Striving for a comprehensiveness that is rare in introductory ethics texts, Basic Moral Philosophy presents a clear and systematic approach to understanding major ethical and metaethical theories. Illustrating the historical roots of ethical theories and placing individual theories in the broader context of moral philosophy´s basic problems, the text presents reasoned assessments of various theories in order to help students actively engage the material and develop their own theoretical viewpoints. This versatile book can be used in a number of different fashions: as a core text in any introductory ethics course, as a short introductory section on ethical theory at the beginning of a problems course or other courses in applied ethics (e.g., bioethics), as the ethics component of an introduction to philosophy course, or finally, as a supplementary review text for more advanced undergraduates and graduate students.

Features:

*Illuminating examples and diagrams interspersed throughout the text as well as an appendix devoted to explaining the classification of ethical theories assist students in gaining strong comprehension of the book´s content.
*The organization is both topical and historical; presenting theories in the order in which they held sway makes the book useful for various teaching applications.
*The text is written in a straightforward, accessible prose style that´s as free of jargon as the subject matter allows.
*Chapters are short and easily manageable in a semester format.