Rowman & Littlefield Publishers
Pages: 260
•
Trim: 6¼ x 9⅛
978-1-4422-1653-2 • Hardback • August 2012 • $143.00 • (£110.00)
978-1-4422-1654-9 • Paperback • August 2012 • $59.00 • (£45.00)
978-1-4422-1655-6 • eBook • August 2012 • $56.00 • (£43.00)
Lloyd Steffen is professor of religious studies and university chaplain at Lehigh University, where he also is the director of the Center for Dialogue, Ethics, and Spirituality and director of the Lehigh Prison Project.
Preface
Introduction
Part I. Ethics – The Ethic Behind Just War
Chapter One: Just War as an Ethic
Chapter Two: Non-Violent Resistance as a Use of Force
Chapter Three: The Hybrid Ethic and Its Application
Chapter Four: Using the “Common Agreement” Ethic: A Critical Evaluation
Part II. Experience – The Ethic beyond Just War
Chapter Five: The Ethics of Physician Assisted Suicide
Chapter Six: The Ethics of Patient Nontreatment
Chapter Seven: The Ethics of Execution and Just Punishment
Chapter Eight: The Ethics of Abortion: The Question of Innocence
Chapter Nine:The Ethics of War: The Question of Innocence
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Lloyd Steffen's reinterpretation and creative application of the just war theory is provocative and insightful. Steffen provides a comprehensive account of the moral ideas behind the just war tradition, especially the idea that force ordinarily ought to be avoided. He applies these ideas in surprising ways to a variety of issues: from nonviolent activism, adultery, and lying to suicide, the death penalty, and abortion. This book should be read by everyone who is interested in finding ways to resolve the dilemmas of applied ethics.
— Andrew Fiala, professor of philosophy, California State University, Fresno, professor, California State University, Fresno
This book is a lively attempt to reconcile ethical theory with longstanding moral practice. With considerable skill, Steffen extends just war theory and develops a deeper ethic than those that focus narrowly on duty, virtue or consequences.
— John Lachs, Vanderbilt University
Lloyd Steffen's book presents a weighty and nuanced re-examination of persistent moral questions. Theoretical ethical frameworks are woven into practical considerations of how we experience moral dilemmas to create an engaging, readable volume. Steffen's book, like his frequent newspaper columns represent a clarion call to think through issues with the care required to become bold enough to act on your conclusions.
— Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State
Rarely has so much good sense been put between the covers of a book on how we can love life wisely in a complex world. Lloyd Steffen sets out to seek a holistic method for doing ethics in any context.
— Daniel C. Maguire, Marquette University; author of A Moral Creed for All Christians
Steffen (Lehigh Univ.) seeks to develop a general moral theory whose application to particular issues will do full justice to people's lived moral experience, as he claims utilitarianism, Kantianism, and virtue theory, each in its own way, do not. Rather than begin by directly discussing his own "common agreement" theory, a variant of natural law theory, he has it emerge from one of its particular applications, just war theory, and then applies it to other issues....Summing Up: Recommended. Lower- and upper-level undergraduates.
— Choice Reviews
Steffen helpfully explains how ordinary people use the natural law in their everyday deliberations.
— Public Discourse
- Acknowledges that how people make tough decisions in life is usually more complex than traditional moral theories, and proposes a hybrid ethic to bridge the gap between moral theory and real life experience
- Draws on just war thinking to show the ethic behind just war and how that ethic could be applicable to moral issues beyond just war
- Examines a range of practical moral issues, demonstrating how this ethic has been applied implicitly in cases such as the Oregon Death with Dignity Act and by the Supreme Court making death penalty-related rulings