The Moral of the Story: An Anthology of Ethics Through Literature Hardcover - 2005 - 1st Edition

First line

From the age at which we are capable of thinking for ourselves, we make choices that shape the kind of person we will become.

From the rear cover

In a society increasingly divided about moral values, we need to reflect on the ethics we hold.

• What do we owe to our children...to our elderly parents...to strangers?


• Is it always wrong to lie?


• With whom may we have sex, and who should we marry?


• Is a leader who takes his country to war responsible for the foreseeable deaths of civilians?


• Should we create new forms of life?


• Should we value beauty, even above human suffering?


• Does morality hold even in the death camps?


• Are morals relative?

Great writers have long wrestled with these questions, often adding depth and a more human dimension than we get from the abstract reasoning of philosophers. In The Moral of the Story, Peter and Renata Singer bring together an engrossing collection of fiction, drama, and poetry that stimulates the reader to think about the perennial questions of ethics.

Whether you read this book from cover to cover, or dip in to whatever selections pique your curiosity, you will find yourself absorbed in the stories and situations, and provoked to think again about your own values, as well as about today's controversial moral issues.