A New Buddhist Ethics by Robert M. Ellis, copyright 2008
This book is now available as a paperback or as a pdf download from lulu.com
This book puts forward a Middle-Way-based ethics which should be of interest to anyone who seeks an objective but non-metaphysical ethics, whether or not they are Buddhists.
Contents
The need for ethics
What is “Buddhist” ethics?
Ethics in the broad and narrow senses
The Starting Point: the Middle Way
The Middle Way and virtue
The Middle Way and principles
The Middle Way and consequences
The Middle Way and integration
The balance between ourselves and others
Friendship
Duties to parents
Duties to partners
Having children
Duties to children
Duties to other relatives
Duties to colleagues
Wider social responsibilities
Sexual relationships and celibacy
Sexual relationships and power
Homosexuality
Contraception
Masturbation
Marriage
Divorce
Livelihood
Consumption
Debt
Investment
Trading and trade injustice
World Poverty
Attitudes to “Nature”
Farming and food
Mining, minerals and fossil fuels
Forestry and timber
Industry
Land transport
Air transport
Housing and living arrangements
Rubbish and recycling
The status of animals
Meat consumption
Fish consumption
Dairy consumption
Egg consumption
Hunting, shooting and angling
Animal experimentation
Pets and zoos
Wildlife conservation
The value of scientific progress
Genetic engineering
Cloning
Space exploration
The value of human life
Medical priorities
Abortion
Fertility treatments
Transplantation
Euthanasia
Government
Voting_
Political office
Government employment
Taxes and benefits
Migration_
10. Violence and law-breaking_
Self-defence
Suicide
Law enforcement
Punishment
Law-breaking
Rebellion
War
Nuclear weapons
Terrorism
The moral and the aesthetic
The visual arts
Music
Reading
Film, television and video
The Internet
Pornography
Depictions of violence
Political censorship
The provisionality of these judgements
The need for a new Buddhist ethics