Living High and Letting Die: Our Illusion of Innocence
Oxford University Press (1996)
| Abstract | By contributing a few hundred dollars to a charity like UNICEF, a prosperous person can ensure that fewer poor children die, and that more will live reasonably long, worthwhile lives. Even when knowing this, however, most people send nothing, and almost all of the rest send little. What is the moral status of this behavior? To such common cases of letting die, our untutored response is that, while it is not very good, neither is the conduct wrong. What is the source of this lenient assessment? In this contentious new book, one of our leading philosophers argues that our intuitions about ethical cases are generated not by basic moral values, but by certain distracting psychological dispositions that all too often prevent us from reacting in accord with our commitments. Through a detailed look at how these tendencies operate, Unger shows that, on the good morality that we already accept, the fatally unhelpful behavior is monstrously wrong. By uncovering the eminently sensible ethics that we've already embraced fully, and by confronting us with empirical facts and with easily followed instructions for lessening serious suffering appropriately and effectively, Unger's book points the way to a compassionate new moral philosophy. | |||||||||
| Keywords | Life and death, Power over Ethics Generosity | |||||||||
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| Buy the book | $110.00 direct from Amazon Amazon page | |||||||||
| Call number | BJ1469.U54 1996 | |||||||||
| ISBN(s) | 0195075897 9780195075892 | |||||||||
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Similar books and articlesPeter Unger (1999). Précis of Living High and Letting Die. Philosophy and Phenomenological Research 59 (1):173-175.
Craig Paterson (2010). Review of Assisted Suicide and Euthanasia: A Natural Law Ethics Approach. [REVIEW] Ethics and Medicine 26 (1):23-4.
Irwin Goldstein (2001). Book Review, Peter Unger, Living High and Letting Die. [REVIEW] Philosophia 28 (1-4).
David Lewis (1996). Illusory Innocence: Review of Peter Unger, Living High and Letting Die. [REVIEW] Eureka Street 6 (10):35-36.
Stephen R. L. Clark (1999). Living High and Letting Die: Our Illusion of Innocence by Peter Unger. Oxford University Press: New York & Oxford, 1996, 199pp; ISBN 0195075897 £35.00; 0195108590 £13.50. [REVIEW] Philosophy 74 (1):122-139.
Robert Ware (1999). Living High and Letting Die: Our Illusion of Innocence Peter Unger New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1996, 187 Pp. With Bibliography and Indices. [REVIEW] Dialogue 38 (02):428-.
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