Ethics and the Golden Rule

Description

It is commonly accepted that the golden rule―most often formulated as "do unto others as you would have them do unto you"―is a unifying element between many diverse religious traditions, both Eastern and Western. Its influence also extends beyond such traditions, since many non-religious individuals hold up the golden rule as central to their lives. Yet, while it is extraordinarily important and widespread, the golden rule is often dismissed by scholars as a vague proverb that quickly leads to absurdities when one attempts to formulate it in clear terms. In this book, Harry J. Gensler defends the golden rule and addresses all of the major philosophic objections, pointing out several common misunderstanding and misapplications. Gensler first discusses golden-rule reasoning and how to avoid the main pitfalls. He then relates the golden rule to world religions and history, and to areas like moral education, egoism, evolution, society, racism, business, and medicine. The book ends with a discussion of theoretical issues (like whether all morality reduces to the golden rule, which the author argues against). Ethics and the Golden Rule offers two introductory chapters, the first is simpler and the second more technical; a reader may start with either or both. One can then read any combination of further chapters, in any order, depending on one’s interests; but Chapters 13 and 14 are technical and assume one has read Chapter 2. This is "a golden-rule book for everyone," accessible to a wide readership. Ethics and the Golden Rule Copyright Contents Preface Part 1: Golden Rule Reasoning Chapter 1: Simpler Introduction 1.1 A simple idea? 1.2 Literal GR fallacy 1.3 Kita, a wise GR monkey 1.4 Soft GR fallacy 1.5 Doormat GR fallacy 1.6 Third-parties GR fallacy 1.7 Easy GR fallacy 1.8 Consistency requires GR 1.9 Further chapters Chapter 2: Harder Introduction 2.1 Gold or garbage? 2.1a Literal GR 2.1b Same-situation clause 2.1c The GR question 2.1d GR requires consistency 2.1e Gold, not garbage 2.2 Applying GR wisely: Kita 2.3 Further GRs and relatives 2.4 GR fallacies 2.5 Religions and philosophies 2.6 The rest of this book 2.7 Technical appendix Part 2: Religion and History Chapter 3: Many Religions and Cultures 3.1 Abrahamic religions 3.1a Judaism 3.1b Christianity 3.1c Islam 3.1d Other Abrahamic religions 3.2 Non-Abrahamic religions 3.2a Hinduism 3.2b Buddhism 3.2c Confucianism 3.2d Taoism 3.2e Other religions 3.2f Atheism 3.3 Interfaith GR activists 3.4 Questions 3.5 Composite GR message Chapter 4: A Socratic Dialogue 4.1 A consistency norm 4.2 Morality and religion 4.3 Science and religion 4.4 The problem of evil Chapter 5: A GR Chronology Part 3: Practice Chapter 6: Moral Education 6.1 Content and method 6.2 Kohlberg’s moral stages 6.3 Practical hints 6.4 Why not more successful Chapter 7: Egoism, Hobbes, Darwin 7.1 Foolish or impossible 7.2 Hobbes and social contracts 7.3 GR promotes self-interest 7.4 Darwin and evolution Chapter 8: Racism and Other Groupisms 8.1 Groupist GR objections 8.2 Extreme groupist principles 8.3 Groupist arguments 8.4 Groupist actions 8.5 History, slavery, and GR Chapter 9: Applied Ethics 9.1 Applied ethics courses 9.2 Business ethics 9.3 Medical ethics 9.4 Ethics of discussion 9.5 GR’s scope 9.6 Some other areas Part 4: Theory Chapter 10: Positive and Negative GRs 10.1 Positive GR is better 10.2 Both are complementary 10.3 Negative GR is better 10.4 Both are equivalent 10.5 Defending the positive GR 10.6 Negative traditions? Chapter 11: More Questions 11.1 Summary of morality 11.2 Role reversals 11.3 Metals Chapter 12: Many Philosophies 12.1 Metaethics 12.2 Normative ethics Chapter 13: Hare and Carson 13.1 Hare 13.2 Carson Chapter 14: More Objections 14.1 Platinum 14.2 Three classic objections 14.3 Long objections 14.3a Competition 14.3b Over or under demanding 14.3c Kant’s footnote 14.3d Assumes moral norms 14.3e Contradictions 14.3f Game theory 14.3g Masochists 14.4 Short objections Bibliography Index