Would You Eat Your Cat?: Key Ethical Conundrums and What They Tell You About Yourself

by Jeremy Stangroom

Overview

Are you authoritarian or libertarian? Are we morally obligated to end the world? And just what’s wrong with eating your cat?

Would You Eat Your Cat? challenges you to examine these and many other philosophical questions. This unique collection of classic and modern problems and paradoxes is guaranteed to test your preconceptions. Jeremy Stangroom creates contemporary versions of famous dilemmas that explore the morality of suicide and the ethics of retribution. He then delves into the background of each conundrum in detail and helps you discover what your responses reveal about yourself with a unique morality barometer. Are you ready to have your best ideas confronted and your ethical foundations shaken? If so, then Would You Eat Your Cat? is the book for you.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780393339420
Publisher:	Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date:	11/19/2012
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 7.70(h) x 0.50(d)

About the Author

Jeremy Stangroom is an elected Fellow of the Committee for the Scientific Examination of Religion. He is a cofounder of The Philosophers’ Magazine and its New Media editor. He lives in Toronto, Ontario.

Table of Contents

Introduction 6

Ethical Impasses 10

Moral conundrums that Lave perplexed some of the greatest philosophical minds

Would You Eat Your Gat? 12

Is It Always OK to Look at Your Own Photos? 14

Is It Better to Be a Sexist Than a Misanthrope? 16

Are We Morally Obliged to End the World? 18

Are We Really Sorry That Hitler Existed? 20

Should We Sacrifice One to Save Five? 22

Rights and Responsibilities 24

How free should we be to behave as we wish?

Should Climbing Mountains Be Banned? 26

Should We Have Sex When Drunk? 28

Can I Bring Poison Onto a Bus? 31

Whose Body Is It Anyway? 32

Is It Wrong to Commit Suicide? 34

Crime and Punishment 36

Thought experiments to illuminate issues of personal responsibility, culpability, and punishment

Should We Spare the Guilty? 38

Should We Punish the Innocent? 39

Are You Morally Culpable or Just Unlucky? 40

Is It Wrong for Evil People to Defend Themselves? 42

Is It Sometimes Right to Torture? 44

Can Worse Ever Be Judged Morally Better? 46

Was It Always Going to Happen? 48

Society and Politics 50

Howls moral reasoning affected by the fact that we live in a world of nation states and fellow citizens?

Are You a Closet Imperialist? 52

Should We Discriminate in Favor of the Ugly? 54

Are We All Brainwashed? 56

Is Homosexuality Wrong Because It Is Unnatural? 58

Should Pornography Be Banned? 60

Are You Morally Responsible for Climate Change? 62

Is It Always Right to Resist Great Evil? 64

Responses 66

Discover the philosophical background to each conundrum and what your responses say about you

Further Reading and Index 141

Editorial Reviews

Stangroom, cofounder of The Philosophers’ Magazine, does a solid job of presenting common moral dilemmas in digestible form, though not with much depth or subtlety. With four sections of hypotheticals (“Ethical Impasses,” “Rights and Responsibilities,” “Crime and Punishment,” and “Society and Politics”) followed by a “Responses” section that addresses more than two dozen specific scenarios, this look at the philosophy of personality falls short of delivering a straightforward argument. With a format reminiscent of Two-Minute Mysteries and other books for younger readers, it is guaranteed to annoy some, as there’s no apparent reason why the discussion of, say, whether torture is justified to stop a bomb from exploding does not follow directly upon the delineation of the situation. Furthermore, farcical names (e.g., Emperor Q. Woolius Liberalis) will appeal more to the inexperienced philosopher. There is some promise as interesting conundrums are addressed—for example, whether we should sacrifice one life to save five. Agent: Elwin Street. (Nov.)

Publishers Weekly

"Stangroom has been one of the most entertaining and diligent of a new breed of interpreters of philosophy for a wider audience. . . . I would recommend [Would You Eat Your Cat?] to anyone who needs a primer in moral thought."

Times Higher Education - Simon Blackburn