Philosophy

How Should We Live?

EDITED BY STEPHEN CHADWICK

Life in Aotearoa New Zealand in the early twenty-first century presents us with many controversial ethical issues: abortion, poverty, pornography, recreational drug use and social inequality. This book examines practical issues that affect people in their everyday lives and considers the ethical framework behind how we should live.

STEPHEN CHADWICK teaches philosophy in Massey University’s School of Humanities. He went on to complete an MA in social work at the University of Hull, and subsequently worked for many years with drug users, professional sex workers and people with physical disabilities. Stephen has been teaching applied ethics at Massey University since 2006. In addition, he has taught the ethics of war to officers of the New Zealand Defence Force and facilitated sessions for nurses on bereavement support.

PUBLISHED: December 2017 ISBN: 9780994147325 Limpbound, 215 x 148mm. 304 pages. $45

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HOW SHOULD WE LIVE? TEXT EXTRACT

All individuals face everyday ethical dilemmas, wherever they happen to live in the world, but given the particular circumstances that they find themselves in, some may seem more relevant than others. For example, the ethics of over-population might seem of little relevance to someone living in New Zealand, with a population of only 4.5 million, but of great relevance to someone living in the Philippines, a country of comparable size but with a population of over 108 million. However, in a highly interconnected world, with a global economy and with instant access to world news and social media, it is less easy to simply dismiss such issues as being irrelevant. Like never before in human history, all ethical issues are relevant to everyone.

That being said, some ethical issues are more pressing to some people than to others, and this book concentrates on dilemmas that seem particularly immediate to the lives of New Zealanders. Some of the questions raised may be relevant to individuals on a day-to-day basis, including: should I eat meat, download copyrighted music, hire a prostitute, use pornography or have an abortion?

Tū Arohae

WILLIAM FISH AND STEPHEN DUFFIN

From which detergent to buy to who we should vote for, we are constantly bombarded by reasons to believe or do something. Being able to describe, evaluate and generate reasoning and arguments effectively, appropriately and sympathetically is a key skill. This eloquent and profound book offers a handy critical-thinking toolbox for all areas of academic study, the workplace and daily life.

WILLIAM FISH is a professor in the School of Humanities at Massey. His research interests are Philosophy of Mind (Philosophy of Perception and Philosophy of Consciousness), Epistemology and Philosophy of Psychology.

STEPHEN DUFFIN is a lecturer at Massey University, where he has taught critical thinking for the past 20 years.

PUBLISHED: November 2017 ISBN: 9780994136336 Limpbound, 210 x 148mm. 224 pages. $45

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T Ū AROHAE TEXT EXTRACT

Throughout your life, people will try to convince you of a mindboggling array of things, from the mundane — which brand of fabric softener to buy, what movies to see, where to go on holiday — to the critical — which school to send your kids to, which governments should be overthrown, what kinds of people should be allowed into your country.

In many of these cases, people will try to persuade you to do something or believe something by providing you with reasons to do/ believe it. So should you be persuaded? Should you find the reasons they give compelling?

These are important questions, and questions that we ask ourselves — whether we realise it or not — every day of our lives. Given this, everyone can benefit from equipping themselves with a set of precision tools that can be used when called upon to evaluate reasoning. That is why we wrote this book: to give you a critical-thinking tool box that will be useful in day-to-day life, in academic study (no matter what the discipline), and in the workplace (no matter what the job).