"The risk, when teaching ethics to undergraduates, is that the issues may easily sound too abstract and bookish to them. Timm Triplett's Morality's Critics and Defenders: A Philosophical Dialogue is the best antidote. By adopting a dialogical form and setting the stage in a classroom, with four very credible students and one teaching assistant as the protagonists, this concise but very valuable book will engage students and stimulate great class discussions. Big issues such as the relationship between religion and morality, the possibility of ethical relativism, animal rights and the moral implications of racism are engagingly covered and so are the most relevant moral perspectives. Students and teachers will undoubtedly find this book very useful, deep, and entertaining."
—Mario De Caro, Tufts University
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Instructor Resources: To download a PDF of an instructor's guide with suggestions on how to use Morality's Critics and Defenders in the classroom, written by author Timm Triplett, click HERE.
In this engaging and accessible dialogue, four students offer contrasting arguments on the nature and scope of morality. While specific social policy issues, such as animal rights and racism, come into play, the discussions focus on more general—and fundamental—questions, including:
A glossary of important terms and suggestions for further reading are included.
Reviews:
"Timm Triplett succeeds in drawing the reader into a conversation always already in progress—a conversation on the meaning of morality as it is rooted in human vulnerability and in our capacity to reason—and invites us to continue thinking about and discussing these essential matters long after the last page has been turned."
—Robert Kirkwood, Georgia Institute of Technology
"The risk, when teaching ethics to undergraduates, is that the issues may easily sound too abstract and bookish to them. Timm Triplett's Morality's Critics and Defenders: A Philosophical Dialogue is the best antidote. By adopting a dialogical form and setting the stage in a classroom, with four very credible students and one teaching assistant as the protagonists, this concise but very valuable book will engage students and stimulate great class discussions.
"Big issues such as the relationship between religion and morality, the possibility of ethical relativism, animal rights and the moral implications of racism are engagingly covered and so are the most relevant moral perspectives. Students and teachers will undoubtedly find this book very useful, deep, and entertaining."
—Mario De Caro, Tufts University
"Excellent book for foundational study of moral philosophy."
—Robert Samuel Thorpe, Oral Roberts University
About the Author:
Timm Triplett is Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of New Hampshire.