Practical Ethics A Collection of Addresses and Essays

This is the first book in the Practical and Professional Ethics Series,sponsored by the Association for Practical and Professional Ethics. It is areissue of a long-unavailable work by the English philosopher and educator HenrySidgwick (1838-1900). The book, first published in 1898, collects nine essays,most of which represent addresses to members of two ethical societies thatSidgwick helped found in Cambridge and London in the 1880s. Sidgwick indicatesthat these societies aimed to allow academics, professionals, and others topursue joint efforts at reaching "some results of value for practical guidanceand life." Sidgwick hoped that the members of these societies might discuss, forexample, when public officials might be justified in lying or breaking promises,whether scientists could legitimately inflict suffering on animals for researchpurposes, or the problem of possible exceptions to common moral ideals thatprofessionals advocate for their own group, along with a score of other problemsin practical ethics. Throughout these essays, Sidgwick addresses such problemswith the acuity, the genuine concern, and the patient rationale that he broughtto all his writings.