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Social Issues and Moral Scrutiny: Cragg and Narveson1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 April 2010

Jerome E. Bickenbach
Affiliation:
Queen's University

Extract

For several years philosophy departments across this continent have offered undergraduate philosophy courses designed to acquaint students with philosophical techniques and fundamental ethical theories in the context of concrete moral problems. These “applied ethics” courses go by various names: “Contemporary Moral Issues”, “Practical Ethics”, “Social Ethics”, “Issues in Applied Ethics”, “Current Moral and Legal Problems”, “Moral Philosophy and Medicine”, “Biomedical Ethics”, and so on. I have taught several versions of applied ethics courses many times and have always enjoyed them. Typically they are popular courses, drawing students from many disciplines and backgrounds, most of whom have never taken philosophy before. The range of possible “applied ethics” topics available is limited only by the instructor's imagination, although there is a fascination for the thanatological—hence the pride of place usually given to discussions of abortion, suicide, euthanasia, world starvation, war, and capital punishment.

Type
Critical Notices/Etudes critiques
Copyright
Copyright © Canadian Philosophical Association 1985

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References

1 Wesley Cragg, ed., Contemporary Moral Issues (Toronto: McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 1984). pp. 611, $19.95; and Jan Narveson, ed., Moral Issues (Toronto and New York: Oxford University Press, 1983), pp. 448, $13.95.