Understanding Morality

Intended for the introduction to applied ethics course taught at the sophomore/junior level in philosophy departments.

Understanding Morality explores issues that are important both to individuals and society as a whole by examining the basic concepts of morality and how they can each be used as a problem-solving tool.  Each chapter contains a presentation and discussion of a topic followed by readings that illustrate the main themes of the chapter. 

In This Section:

I. Author Bio

II. Author Letter

Albert B. Hakim is an Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Seton Hall University, where he taught for sixty-two years. In 2008, the Seton Hall Faculty Senate commemorated his exemplary career by establishing the Albert B. Hakim Faculty Service Medal. Professor Hakim also writes Historical Introduction to Philosophy.  

II. Author Letter

Dear Colleague,

When Pearson Education decided to publish my new text Understanding Morality I was thoroughly delighted because they did such a competent, professional job in publishing and marketing a previous text of mine, Historical Introduction to Philosophy, through five editions. So I’m glad you are interested in reviewing Understanding Morality for your consideration, and for me to have this opportunity to point out its special features to you personally.

I had two principal objectives in mind in trying to produce a student-friendly text as a guide to moral discernment: the role of experience in disclosing the contours of morality; and the primacy of love in the moral sphere. These objectives are not, of course, separate from each other, but work together in creating the moral person and shaping the actions that such a person places. Reflecting on experience will show students how one aspect of human activity emerges that is different from all others and is distinctive enough to warrant a distinctive name, one used by humans from time immemorial, moral, or its equivalent. They will come to appreciate how terms like right-wrong, good-bad, moral-immoral, ethical-unethical describe actions insofar as they square with the human person or demean it. With the realization that moral meaning is personal, students will also realize that nothing is more personal than love, without which human affairs would be far less than human. Yet the primacy of love is seldom, if ever, found in the general texts on morality. Terms like care, concern and regard are used often enough, though reticence prevails on the role of love as the grounding principle of morality. It does not follow that we always have to be talking about it anymore than we have to talk about the need for oxygen, but it does follow that it must be a virtue ever-present in actual practice.

Please take a critical look at the Table of Contents to view the range of the book. The earlier chapters deal with the basic concepts of morality, while the later chapters deal with the moral questions we face as individuals, or as members of society. After observing that this might well be the only course in philosophy many, if not most, of the students in the class will be taking in their college careers, Chapter One opens with a brief introduction as to what philosophy tries to do and how moral philosophy fits in, and then moves on to discuss how we develop our moral sense with particular attention given to the question of freedom and determinism. Chapters Two and Three take up the problem of making moral judgments and the role of law in doing so. Chapter Four, devoted to the meaning of life, is the “heart” of the book and, following a thorough discussion of evil, fixes on the centrality of the good in life, and love of the good as the ultimate answer to its meaning. Chapters Five through Ten take up successively moral questions dealing with our membership in society, integrity of life, environment, war and peace, sexuality, virtue and vice, ending with a coda on what it means to be a good person.

The readings, integral to the book as a whole, are given as the second half of each chapter. They are of wide selection, academic and literary, and chosen to deepen the students’ appreciation of the endless ways in which the currents of moral sentiment enter into their daily lives. A previous reader of the text referred to these readings as “outstanding”. I hope you will too.

Whether or not you decide that Understanding Morality is the book for you, I thank you for giving it your thoughtful attention.

Sincerely,

Professor Emeritus, Seton Hall University

Albert.Hakim@shu.edu