Understanding Purpose: Kant and the Philosophy of Biology Book

If you're looking for some pedantic treatment of the complex field of ethics, as at least one reviewer seemed to be, this is not your book.

Len Marrella shares a window on the minds and hearts of some interesting and highly ethical people. He poses the questions that many of us would find important had we each had the opportunity to meet some of these fascinating people.

What I most appreciated about this book is that Marrella is not preaching at us. He obviously injects his personal values as part of his commentary, but he also presents a fairly wide range of thinking by introducing us to people from various social, political and to a degree, ethical backgrounds. His own acknowledgement of his reverence for the Code of Honor he learned and later exemplified as a leader at West Point, his involvement with the Institute for Global Ethics and his vast experience in applied ethics through his experiences in business give us insight into his personal viewpoint, but I did not feel as if he was imposing this viewpoint on the reader. He offered it as a gift to be accepted or not.

Having said that, Marrella is obviously not an ethical relativist. While allowing plenty of room for constructive dissent, there is a strong through-line here: Integrity. Without debating the academic subtleties of formal ethical study, he gives us some room to listen to people he identifies as people of high ethical character and allows us to find where and if their lives offer some useful place in our own.

The research and caring involved in this project is impressive to say the least; again without going off on a pedogogic rant. He's giving us a slice of life view of some people you'll recognize, and others you won't. It's too easy these days to go to the celebrities and elevate them to guru status. Marrella introduces us to some people who dedicated their lives to working in obscurity and others who kept their humility despite incredible fame and good fortune.

Marrella provides a sound introduction to some basic ethical principles, but again this is not neccessarily for the scholar but to make sure anyone struggling to understand and apply ethics in real life will have a solid foundation that makes his interviews even more accessible.

When you get right down to it, ethics is not about academia. It's about how everyday people decide what is right and what is wrong, how they make decisions and how they live with the consequences.

Len Marrella introduces us to some remarkable companions in our search for living an ethical life!