h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

There's a reluctance in today's societies to think too much about ethically dictated "right" and "wrong"... because the very notion challenged some tenets which are presupposed without ever (or hardly ever) being explicitly stated.

To those who seriously think about ethics and morality must go the appreciation, if not the agreement, of human society. One of the dividing lines that make us different from, say, a very intelligent dolphin, or a particularly smart cucumber, is the ability for us to reason, and hence to consider things that are not merely material. In other words, we're not just "living in a material world"...

We have the ability to create standards for ourselves, standards of behaviour, standards of morality, standards that affect how we treat others, how we view ourselves... It is not uncommon for human beings to decry this, but the very fact that it can be DISCUSSED is evidence of our ability to conceptualise morality. Whether this morality is based upon anything other than guilt (mother and/or father imposed standards), conditioning (peer pressure), or education (what we read, what we see), is debatable - and has been, in fact, one of the hottest subjects for debate since humans opened their mouths.

It's the sort of topic I love... I strongly, strongly admire those who are able to think clearly about the issues of right and wrong, to consider what follows from a prima facie of the human as an ethical creature, and to think about God, man, good, bad, and the whole thing.

I will read the works you mentioned with pleasure. I might not always agree with the writer - but then I don't agree with Freud, either, and Plato occasionally says things which are WRONG, WRONG, WRONG. (How do I know they're wrong? Ahem... obviously his opinions don't correspond exactly to MINE... <modest smirk&gt.

Discussing ethics and morality is truly a tough thing to do today. But Hauerwas goes further. He discusses explicitly CHRISTIAN ethics, for as he states in the first essay in 'The Hauerwas Reader', many theologians nowadays have gotten so worried about NOT appearing to be arguing based on religion that it is impossible to distinguish between the ethical writings of a Christian theologian and an atheist.

This should be made clear - Hauerwas writes for CHRISTIANS. This is not to say you will not gain anything by reading his book should you not be a Christian, but don't expect him to spend time trying to convert you to Christianism or trying to explain WHY Christianity is the truth. He starts off from the principle that Christianity is true, and goes on from there....