Reviews for Ethics as Introduction to Philosophy, Xavier University, PHIL 100-18A and PHIL 100-19B

The average rating for Ethics as Introduction to Philosophy, Xavier University, PHIL 100-18A and PHIL 100-19B based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-08-12 00:00:00 Nelson Michael This book is an alright literature survey concerning the philosophical topic of political obligation. Although some sentences were nice and well-written, even poetic, I often found myself unmotivated to continue reading this; it was too dull. Though I do think the book is good (not amazing) at what it does: providing a reasonably short overview of what analytic philosophy has to say about political obligation (already quite a dull task). Moreover, I found myself disagreeing with Knowles' moral realist stance quite a lot. He writes that an 'imperfect' duty (opposed to a 'perfect duty) entails "a failure to comply being pathetically and shamefully immoral, hopefully a source of persisting feelings of guilt, but not liable to penal sanctions, legal or otherwise". Such moralising talk definitely reminds me of the kind of cruel ressentiment-filled stance towards wrong-doers rejected not only by Nietzsche, but also by Plato and Spinoza. It is a stance from which I like to distance myself as much as possible. Nevertheless, this book will be useful for any student who needs to learn about what analytic philosophy has to say about political obligation. I have learned from it; there is no doubting that.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-07-20 00:00:00 Gloria Gehrt A collection of essays, humorously written (although as a civil engineer myself, I'm biased) and quick to read. A few essays are kind of in-jokes to engineers, but by and large the essays should be enjoyable to anyone out there.