Sara Shute
Sara Shute received a PhD from Washington University in 1977, and for most of her
career was a philosophy professor at a small liberal arts college in the midwest. She
has also taught at Michigan State, University of Southern Maine, Colby College, and
the University of Maine at Orono.
In addition to teaching moral philosophy, ethics, epistemology, and courses in the
history of philosophy, she has taught introductory logic over 100 times.
This handbook clearly lays out the basic rules of logic, including deduction and induction, and shows how to use them for reasoning about morality, or values, including understanding ideals such as the rule of law and democracy. Many examples in this timely book show how our current political climate seems increasingly contemptuous of logic. Even logical consistency—shown to be an astoundingly important concept—seems optional, with "making sense" one of the casualties. When reason is held in such low esteem, then deceit, humiliation, and violence have an open playing field. This handbook tries to show how and why some basic logic can be used to fight back on important moral and political issues.
Don't we also need an ethical theory? The book begins with a discussion and critique of two of the most important ethical theories in philosophy—Immanuel Kant's categorical imperative and J.S. Mill's utilitarianism—to show how, following Richard Rorty, a "pragmatic" approach obviates the need for ethical theories, or "foundations" for moral judgments. If the only "ground" we have for morality is, according to Rorty, the "tolerance and decency of our fellow human beings," then logic can function as a set of useful tools for evaluating our shared reasoning about what constitutes tolerance and decency, and the kind of political system we want to live in.
Designed for advanced high school or undergraduate introductory logic classes, and critical thinking classes. There are both summaries and questions for discussion at the end of each chapter.
Email: logicandmorality@yahoo.com
$15.00
Available at: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D386FDX5
ISBN: 9798321800102
Imprint: Independently published