xiv. Preface
on none of these issues can Ibe confident that there is no more to
say, On the contrary, there is lots more to think and to say about all
of them and I hope that that is what readers will be inspired to do.
In dealing with the moral issues that follow, I am conscious of
how limited my own experience is: for example, as yet I have not
fought in a war, nor seriously contemplated suicide, nor been
pregnant, nor been asked by someone I love to bring his or her life
toan end, To some extent, therefore, there are many questions here
that I view as an outsider. Yet I do not pretend that this
disinterested position necessarily provides me with an objective
viewpoint from which I can judge what is right and wrong. On the
contrary, perhaps my insights would be more profound had my
experience of life been broader. There are certainly dangers
inherent in taking a too superficial approach to problems which one
has not directly faced. I can say only that I have tried not to dismiss
as irrelevant those considerations which many people see as
important, simply because there appear to be arguments against
them. Indeed, I have generally tried to discover what che argu-
ments might be in favour of views that I believe are commonly
held.
1
Applying Philosophy to
Moral Issues
Why bother with moral philosophy?
Morality is concerned with right and wrong, good and bad, virtue
and vice; with judging what we do and the consequences of what
we do, Moral philosophy, or ethics, is that branch of philosophy
which has morality as its subject matter. It analyses the moral
terms we use and the status of our moral judgements; it considers
the justifications that might be given for our moral positions
The question ‘Why concern ourselves with moral problems?” has
an obvious answer: we cannot avoid such problems since life is
continually placing them in our path. We encounter them in
growing up, in our working life, in raising children, in caring for
aged parents, in our relationships with colleagues, loved ones and
adversaries, in the opportunities and temptations we are presented
with, Newspapers, radio and television are full of accounts of
people who are, correctly or otherwise, presented as wrong-
doers ~ murderers, child abusers, terrorists, armed robbers, sur-
rogate mothers, football hooligans — or as deserving our sympathy
and help ~ hospital patients, victims of violent crimes, of famine, of
war or of natural disasters, the infirm or disabled, orphaned
children. The media also contain debate and argument concerning
issues on which different opinions are possible ~ how to combat
terrorism, what level of spending on health care is needed, how
much information should be made available to the public, the
desirability of immunization programmes, whether capital punish-
‘ment should be reintroduced, and so on.