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| Preface | |
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| The Pilot Episode: Ethics and Popular Culture | |
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| What is Ethics? | |
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| How Do We Make Progress in Ethics? | |
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| What Does Pop Culture Have to Do with Ethics? | |
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| Is Anything "Good" on Television? The Nature of Moral Value | |
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| Truth and Nihilism In Ethics | |
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| Introduction | |
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| The case for nihilism | |
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| "The Argument from Queerness," from Ethics: Inventing Right and Wrong | |
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| The case for realism | |
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| from Mere Christianity | |
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| Case study: The Office (UK), "Work Experience," series 1 | |
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| Study questions | |
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| Alternative case studies | |
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| Normativity - Social, Legal, and Moral | |
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| Introduction | |
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| You promised to play by the rules! | |
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| "Legal Obligation and the Duty of Fair Play" | |
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| What does my neighbor have to do with my goodness? | |
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| "Of the Limits to the Authority of Society over the Individual" from On Liberty | |
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| Case study: The Sopranos, "College," season 1 | |
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| Study questions | |
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| Alternative case studies | |
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| God and Ethics | |
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| Introduction | |
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| What has Athens to do with Jerusalem? | |
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| Plato, Euthyphro | |
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| Does God make the law or does he just let us in on it? | |
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| from The Problem of Pain | |
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| Case study: Law & Order, "God Bless the Child," season 2 | |
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| Study questions | |
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| Alternative case studies | |
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| What's Right and Wrong? Ethical Theory | |
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| Moral Relativism | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Are we merely products of our culture? | |
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| "A Defense of Ethical Relativism" | |
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| Relativism is unjustified | |
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| "The Challenge of Cultural Relativism" | |
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| Deadwood, "Childish Things," season 2 | |
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| South Park, "Death Camp of Tolerance," season 6 | |
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| Study questions | |
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| Alternative case studies | |
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| Deontology | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Kant's theory of moral duty | |
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| from Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals | |
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| Arrested Development, "Not without My Daughter," season 1 | |
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| Contemporary Deontology | |
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| Friends, "The One Where Phoebe Hates PBS," season 5 | |
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| Study questions | |
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| Alternative case studies | |
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| Consequentialism | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Mill's theory of utility | |
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| from Utilitarianism | |
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| Battlestar Galactica, "You Can't Go Home Again," season 1 | |
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| The Twilight Zone (Newer), "Cradle of Darkness," season 1 | |
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| Study questions | |
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| Alternative case studies | |
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| Virtue Ethics | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Aristotle's theory of virtue | |
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| Aristotle, from Nicomachean Ethics | |
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| Foyle's War, "Enemy Fire," set 3 | |
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| Star Trek: The Next Generation, "Hide and Q," season 1 | |
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| Study questions | |
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| Alternative case studies | |
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| But What's Right When … ? Practical Ethics | |
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| Environmental Ethics | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Two Approaches to Environmental Ethics | |
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| Silly environmentalists, nature is for people | |
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| "People or Penguins" | |
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| Northern Exposure, "Zarya," season 6 | |
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| Family Guy, "It Takes a Village Idiot, and I Married One," season 5 | |
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| Study questions | |
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| Alternative case studies | |
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| Animal Welfare | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Two Dead Ends | |
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| Three Approaches to Animal Welfare | |
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| Animals are morally valuable, but not as valuable as adult humans | |
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| "Difficulties with the Strong Rights Position" | |
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| Bones, "Finger in the Nest," season 4 | |
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| House, M.D., "Babies and Bathwater," season 1 | |
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| Study questions | |
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| Alternative case studies | |
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| Abortion | |
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| Introduction | |
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| One Common Assumption | |
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| Six Fallacies to Avoid | |
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| Judith Jarvis Thomson and the Violinist Argument | |
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| Mary Anne Warren and the Space Explorer | |
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| Abortion is wrong for the same reason that killing adults is wrong | |
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| "Why Abortion is Immoral" | |
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| Law & Order, "Dignity," season 20 | |
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| Maude, "Maude's Dilemma - Parts 1 and 2," season 1 | |
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| Study questions | |
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| Alternative case studies | |
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| Homosexuality | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Arguments Against the Permissibility of Homosexuality | |
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| Arguments for the Permissibility of Homosexuality | |
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| Additional Concerns | |
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| New natural law theory and the morality of homosexuality | |
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| "Homosexuality and the Conservative Mind"; Robert George and Bradley Gerard, "Marriage and the Liberal Imagination" | |
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| Law & Order, "Manhood," season 3 | |
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| Family Guy, "You May Now Kiss the … Uh … Guy Who Receives," season 4 | |
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| Study questions | |
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| Alternative case studies | |
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| Punishment and Capital Punishment | |
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| Introduction | |
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| Theories of Punishment | |
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| Arguments For and Against Capital Punishment | |
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| Capital punishment is unjustified | |
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| "The Justice of the Death Penalty in an Unjust World | |
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| Star Trek: The Next Generation, "The Hunted," season 3 | |
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| Oz, "Capital P," season 1 | |
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| Study questions | |
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| Alternative case studies | |
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| Assisted Suicide | |
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| Introduction | |
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| A Few Terms | |
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| Three Moral Arguments Against the Permissibility of Assisted Suicide | |
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| Moral and Practical Arguments for the Permissibility of Assisted Suicide | |
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| The good of society depends on assisted suicide | |
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| "Aging and the Ends of Medicine" | |
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| Picket Fences, "Abominable Snowman," season 2 | |
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| Scrubs, "My Jiggly Ball," season 5 | |
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| Study questions | |
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| Alternative case studies | |
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| The Epilogue: DDES TV Erode Our Values? | |
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| The Moral Influence of Television | |
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| The Debate Over Censorship | |
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| A Kantian Reason not to Censor | |
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| Case study 1: Family Guy, "PTV," season 4 | |
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| Utilitarian Reasons not to Censor | |
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| Moral Reasons to Censor | |
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| Exploitation, Objectification, and TV | |
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| Case study 2: Toddlers & Tiaras (any episode) | |
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| Reality TV and Psychological Harm | |
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| That's All Folks! | |
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| Study questions | |
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| References | |
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| Index | |