Hugh LaFollette: The Practice of Ethics - Blackwell, viii, 300 p. ISBN: 0-631-21945-5

The Practice of Ethics is an introduction to moral philosophy. It starts from a series of practical questions, which range from the personal and picayune (‘If a friend has had an awful haircut and asks your opinion of his new hairdo, should you lie to avoid hurting his feelings?’) to political, life-and-death issues (‘Is the death penalty justified?’). The book uses these questions as routes into discussions of more general, theoretical moral questions, such as whether the rightness or wrongness of our conduct is determined solely by the goodness or badness of its consequences, and what reasons we have to be moral. Theoretical reflection is followed by a return to the practical questions that prompted it. The purpose of this back-and-forth between practice and theory is twofold. First, to show that everyday questions about how to live and which policies to favor can only be adequately addressed by theoretical moral reflection. Second, to persuade its audience of the value of a life informed and guided by such reflection. LaFollette is certainly well-placed to write a book of this kind. He has written widely, and insightfully, on issues in personal morality and on policy issues, including the justifiability of gun control and our duties in the face of widespread deprivation. He has also edited several key anthologies, including Ethics in Practice (3rd edition, Blackwell, 2007) and the Blackwell Guide to Ethical Theory (2001). Nonetheless, the book is not an unqualified success—or so I will argue. The 19 chapters of The Practice of Ethics can, roughly, be organized along three themes: theory, policy, and the moral life. Moral theory is introduced in chapters 1 through 4, which present the contrast between consequentialism and nonconsequentialism, and discuss the question of moral relativism. Policy questions dominate chapters 5 through 12, in which analyses of the justifiability of affirmative action,