The Fundamentals of Ethics

Citation

Shafer-Landau, R. (2023). The Fundamentals of Ethics (6th ed.). Oxford University Press.

Chapter Summary

The sixth edition has an Introduction and twenty-two chapters, followed by a glossary, references, suggestions for further reading and an index, in about 400 pages (the index starts on page 403). The contents are divided into three parts: the good life, normative ethics ("doing the right thing") and metaethics ("the status of morality"). From the chapter titles and the page numbers in the contents, the first part holds Chapters 1–4, the second Chapters 5–18 and the third Chapters 19–22. The preface text shown in the Google Books record says the three parts can be read in any order and that most chapters have footnotes cross-referencing other discussions in the book. The descriptions below use the chapter titles and the publisher's description.

Introduction

A short opening chapter. The publisher's description says the author carefully reconstructs and analyzes dozens of arguments in depth, at a level meant for students with no philosophical background, and the Introduction sets up that approach.

Part One: The Good Life (Chapters 1–4)

• Chapter 1: Hedonism: Its Powerful Appeal. Presents the view that pleasure is what makes a life go well.
• Chapter 2: Is Happiness All That Matters? Tests whether welfare consists only of happiness.
• Chapter 3: Getting What You Want. Introduces the desire-satisfaction theory of well-being, which the publisher singles out as a topic the book covers.
• Chapter 4: Problems for the Desire Theory. Turns to the objections to that theory.

Part Two: Normative Ethics, Doing the Right Thing (Chapters 5–18)

• Chapter 5: Morality and Religion; Chapter 6: Natural Law. How morality relates to religion, and the natural law tradition. The term "divine command theory" recurs in the book.
• Chapters 7–8: Psychological Egoism; Ethical Egoism. First the claim about what people are motivated to do, then the claim about what they ought to do.
• Chapters 9–10: Consequentialism: Its Nature and Attractions; Consequentialism: Its Difficulties. The theory that rightness depends on outcomes, then the objections. The book's vocabulary includes act utilitarianism and optimific.
• Chapters 11–12: The Kantian Perspective: Fairness and Justice; The Kantian Perspective: Autonomy, Free Will, and Respect. Kantian ethics in two chapters, including universalizability.
• Chapters 13–14: The Social Contract Tradition: The Theory and Its Attractions; The Social Contract Tradition: Problems and Prospects. Contractarian theories, again in a pair of chapters that present the view and then its difficulties.
• Chapter 15: Moral Absolutism; Chapter 16: Prima Facie Duties and Ethical Particularism. Whether some moral rules admit no exceptions, and Ross's theory of prima facie duties, which the publisher names, together with ethical particularism.
• Chapter 17: Virtue Ethics; Chapter 18: Feminist Ethics. Two further approaches to normative ethics, each given a single chapter.

Part Three: Metaethics, the Status of Morality (Chapters 19–22)

• Chapter 19: Ethical Relativism. Whether morality varies with culture or individual; cultural relativism and subjectivism recur as terms.
• Chapter 20: Moral Nihilism. The publisher lists moral error theory among the topics covered, and the term "error theory" recurs in the book.
• Chapter 21: Ethical Objectivism: The Theory and Its Attractions. The case for moral facts that hold independently of opinion.
• Chapter 22: Is Moral Knowledge Possible? Five Skeptical Arguments. Whether, even if objective morality exists, it can be known.

Key Concepts

Part One

• Hedonism: the view that well-being consists in pleasure.
• Desire-satisfaction theory: the view that a life goes well to the extent that one's desires are fulfilled.

Part Two

• Consequentialism and act utilitarianism: the view that an action is right if its consequences are best.
• Universalizability: a test from Kantian ethics, asking whether the principle of one's action could be willed as a universal law.
• Prima facie duties: Ross's idea of several duties that can conflict, each of which holds unless outweighed.
• Ethical egoism: the view that each person ought to pursue only their own good.
• Doctrine of double effect and the doing/allowing distinction: two principles from the publisher's list of topics that shorter surveys often leave out.

Part Three

• Ethical relativism and subjectivism: views that tie moral truth to a culture or an individual.
• Error theory: the view that moral claims aim at truth but are all false.
• Moral objectivism: the view that some moral claims are true whatever anyone thinks.

Critical Analysis

Strengths

• Breadth in a single book. The publisher claims more comprehensive coverage of the good life, normative ethics and metaethics than other texts of its kind. The contents show the scale: four chapters on the good life, fourteen on normative ethics and four on metaethics. It also covers topics the publisher says are often omitted, such as the doctrine of double effect and the doing/allowing distinction.
• Argument-by-argument method. The publisher says the author reconstructs dozens of arguments in depth. Together with the preface, which says technical terms are defined when first used and collected in a glossary, this suits students who need to learn how to build and test arguments, not only learn positions.
• Flexible order. The preface says the parts can be read in any order, so instructors can begin with metaethics, normative theory or well-being.
• Pairing of theory and objection. Several theories are given two chapters, one for the view and its attractions and one for its difficulties (consequentialism, the Kantian perspective, the social contract tradition, the desire theory), which models a balanced evaluation.
• Study support. The preface describes suggestions for further reading for each chapter or pair of chapters, and the publisher offers student resources (self-quizzes, flashcards and an enhanced e-book).

Limitations

• Uneven space. Consequentialism, the Kantian perspective and the social contract tradition have two chapters each, while virtue ethics and feminist ethics have one chapter each, so the latter are treated more briefly.
• No applied ethics. The contents contain no chapters on applied questions, so readers who want these must look elsewhere. For further study the preface points to the companion volume The Ethical Life.
• Length and density. At twenty-two chapters and roughly 400 pages, with dozens of arguments, it is more than a single short course can cover in full; instructors have to choose chapters.

Where It Fits in the Course

Shafer-Landau is the main systematic textbook in the ethics course. James and Stuart Rachels's The Elements of Moral Philosophy is an easier first book whose chapters can be read independently, each presenting a theory, its strongest arguments and standard objections; Shafer-Landau goes further into well-being and metaethics and into more arguments for each theory.

Mill's Utilitarianism and Kant's Grounding for the Metaphysics of Morals are primary texts for the consequentialist and Kantian chapters (9–12) and can be read alongside them. Bernard Williams's Ethics and the Limits of Philosophy is an advanced critique of systematic moral theory and is best read after a textbook such as this one has laid out the theories it criticizes.

How to Use This Book

The book is aimed at undergraduates in ethics and moral theory courses. An introductory philosophy course is helpful but not required, because terms are defined as they appear.

A practical plan:

• Pick a starting point. Because the parts are independent, begin where the course begins: well-being (Part One), right action (Part Two) or the nature of morality (Part Three).
• Core: Chapters 9–14 on consequentialism, the Kantian perspective and the social contract tradition, and Chapters 19–21 on relativism, nihilism and objectivism, are the places where the book's debates are most developed.
• Selective reading: Chapters 5–8 and 15–18 can be assigned individually to fit a course.
• Practice the method: after each chapter, write out the main argument in numbered premises, then the strongest objection, which is what the book models.
• Use the glossary, the further-reading list and the student resources for review, and read primary sources from the course alongside.