Right and Wrong: How to decide for yourself, make wiser moral choices and build a better society

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Hachette Australia, Mar 1, 2011 - Social Science - 288 pages

How can you be sure you're doing the right thing? Can some actions be legally right, yet morally wrong? What are the rights and wrongs of leaving a relationship? Are the rules different for sex? Is it always wrong to tell a lie? Why be good?

No one pretends that making moral choices is easy. In this updated edition, which includes a new prologue on the moral minefields of power and wealth, Hugh Mackay argues that because morality is all about the way we treat each other, we make our best decisions - at work, among friends, in the neighbourhood, in a marriage or a family - when we imagine how our actions might affect the wellbeing of others. Our moral choices actually help shape the kind of society we live in, for better or worse.

At a time when many of us are struggling to navigate an ever more complex world, Right & Wrong offers you the essential tools for making confident moral choices, and for deciding what's right for you and for the people around you.

 

Contents

About the Author
Title Page Also by Hugh Mackay Dedication Epigraph Prologue The moral minefields of power and wealth Introduction
Part one Taking control of your life
Freedom to choose
Can there be more than one right answer?
Where do our values spring from?
Linking morality and religion
So why be good?
Guilt shame and forgiveness
Part two Putting moral mindfulness to work
Does the end ever justify the means?
Are the rules different for sex?
The rights and wrongs of leaving a relationship
Is tolerance an overrated virtue?
Is lying always wrong?
Business ethics or business ethics?

The pursuit of happiness
Pathway to moral clarity
The only life you can control is your
Should the state authorise the killing of its own citizens?
Should we ever go to war?

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About the author (2011)

Hugh Mackay is a social researcher and bestselling author. He has a master's degree in moral philosophy and was one of the founders of the St James Ethics Centre. He has been awarded honorary doctorates by five Australian universities and is a Fellow of the Australian Psychological Society. In 2015, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of Australia. He lives in Canberra.

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