Chapter 2: Ethics: The Bedrock of a Society
Defining Ethics
Michael Josephson, “Definitions in ethics.” [See separate file in this folder]
Michael Josephson, Becoming an Exemplary Police Officer (Los Angeles: Josephson Institute, 2007). Although this book was written for police officers, it offers Josephson’s thinking on ethics in a general sense.
Louis A. Day, Ethics in Media Communications: Cases and Controversies, 5th Ed. (Belmont, Calif.: Thomson Wadsworth, 2006), 5.
Origins of Ethical Theory
Elaine E. Englehardt and Ralph D. Barney, Media and Ethics: Principles for Moral Decisions (Belmont, Calif.: Thomson Wadsworth, 2002). The authors’ discussion of the philosophers of Athens is on 25-27.
Rushworth M. Kidder, How Good People Make Tough Choices: Resolving the Dilemmas of Ethical Living (New York: HarperCollins, 1995). Kidder’s discussion of the Golden Rule is on 159-160.
Peter Singer, Ed., A Companion to Ethics (Blackwell Publishers, Oxford), 32.
Lawrence M. Hinman, Contemporary Moral Issues, 2nd ed. (Prentice-Hall, 1999).
David Copp,The Oxford Handbook of Ethical Theory (Oxford: OxfordUniversity Press, 2006).
Plato. The Republic,translated by R.E. Allen (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006).
Immanuel Kant. Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals,translated by Arnulf Zweig and edited by Thomas E. Hill, Jr. and Arnulf Zweig. (New York : OxfordUniversity Press, 2002).
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Aristotle’s Ethics.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,Ancient Ethical Theory.
Aristotle Nicomachean Ethics, (Ed. H. Rackham).Aristotle’s work in English.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Egoism.
Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, Thomas Aquinas’ Moral, Political, and Legal Philosophy.
Transmitting a Society’s Ethical Precepts
Day, Ethics in Media Communications, 15-16.
The Ethical Dilemma: A Conflict in Ethical Values
Lawrence Kohlberg, Essays in Moral Development: Vol. I, The Philosophy of Moral Development: Moral Stages and the Idea of Justice (New York: Harper and Row, 1981). The Heinz Dilemma is on 12.
Michael Josephson, “The false ethical dilemma.” [See separate file in this folder.]
How the Ethical Person Makes Decisions
Deni Elliott and Paul Martin Lester, “Taking ethics seriously,” News Photographer, May 2004, These ethics scholars write that the photojournalist of character is, first and foremost, someone who takes ethics seriously. In addition to providing the full text of the column quoted in The Ethical Journalist, this link lists the topics discussed by the authors in other columns for News Photographer.
The Decisions of Virginia Gerst and John Cruickshank
Michael Miner, “Pioneer Press aims at foot, fires,” Chicago Reader, Sept. 5, 2003,
Michael Miner, “Yes, Virginia, some people still care about ethics,” Chicago Reader, May 7, 2004,
Eric Herman, “Paper sales inflated up to 50,000 a day,” Chicago Sun-Times, Oct. 6, 2004,
Jacques Steinberg, “Sun-Times managers said to defraud advertisers,” The New York Times,Oct. 6, 2004,