questions.