Science, Ethics, and Politics

The relationship between science and ethics has been subject to much debate. This volume demonstrates the mutually beneficial relationship that can take place between ethics and science. It presents work that utilises the tools of science - broadly conceptualised - to elucidate ethical issues, showing that careful scientific analysis of ethical issues can reveal new insights. This is supplemented by conversations with the authors - some of them pre-eminent scientists addressing issues of ethics, including two Nobel laureates - to learn how they came to the study of ethics and ask how they conceptualise and think about ethical issues. Science, Ethics and Politics provides substantive insight into particular ethical issues, ranging from issues of torture during war to parents' obligations to children. This book is designed as a complement to traditional texts on ethics and should appeal to students of ethics as well as to the general public.

Kristen Renwick Monroe is Professor of Political Science and Philosophy at University of California-Irvine. She is the author of Heart of Altruism and The Hand of Compassion (2004).

Introduction 1 Evolutionary Biology and the Origin of Morality 2 Creating New Paradigms in Political Science: The Case of Biology and Politics 3 "The Aesthetics of Reason": Exploring the Psychology of Virtue 4 About Race and Politics 5 On Ethics and Economics 6 Economics, Policy, and the Public Good 7 The Ethics and Politics of Preventing Political Violence 8 About Law and Justice 9 Ethics and Individual Freedom