Seven Threats To Ethics In Simon Blackburn's Being Good By Simon Eeth

In the book Being Good, Simon Blackburn provides an introduction to ethics by sharing the excuses used to undermine ethics, life’s big questions and how they relate to ethics, and the effects of ethics on foundations. Blackburn, with the use of past philosophers and ethicists, shares seven threats that endanger ethics. He explores some of the biggest ethical issues and principles humanity faces, including that of justice and rights, and finally ends with a critical exploration of ethical foundations. This essay will dissect Blackburn’s ideas and relate them to Student Affairs professionals. Seven Threats to Ethics- Blackburn believes the seven threats to ethics to be the Death of God, Relativism, Egoism, Evolutionary Theory, Determinism

He discusses Birth, Death, Desire and the Meaning of Life, Pleasure, The Greatest Happiness of the Greatness Number, Freedom from the Bad, Freedom and Paternalism, Rights and Natural Rights. On Birth and Death, Blackburn discusses abortion, infanticide, the belief in an afterlife, the fear of not existing, and the ethics behind killing. In regards to Freedom and Paternalism, where Blackburn shares the truth that people normally see themselves as the best judges of their own interests (Blackburn, 2001).
Foundations- During the third section, Blackburn discusses Reasons and Foundations, Being Good and Living Well, the Categorical Imperative, Contracts and Discourses, The Common Point of View, and Confidence Restored. In Being Good and Living Well, he explores Aristotle’s idea that living a virtuous life ties into living well, though it does not seem sustainable in modern times. The categorical imperative explores Kant’s ‘universalization’ test of ‘What if everybody did

One of my students recently was caught spying through the letter of recommendation that I had written for another student. He was called into my office and we had to discuss the issue and the ethics behind it. This discretion helped this student to adapt his ethical foundation and begin to understand the ideas behind ethical rights.
In conclusion, Blackburn did an acceptable job giving an introduction to the threats to and an understanding of ethics. I appreciated his use of ancient and popular philosophers to reiterate his points. I did struggle with how I could implement it into my work and how I could utilize the book with my students. He created a book that explains the troubles that face ethics in this day for the everyday man, a commendable