conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Provide a description for a book titled Introducing Ethics about Ethics, identity, rights with the genre: Politics & Social Sciences, Philosophy.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Ethics has become the burning issue of current moral philosophical thought, raising the spectre of responsibility at a time when responsibility seems entirely replaced by uncertainty and relativism. What is the place of individual choice and consequence in a post-Holocaust world of continuing genocidal ethnic cleansing? Is 'identity' now a last-ditch cultural defence of ethic nationalisms and competing fundamentalisms? In a climate of instant information, free markets and possible ecological disaster, how do we define 'rights', self-interest and civic duties? What are the acceptable limits of scientific investigation and genetic engineering, the rights and wrongs of animal rights, euthanasia and civil disobedience? This book confronts these dilemmas, tracing the arguments of the great moral thinkers, including Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes and Kant, and brings us up to date with postmodern critics.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Provide the first paragraph for this book.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Introducing Ethics
  Everyone is interested in ethics. We all have our own ideas about what is right and what is wrong and how we can tell the difference. Philosophers and bishops discuss moral "mazes" on the radio. People no longer behave as they should.
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Provide five more paragraphs.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: It seems strange to say that "hitler was evil" merely refers to one person's feelings: "I personally dislike hitler".
  But it also seems odd to claim that there is moral "knowledge". If someone says "There are people living on Jupiter", we know what sort of evidence is needed to prove this statement true or false.
  How would we find evidence to prove that "murder is wrong", though? It's difficult to envisage how we would ever find out what we ought to do from an empirical investigation of the world. This means we can't prove that child murderers should be punished, or establish scientifically that they should be kept locked up for ever just because doing so makes lots of people happy.
  One modern English philosopher, **A.J. Ayer** (1910–89), was as sceptical as Hume about the possibility of ethical "knowledge". Ayer's positivist analysis of moral language is even more aggressive than Hume's. In his **Language, Truth and Logic** (1936), Ayer claimed that moral language is meaningless. A statement like "Murder is wrong" isn't even someone reporting their feelings to us, but just **expressing** them. Ayer's **Emotivism** is sometimes called the "hurrah-boo" theory, because for him someone saying "Murder is wrong" is merely saying "Murder boo!" or making a kind of primitive emotional noise.
  This means that any kind of argument between people about a moral issue is utterly futile, unsolveable and irrational. Euthanasia, Boo! How on earth could we decide who was right in an argument like this? Euthanasia, hurrah!
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Swap the first and the last sentence.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Euthanasia, Boo! How on earth could we decide who was right in an argument like this? Euthanasia, hurrah!.
  But it also seems odd to claim that there is moral "knowledge". If someone says "There are people living on Jupiter", we know what sort of evidence is needed to prove this statement true or false.
  How would we find evidence to prove that "murder is wrong", though? It's difficult to envisage how we would ever find out what we ought to do from an empirical investigation of the world. This means we can't prove that child murderers should be punished, or establish scientifically that they should be kept locked up for ever just because doing so makes lots of people happy.
  One modern English philosopher, **A.J. Ayer** (1910–89), was as sceptical as Hume about the possibility of ethical "knowledge". Ayer's positivist analysis of moral language is even more aggressive than Hume's. In his **Language, Truth and Logic** (1936), Ayer claimed that moral language is meaningless. A statement like "Murder is wrong" isn't even someone reporting their feelings to us, but just **expressing** them. Ayer's **Emotivism** is sometimes called the "hurrah-boo" theory, because for him someone saying "Murder is wrong" is merely saying "Murder boo!" or making a kind of primitive emotional noise.
  This means that any kind of argument between people about a moral issue is utterly futile, unsolveable and irrational.It seems strange to say that "hitler was evil" merely refers to one person's feelings: "I personally dislike hitler".
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Provide the last three paragraphs.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: A good dialectical introduction to Utilitarian Philosophy is **Utilitarianism: For and Against** , J.J. Smart and B. Williams (Cambridge 1973). The most thorough and fascinating introduction to political philosophy can be found in the two volumes of **Man and Society** , J. Plamenatz (Longman 1992); a shorter but interesting introduction is in the essays contained in **Political Ideas** , ed. D. Thomson (Penguin 1990).
  A clear account of more recent moral and political theory is in: **Modern Political Philosophy** , A. Brown (Penguin 1986); **Political Thinkers** , ed. D. Muschamp (Macmillan 1986); **Public and Private Morality** , ed. S. Hampshire (Cambridge 1978).
  The most recent and very good collection of essays on all manner of historical, theoretical and practical ethical subjects is: **A Companion to Ethics** , ed. P. Singer (Blackwell 1993).
conversations.from: human
conversations.value: Swap the first and the last sentence.
conversations.from: assistant
conversations.value: Singer (Blackwell 1993).J. Smart and B. Williams (Cambridge 1973). The most thorough and fascinating introduction to political philosophy can be found in the two volumes of **Man and Society** , J. Plamenatz (Longman 1992); a shorter but interesting introduction is in the essays contained in **Political Ideas** , ed. D. Thomson (Penguin 1990).
  A clear account of more recent moral and political theory is in: **Modern Political Philosophy** , A. Brown (Penguin 1986); **Political Thinkers** , ed. D. Muschamp (Macmillan 1986); **Public and Private Morality** , ed. S. Hampshire (Cambridge 1978).
  The most recent and very good collection of essays on all manner of historical, theoretical and practical ethical subjects is: **A Companion to Ethics** , ed. P.A good dialectical introduction to Utilitarian Philosophy is **Utilitarianism: For and Against** , J.