The Many and the One: Religious and Secular Perspectives on Ethical Pluralism in the Modern World

Published by Princeton University Press 2003

The Many and the One

Religious and Secular Perspectives on Ethical Pluralism in the Modern World

Edited by: Richard Madsen and Tracy B. Strong

In the series Ethikon Series in Comparative Ethics

https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400825592

Overview
Contents

About this book

The war on terrorism, say America's leaders, is a war of Good versus Evil. But in the minds of the perpetrators, the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington were presumably justified as ethically good acts against American evil. Is such polarization leading to a violent "clash of civilizations" or can differences between ethical systems be reconciled through rational dialogue? This book provides an extraordinary resource for thinking clearly about the diverse ways in which humans see good and evil. In nine essays and responses, leading thinkers ask how ethical pluralism can be understood by classical liberalism, liberal-egalitarianism, critical theory, feminism, natural law, Confucianism, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity.

Each essay addresses five questions: Is the ideal society ethically uniform or diverse? Should the state protect, ban, or otherwise intervene in ethically based differences? How should disagreements on the rights and duties of citizens be dealt with? Should the state regulate life-and-death decisions such as euthanasia? To what extent should conflicting views on sexual relationships be accommodated? This book shows that contentious questions can be discussed with both incisiveness and civility. The editors provide the introduction and Donald Moon, the conclusion. The contributors are Brian Barry, Joseph Boyle, Simone Chambers, Joseph Chan, Christine Di Stefano, Dale F. Eickelman, Menachem Fisch, William Galston, John Haldane, Chandran Kukathas, David Little, Muhammad Khalid Masud, Carole Pateman, William F. Scheuerman, Adam B. Seligman, James W. Skillen, James Tully, and Lee H. Yearley.

Author / Editor information

Richard Madsen is Professor of Sociology at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author or coauthor of ten books, including Morality and Power in a Chinese Village. Tracy B. Strong is Professor of Political Science at the University of California, San Diego, and former Editor of Political Theory. He has published seven books, among them Friedrich Nietzsche and the Politics of Transformation.

Reviews

The overall product is a collection of viewpoints that, thanks to each writer's care in defining their terms and steering clear of jargon, is accessible to the beginning scholar. . . . [T]he choice of controversies that are both enduring and ethically troubling means that the interest of all readers will be held throughout the book.---Bruce F. Nesmith, Perspectives on Political Science

"I'm glad I read this book (and took some useful notes). I learned a great deal and so, I suspect, will other readers in such areas as ethics and political philosophy."—John Coleman, Loyola Marymount University, author of Religion and Nationalism

Contributors include well-known, top-notch scholars like William A.
Galston, Brian Barry, and James Tully. An extraordinarily well organized collection, its chapters cover nine nonsecular and secular ethical perspectives.

"This thoughtful, lively book will animate and advance a debate of great value to us as citizens as well as scholars. Can we grasp the moral order of the world we inhabit—and its conflicts and disorder, too—in terms of coherent ethical traditions, lawful visions, and modes of reasoning? In doing so, can we critically embrace the different laws and ways of knowing institutionalized in the separate spheres of modern social life, and the contrary traditions, sacred and secular, of a multicultural world both expanded and shrunk by its global interdependence? These engaging essays shed new light on how to shape and wrestle with such questions across the usual boundaries of moral and social philosophy, religious ethics, and the social sciences."—Steven Tipton, Emory University, author of Getting Saved from the Sixties

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	vii
Introduction: Three Forms of Ethical Pluralism Richard Madsen and Tracy B. Strong Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
PART I
Liberal Egalitarian Attitudes toward Ethical Pluralism William A. Galston Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	25
Liberal Egalitarian Platitudes? Brian Barry Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	42
PART II
Ethical Pluralism from a Classical Liberal Perspective Chandran Kukathas Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	55
Ethical Pluralism and Classical Liberalism James Tully Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	78
PART III
Natural Law and Ethical Pluralism John H. Haldane Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	89
Natural Law Reflections on the Social Management of Ethical Pluralism Joseph Boyle Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	115
PART IV
Confucian Attitudes toward Ethical Pluralism Joseph Chan Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	129
Two Strands of Confucianism Lee H. Yearley Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	154
PART V
Islam and Ethical Pluralism Dale F. Eickelman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	161
The Scope of Pluralism in Islamic Moral Traditions Muhammad Khalid Masud Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	180
PART VI
Ethical Diversity, Tolerance, and the Problem of Sovereignty: A Jewish Perspective Menachem Fisch Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	195
Jewish Responses to Modernity Adam B. Seligman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	219
PART VII
Conscientious Individualism A Christian Perspective on Ethical Pluralism David Little Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	229
Pluralism as a Matter of Principle James W. Skillen Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	257
PART VIII
Feminist Attitudes toward Ethical Pluralism Christine Di Stefano Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	271
Feminism and the Varieties of Ethical Pluralism Carole Pateman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	301
PART IX
Critical Theory and the Challenge of Ethical Pluralism William E. Scheuerman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	311
Substantive and Procedural Dimensions of Critical Theory Simone Chambers Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	336
PART X
Pluralisms Compared J. Donald Moon Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	343
Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	361
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	365

(Deutsch)