Ethics: A Very Short Introduction

Again, a book from the Very Short Introductions series. Covering different threats to ethics, as well as some fundamental ethical ideas, Ethics: A Very Short Introduction by Simon Blackburn is a good starting point for anyone interested in ethics.

On the other hand, I found this book to be more biased than the others of the series that I have read, although this could well be because of my being more familiar with this subject more than with the others.

In this book, Simon Blackburn starts by dismissing ideas that threaten the value of ethics such as the need of a superior being, such as God, to set rules for ethics, or the idea that we have no free will, and therefore are not responsible for our actions. This step is essential for any book that attempts to explain the basics of ethics, and in his introduction, Blackburn uses arguments against these threats that were either not explained well or unconvincing. He also relies on circular justifications, dismissing the threats through the very fact that they were threats to ethics.

Blackburn always seems to be encouraging his readers to either support or oppose each ethical idea he is explaining throughout the whole book. Of course, there is nothing wrong with defending or disapproving of certain ideas. However, Blackburn mentions in the preface that his goal is to introduce readers to ethics without bias to allow them to make their own judgement. Ethics: A Very Short Introduction certainly serves as a good introduction to ethics, but fails to achieve the goal Blackburn set at the beginning of the book.