Who Should I Be? What Should I Do? by Davis Smith is, for the most part, an original introduction to ethics textbook suitible for Philosophy courses on that subject. It consists of ten (10) Modules (sections or parts), each of which handles a different position one might have in Ethics. This text provides the standard ethical theories covered in a typical intro class but also covers Feminist Consequentialism, Nahuatl Virtue Ethics, Mohism, and Virtue Consequentialism. The topics covered are, in order:
- Moral Relativism
- Moral Objectivism
- Divine Command Theory and Natural Law Theory
- Egoism and Hedonism
- Consequentialism
- Utilitarianism
- Mohism
- Kantianism
- The Humanity Principle
- The Universalizability Prinicple
- Virtue Ethics
- Nahuatl Virtue Ethics
- Virtue Consequentialism
- The Abortion Debate
- Feminist Ethics
- Ethics of Care
- Feminist Consequentialism
- Environmental and Intergenerational Ethics
It provides some primary sources included in the text as well:
- The Challenge of Cultural Relativism by James Rachels
- Why I am an Objectivist about Ethics (and Why You Are, Too) by David Enoch
- The Moral and Legal Status of Abortion by Mary Warren
- I Was Once a Fetus by Alexander Pruss
This work is under perpetual development and may change with time. As it sits now, it is a fully functional textbook which is being used at Pierce College. Currently, it is made for a ten (10) week course.
Davis Smith earned his Master’s Degree in Philosophy from Arizona State University and is an adjunct Philosophy professor at three colleges, Pierce College, Bellevue College, and Olympic College. He specializes in teaching introductory level courses. One of his goals in teaching is to make Philosophy accessible to all people. The cost and quality of textbooks are under-discussed obstacles to accessibility which Mr. Smith seeks to remove. His other textbooks are:
- forallx: R3 A Remixed, Revised, and Reimagined Introduction to Formal Logic
- Questions We Have An Introduction to Philosophy
Outside of his OER textbooks, his current projects relate to the plausibility of libertarian free will, the philosophy of rhyme, and the philosophy of profanity.
You can download PDFs of the most current version under development here:
IntroToEthics.pdfThis is the default, basic version of the 2024 edition.- 'IntroToEthicsaccess2.pdf' This is the accessible version for e-readers of the 2024 edition.
- 'IntroToEthicsaccess.pdf' This is the accessible version for e-readers of the 2022 edition.
- Add On The Moral Status of Bloodbending by Davis Smith.
- More glossary entries and definitions will be added.
- Improve the content for Mohism.
- Improve the content for Nahuatl Virtue Ethics.
- Make an accessible version for e-readers.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. You are free to copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format, and remix, transform, and build upon the material for any purpose, even commercially, under the following terms:
- You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
- You may not apply legal terms or technological measures that legally restrict others from doing anything the license permits.
The production of the 2022 edition of this work was made possible by Professional Development funds provided by Pierce College's Employee Learning and Development (ELAD).