Ethics: A Complete Method for Moral Choice.
Ravizza, Bridget Burke
ETHICS: A COMPLETE METHOD FOR MORAL CHOICE. By Daniel C. Maguire.
Minneapolis: Fortress, 2010. Pp. v + 340. $35.
Maguire laments approaches to ethics that are obscure, removed from
experience, and "downright boring" (xv). Thankfully, his new
text, which updates the method of moral decision-making presented in his
1978 The Moral Choice, is accessible, engaging, and firmly grounded in
experience. An image of a wheel illustrates this comprehensive method,
helpfully serving as a reminder of its components. The method prompts
one to move beyond strict and uncritical adherence to rules and
authority, while acknowledging a proper role for each. M. advises
persons to take heuristic responsibility for doing ethics by asking
necessary questions and paying attention to the pluriform ways human
beings discern the truth.
M. insists that the sanctity of human life and of the natural world
is known across cultures and religions and, he further argues, is the
basis for ethical norms. While finding agreement on specific norms amid
diversity is no easy task, M. points to the development of an
international human rights agenda to illustrate that general agreement
is possible. Furthermore, common morality and cooperation is crucial in
today's world, marked as it is by conflict, an increasing gap
between the rich and poor, harmful social and political myths, and
ecological destruction. Indeed, M. warns that to avoid the real work of
ethics is to ensure our demise.
M. takes positions on divisive issues, such as abortion,
euthanasia, war, and birth control, with which admittedly not every
reader will agree. But his work invites all thinking persons into a
careful process of moral engagement, providing a foundation from which
such issues can be intelligently debated. The method is thorough but--in
M.'s words--is "not a straightjacket"; it relies on
application of the virtues (such as justice, practical wisdom, and
humility) as well as on development of conscience (xiii). M.'s
writing is refreshingly clear and challenging, and will work well in
undergraduate and graduate classrooms and church settings, perhaps
supplemented by a text that more comprehensively addresses Christian
Scripture as it relates to ethics.
BRIDGET BURKE RAVIZZA
St. Norbert College, De Pere, Wis.
