Consuming Choices

David T. Schwartz is professor of philosophy at Randolph College.

Professor Schwartz's book offers an instructive view on the ethics of consumption that reaches globally while paying attention to the local. He considers different kinds and cases of individual and collective ethical wrong doing, and he provides causal, consequentialist, and complicit culpability accounts thereof. His multifaceted approach to the subject matter --- using a hypothetical scenario here to illuminate a moral problem, or a historical example there to illustrate an ethical concept, etc. --- allows the reader or student alternative avenues to get at the crux of an issue. The previous edition of Schwartz's book challenged my students to think critically about the complex ethical nature of consumption while thoughtfully considering possible solutions to a variety of problems. For a course in contemporary moral issues, global ethics, or perhaps a bioethics or similarly motivated course, I would certainly recommend the second edition to the instructor who would intend a similar pedagogical effect.

• Preface Chapter 1: Ethical Consumerism Chapter 2: Caveat Emptor? Chapter 3: The Consumer as Causal Agent Chapter 4: The Consumer as Complicit Participant Chapter 5: Toward a Practical Consumer Ethic Notes Bibliography