Abstract

An account of classic problems of moral and political theory—with an emphasis on the views of famous philosophers in history. The book is organized around 10 chapters, each framed as a question: 1) Why Be Moral? 2) What is the Good Life? 3) Is Morality Objective? 4) Can Morality Be Defined? 5) Is It Reasonable to Rely on a Moral System? 6) Why Obey the Law? 7) Are Some Races Intellectually Superior? 8) Is Democracy a Blessing? 9) Is Marxism Still Tenable? and 10) Why Does God Permit Evil? Philosophers discussed include Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Boethius, Aquinas, Machiavelli, Thomas More, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Rousseau, Adam Smith, Kant, Edmund Burke, Tocqueville, Frederick Douglass, Marx, and Freud.