Bending the Rules

Do-unto-others-as-you-would-have-them-do-unto-you. Who would disagree with this 'Golden Rule'? We regard it as the basis of an absolute and universal morality. And yet it is considered acceptable to kill the enemy in war; for a businessman to do the best for himself; for a lawyer to argue professionally for a position he would personally reject. Are the moral rules we live by more flexible than they seem at first sight? In Bending the Rules Robert Hinde does not follow the much-trodden path of philosophizing about what is right and just. Instead, he uses an approach grounded in the behavioural sciences to explore the nature of morality, what people actually do, what they believe to be right, and what values they hold, and how these positions came to be. Such a deeper understanding of morality, he argues, as a product of biological and cultural evolution, and changing with social environment, holds out hope that we can avoid disaster and steer society towards peace and equity in the twenty-first century.

ISBN 0199218986   Pages 288 ISBN13 9780199218981 (What's this?)   Volumes 1 Publisher Oxford University Press   Weight (grammes) 206 Imprint Oxford University Press   Published in Oxford Format Paperback   Height (mm) 196 Publication date 18 Dec 2008   Width (mm) 128 Library of Congress 2009293484   Spine width (mm) 14 DEWEY 170   Academic level Undergraduate, Postgraduate DEWEY edition DC22

Introduction; 1. Ethical principles and precepts; 2. The evolution of morality; 3. Ethics and law; 4. Exchange and reciprocity: conflict in Personal Relationships; 5. Ethics and the physical sciences; 6. Ethics and medicine; 7. Ethics and politics; 8. Ethics and business; 9. Ethics and war; 10. What does all this mean for the future?; Appendix: Relations to Moral Philosophy

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