To attempt an overview of ethical puzzles in a short book is a major challenge. To encourage people to think for themselves, and understand and apply philosophical approaches to ethical decision-making is a greater challenge. The authors face these challenges and seek to involve people from the beginning with ethical statements that require justification, ranging from 'Sex before marriage is wrong' to 'Multinational companies that exploit tropical rain forests are evil'.

Asking Pilate's question 'What is truth?' they guide the reader through many different ethical answers, from Plato through Aquinas, Kant and Bentham to Macintyre. After briefly considering Buddhist ethics, they apply ethics to fields such as abortion, war and the environment. Each chapter encourages thought and ends with perceptive discussion questions.

The authors understand their field well, and are particularly good at exploring the views of Aquinas and at bringing to the fore the ideas of Alasdair Macintyre, but this reviewer felt unsatisfied at the end. Perhaps this was the publisher's fault - expectations are raised inappropriately by statements on the back cover. Perhaps the chapters on different philosophers seemed to lack the coherence and development of other recent books. Perhaps it was because one is left asking why, of all approaches outside the Western tradition, Buddhism was chosen for special consideration: why not Islamic ethics or Hindu ethics?

But perhaps most of all it was because of the apparent disjunction between theory and application. The 'theoretical' chapters do not really explore applications to specific issues, although there may be hints in the questions. The 'applied' chapters make some mention of earlier views but do not always tease out application or contrasts.

Health professionals in particular will be frustrated by the limited discussion of major medical issues, although the chapter on abortion does emphasise the 'personhood' debate.

The authors quote Macintyre that 'man (sic) is a teller of stories that aspire to truth'. Perhaps there is insufficient story-telling in this valiant attempt to get people thinking.

Reviewed by
Carl Whitehouse
(Professor of Teaching Medicine in the Community, Manchester University)