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Ethics at the Beginning of Life

A Phenomenological Critique

  • Paperback
  • 240 pages
  • Publisher: Oxford University Press
  • 13.8 x 21.4 x 1.6 cm

£41.61

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For those exploring moral dilemmas of life and birth

Addresses confusion in beginning of life ethics today

You will gain clarity on complex moral questions

This thought-provoking book critiques the ethics surrounding the beginning of life.

Many of the most controversial moral decisions we face hinge upon competing descriptions of life, and never is this truer than at the beginning of life. James Mumford draws upon phenomenology (a branch of continental philosophy) to question the descriptive adequacy, the essential 'purchase upon reality', of many of the approaches, attitudes and arguments which make up beginning of life ethics today. He argues that many of the most prevalent positions and practices in our late modern culture have simply failed to take into account the reality of human emergence, the particular way that new members of our species first appear in the world. Historically, phenomenologists have been far more interested in death than in birth. Mumford therefore first develops his own phenomenological investigation of human emergence, taking leads and developing approaches from phenomenologists both French and German, both living and dead.
In the second half of the book phenomenology is finally applied to ethics, and acute moral questions are divided into two kinds: first those concerning 'what' it is that we are dealing; and, secondly, the more contextual 'where' questions relating to the situation in which the subject is found. Finally, although this book primarily constitutes a philosophical rather than a religious critique of contemporary ethics, with the findings from continental philosophy being brought to bear upon core convictions of English-speaking 'liberal' moral and political philosophers, Mumford concludes by exploring an alternative theological basis for human rights which might fill the vacuum created.

Ethics at the Beginning of Life and Essays in Anthropology: Variations on a Theme
Essays in Anthropology: Variations on a ThemeEthics at the Beginning of Life
  • Author

    James Mumford

  • Book Format

    Paperback

  • Publisher

    Oxford University Press

  • Published

    June 2015

  • Weight

    296g

  • Page Count

    240

  • Dimensions

    13.8 x 21.4 x 1.6 cm

  • ISBN

    9780198745051

  • ISBN-10

    0198745052

  • Eden Code

    4321362

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