Ethics for Adversaries: The Morality of Roles in Public and Professional Life

Applbaum, Arthur Isak

ISBN 10: 0691007128 / ISBN 13: 9780691007120

Editore: Princeton University Press, 1999

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Previous owner's name on first page. Otherwise close to new condition with no damage or markings to pages and only light wear to dust jacket. 1999 hardback, 1st impression. The photo is of the actual book you will receive. Fast dispatch, normally within 24 hours, by UK seller.

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Dati bibliografici

• Titolo: Ethics for Adversaries: The Morality of Roles in Public and Professional Life
• Editore: Princeton University Press
• Data di pubblicazione: 1999
• Lingua: Inglese
• ISBN 10: 0691007128
• ISBN 13: 9780691007120
• Rilegatura: Hardcover
• Condizione: Very Good

Descrizione articolo

Riassunto

The adversary professions--law, business, and government, among others--typically claim a moral permission to violate persons in ways that, if not for the professional role, would be morally wrong. Lawyers advance bad ends and deceive, business managers exploit and despoil, public officials enforce unjust laws, and doctors keep confidences that, if disclosed, would prevent harm.Ethics for Adversaries is a philosophical inquiry into arguments that are offered to defend seemingly wrongful actions performed by those who occupy what Montaigne called "necessary offices."

Applbaum begins by examining the career of Charles-Henri Sanson, who is appointed executioner of Paris by Louis XVI and serves the punitive needs of theancien régime for decades. Come the French Revolution, the King's Executioner becomes the king's executioner, and he ministers with professional detachment to each defeated political faction throughout the Terror and its aftermath. By exploring one extraordinary role and the arguments that can be offered in its defense, Applbaum raises unsettling doubts about arguments in defense of less sanguinary professions and their practices.

To justify harmful acts, adversaries appeal to arguments about the rules of the game, fair play, consent, the social construction of actions and actors, good outcomes in equilibrium, and the legitimate authority of institutions. Applbaum concludes that these arguments are weaker than supposed and do not morally justify much of the violation that professionals and public officials inflict. Institutions and the roles they create ordinarily cannot mint moral permissions to do what otherwise would be morally prohibited.

Dalla quarta di copertina

"This is an important and original contribution to moral philosophy and, in particular, to professional ethics. The argument is rigorous and well developed and the book is written with energy, flair, wit, and grace."--Alan Wertheimer, University of Vermont

"This is a brilliant approach to the vexing questions about ethical requirements of certain leading professions. No serious treatment of these issues will be able to proceed without considering Applbaum's thorough and pointed arguments. This book is, on the one hand, literate, witty and fun to read, and on the other, rigorous, careful, and technical when the argument requires it."--David Estlund, Brown University

"Ethics for Adversaries is a pathbreaking book. With a rare combination of rigorous theory and relevant examples, Arthur Applbaum presents a fair-minded and hard-hitting critique of professional ethics. He dissects the best arguments in favor of relaxing moral standards for lawyers, politicians, and adversaries in competitive practices of all kinds, and perceptively exposes their fundamental flaws."--Amy Gutmann, Princeton University