Summary of Simon Blackburn's Ethics

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Sample Book Insights: #1 There are seven threats to the moral environment, and they are all related to the idea of standards of choice and conduct. When we think about these big words, we see only bids for power and clashes of power, or we see only hypocrisy. #2 The Old Testament God is partial to some people above others, and jealous of his own pre-eminence. He seems to have no problem with a slave-owning society, believes that birth control is a capital crime, and approves of child abuse. #3 The Bible can be read as giving us a carte blanche for harsh attitudes to children, the mentally handicapped, animals, the environment, the divorced, unbelievers, people with various sexual habits, and elderly women. It encourages harsh attitudes to ourselves. #4 The classic challenge to the idea that ethics can have a religious foundation is provided by Plato in the dialogue Euthyphro. In this dialogue, Socrates, who is on the point of being tried for impiety, encounters one Euthyphro, who sets himself up as knowing what piety or justice is.