Am I Right? or Am I Right?
An Introduction To Ethical Decision Making
by
Book Cover & Preview Text
Contents
PREFACE
AM I RIGHT? OR AM I RIGHT?
Insurance against guilt
Like a house on fire
DEFINE YOUR TERMS
What do we mean by ‘integrity’?
What are virtues?
What are values?
Integrity – who needs it?
I wouldn’t be seen dead…
Can integrity be taught?
DO UNTO OTHERS…
Who are the ‘others’ – Prioritising loyalties
Live8 – Extending the circles
EXCUSES, EXCUSES
Conclusion
ETHICS – APPLYING THE THEORIES
Do your duty
Think of the consequences
Virtue ethics – morality without moralising?
How do you choose your theory?
USE AND ABUSE OF ARGUMENT
What is an argument?
The inductive argument
Arguments underpinning ethical decision making
Necessary and sufficient conditions
Essential reading
CRY FREEDOM!?
I AM FIT, THEREFORE I THINK?
DILEMMA TRAINING IN ACTION?
EDUCATION?
Lessons from a man child?
A-moral, im-moral or differently moral??
Living up to the convention
Autonomy and equality
What schools are doing
Feelings or reason?
Dilemmas at school
Right vs right dilemmas
Six steps training
Benefits of the training
To tell, or not to tell – the dilemma
What did the school think of the training?
What next?
Ways out of the moral maze
SUBSTANCE ABUSE – SAYING ‘NO!’
Don’t say ‘Don't'
Four levels from temptation to abuse
Drugs prevention programmes
Mind and muscle
TOBACCO DOESN’T KILL; SMOKING KILLS
AMSTERDAM EMBRACES DILEMMA TRAINING
The Integrity Bureau
Does it work?
Who does it?
Centralising data
Analysis – prevention and cure
What the managers say
Brass from muck – an inherited scam
Why Dilemma Training?
ETHICS IN BUSINESS
Resolving the contradictions
Power to the consumers
The bottom line
TRAINING THE ARMED FORCES
Ethics in Combat
The Geneva Conventions
Example, Example, Example
Life after Srebrenica
An ethical decision-making model
Dilemmas in combat
Philosophy of military ethics
MEDIA ETHICS
Communication ethics – What is it?
Media giant tries ethics training
Media ethical issues
BIG ISSUES
ENVIRONMENT – WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?
What is ‘the environment’?
Environmentalism – pandas before people?
Theoretically speaking
Americans abroad
Is small beautiful?
How green is my revolution?
SCIENCE – PLAYING GOD?
Inheriting some difficult dilemmas
Pressure to behave ethically
Unfolding the mysteries of creation
Mutants on the march?
You’re never alone with a clone
ANIMALS – CAN THEY SUFFER?
Animals, pets, religion and vegetarianism
ISSUES OF RACE and DIFFERENCE
Kofi’s Choice
Vive la difference
Race – the long view
Dilemma Training and race
MAN vs THE MACHINE – A DILEMMA
The optimists
The pessimists
Conclusion
DOES THE PUNISHMENT FIT THE CRIME?
Capital punishment or state murder?
Is it right to punish?
EUTHANASIA – LETTING DIE OR KILLING?
Killing vs letting die
Be yourself and be damned
THE ULTIMATE DILEMMA – TO BE OR NOT TO BE
Suicide – a free prescription
But first – David Hume…
And now for Jean-Paul Sartre…
Death – fear of the unknown
A tentative conclusion
FICTION – STRANGER THAN TRUTH
Circles of stakeholders
Integrity and betrayal
Poetry in emotion
A BRIEF HISTORY OF ETHICAL DECISION MAKING
From Greeks to PC fundamentalism
Think for yourself! A catchphrase with a long history
Religion – what has God got to do with it?
The Church under attack – Deism
The age of miracles is dead
THE LAST WORD
REFERENCES & INFORMATION
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Book Details
About the Book
Am I Right? or Am I Right? gives you the opportunity to think about the ways in which the choices you make matter to yourself and others.
The emphasis is on the need to think for yourself, and that ethical behavior rests largely on tolerance and empathy for others, and respect for their beliefs, desires and ways of life.
Concentration on differences rather than commonalities, and a failure to appreciate the rights of different stakeholders has led to appalling destruction and cruelty worldwide. This is often founded on a sense of ethnic, class or religious difference.
Am I Right? or Am I Right? introduces Dilemma Training® - a six-step method of ethical decision making, and the moral theories relevant to it. It examines the meaning of 'integrity' and then describes the training in action: in education, business, government, the media and the armed forces, and in combating substance abuse.
It tracks the changes in the Western moral climate from a historical, social, cultural and perspective, with emphasis on the historical development of people learning to 'think for themselves', and a description of ethical decision making in the context of religion.
Dilemma Training strengthens people's ethical decision-making and enables them to recognise the right action in their own everyday lives. It is central to strengthening personal, social and corporate responsibility, and to help to identify key influences on the current moral climate.
The book discusses some 'big ethical issues': environment, animals, racial equality, science and technology, capital punishment, euthanasia, and suicide.
Am I Right? or Am I Right? is written in a non-academic way for anyone who wants to know more about solving ethical dilemmas without necessarily referring to an external moral authority - for anyone who wants to be 'morally fit' - and who might also welcome the opportunity to look at various ethical issues in more depth.
About the Author
The author, Simon Geschwindt, worked for many years as a foreign correspondent for Financial Times Business Information and La Tribune and l'Agence Economique et Financière in Paris, before joining UK ethics consultancy, Dialogue Works. He is now managing editor of Environment Matters International. Simon is married with five children and lives in Johannesburg, South Africa.