The Fundamentals of Ethics

This is just the first edition and I notice that the second edition came out only two years later, however I still think this book is worth the cheap price that it is being sold for.Shafer goes over the basics in this introductory book in ethics as he goes over different ethical theories such as:Hedonism, Desire Theory, Divine Command Theory, Natural Law Theory, Psychological Egoism, Feminist Ethics, Ethical Egoism, Consequentialism, Kantian ethics, Social contract theory and Virtue ethics. Shafer spends a good deal of time giving arguments for and against these views with a good amount of fairness.He then takes on the status of morality whilst giving us a good primer on the metaethical positions such as ethical objectivism and moral relativism, and moral nihilism.Moral nihilism is broken up into two parts:Error Theory and Expressivism, both views IMO are the toughest to take down, and I say this as someone who holds to a version of Divine Command Theory. Shafer shows its flaw, but I think more work isShafer really lets it rip on moral relativism and definitely takes off the gloves in his criticismRuss Shafer Landau explains"Subjectivism is unable to explain the existence of moral disagreement. In order to avoid generating contradictions, subjectivists have to understand all moral judgments as reports of whether I approve of something or not. The claim that meat-eating is wrong becomes the claim that I disapprove of meat-eating....but on this line, moral debates that seem to involve intense disagreement become something completely different. In fact now it becomes IMPOSSIBLE for people to morally disagree with one another.To see this imagine an earlier disputeYou say: It's wrong to eat meatYour friend says: It's ok to eat meatThe subjectivist translates this as follows:You: I disapprove of eating meat.Your friend: I approve of eating meat.The contradiction has indeed disappeared, BUT SO HAS THE DISAGREEMENT. If you are both taking this seriously, you'll agree with your friend's claim, and she with yours. If all that moral judgments do is report people's outlooks, then there is no way to morally disagree with anyone - except to charge them with insincerity. But that seems plainly wrong"- QEDThe few cons of this book are as follows:The objection to the Divine Command theory is terrible, Shafer acts like we've never heard of the Euthyphro before and doesn't give any replies from formidable Theist philosophers who have knocked it down. (William Alston, Robert Adams).I would have liked more substance on why moral facts exist. (though I guess he wants us to check out his book on moral realism for that)Shafer is an elite moral philosopher in academia and he is someone who I find to be enlightening on this subject. I will continue to use his works on moral philosophy, along with Robert Adams and John Hare.

This is one of the best books on ethics I've ever read, and I've read a lot of books on ethics. It's a book meant for beginners who have little to no experience with moral philosophy, but even professionals or ethics-enthusiasts (like myself) will find much value in this book. It manages to cover an impressive amount of information in a relatively short time, beginning with questions of value, then the various normative ethical views, and ending with meta-ethics. Each chapter is divided into chunks that either explain a position or the arguments for and against it. The companion book is also great, which is a collection of historical ethical literature.I'm still giving it five stars but a gripe I did have was that the final section on meta-ethics was a little sparse. Shafer-Landau focuses primarily on skeptic perspectives of ethics, such as subjectivism, relativism, non-cognitivism and error theory. I wish he would have included something more about moral realism, and maybe even his own realist views. But in general it's not that big of an omission. I can understand why he didn't include some of the more nuanced positions in meta-ethics, like constructivism or Blackburn's quasi-realism, but if you're looking for a book that has more substance in meta-ethics, you might want to complement this book with another one that focuses more on meta-ethics. I personally would recommend "Foundations of Ethics: An Anthology" which is partly edited by Shafer-Landau, as well as "A Companion to Ethics" edited by Singer.But yeah, five stars no question about it. Fantastic book, entertaining and filled with information. Would recommend.

I have to say that I was left a little wanting after the book. It was a short book with a lot of information about different philosophies, particularly some of the more popular ones. Academically, this is a valuable text, by all means, and I learned a lot and really did enjoy it, but I don't think the length of the book fully justifies the 35 dollars I payed. When I saw how small it was, I was a little disappointed, and for the money it costs, they certainly could have gone into better depth. The book uses examples of social situations that are, to me, often far too basic and lacking the elaboration of circumstances and details that DEFINE A REAL ETHICAL DILEMMA. Also the summaries of the philosophies that are in this book should have been better elaborated as well (there's that word again). I guess to sum it up, the book isn't really bad, and considering what it was probably made for (an introduction to the ethical field of study) it may be very good, but my opinion still stands that this book is, for all its potential, premature. I was hoping for better material. On the other hand I would have been very happy with it for around 20 dollars.

Ladies and Gents,If you are looking for a fundamental, all-encompssing, thorough but not dry (!), college level book about the various spheres of thought within ethics, read this book. No question, one of the most informative books I have ever laid my hands and eyes on. (Yes, I did end a sentence with a preposition.)Seriously, this book + Peter Singer’s ethics essay compilation are some of my favorite reads ever. (Singer is often referred to as the smartest philosopher that people love to hate. Utilitarian perspectives tend to evoke that emotion.)Regardless, you will become a better thinker for adding these books to your reading list.

This is a great book- really readable, in a way most philosophical related texts aren't. Shafer-Landau has made some hard going topics so accessible and easy to understand. He also is witty and fun.

Everything went very well!

Excellent introduction to the field of ethical theory.

Well thought out, nuanced and incorporates argument diagrams which is a great learning tool for amateur philosophers. An overall fun read.

Had to get this as course literature for university and everyone loved this book. Very nice for beginners! Happy with it and would recommend it.