Search for a Rational Ethic

1 Introduction.- 2 A Revolutionary Age.- The Industrial Revolution.- The Technological Revolution.- The Democratic Revolution.- The Environmental Revolution.- The Protestant Revolution.- The Rational Revolution.- 3 What’s Gone Wrong?.- A: Introduction.- B: Waste.- C: Misguidance in the Marketplace.- D: Debt Encouraged.- E: Unneeded Wealth Misused.- F: Security Sought Through Power or Privilege.- G: Dishonesty Condoned.- H: Major Crime Unpunished.- I: Conclusions.- 4 The Biological Background of Social Behavior: Genetic Factors.- The Immensity and Diversity of the Mammalian Genome.- Variability in Human Chromosomes.- The Variability of the Mammalian Genome.- Detecting the Effects of Heredity and Environment.- Behavior Studies with Inbred Mice.- Some Observations Suggesting Genetically Determined Behavioral Variability in Chimpanzees.- The Brain and Behavior.- Twins.- Crime and Personality.- Evidence for a Genetic Component in Criminal Behavior.- Studies of the Prosocial Sentiments.- Summary and Conclusions.- The Biological Background of Social Behavior: Evolutionary Factors.- Social Characteristics of Man’s Near Relatives.- The Bones of Our Ancestors.- Hunting-Gathering Societies.- What Archaelogy Can Tell Us About Human Social Behavior.- The Evolutionary Sources of Aggressiveness and Cooperativeness.- Aggressive and Cooperative Behavior as Seen in a Few of the Social Mammals.- What Animal Studies Tell Us About Man’s Social Nature.- Warfare in Primitive Human Societies.- The Driving Forces in Human Evolution.- The Evolution of Man’s Moral Nature.- Conclusion.- What Is Ethics?.- Some Definitions.- Moral Law: The Cultural Component in the Determination of Our Prosocial Behavior.- Moral Law Is Relative or Conditional, Not Absolute.- Value and Value Systems.- TheHappiness System.- The Want Value System.- The Survival Value System.- The General Welfare.- The Approval and Disapproval Value System.- Money.- The Will of God.- Self-Realization.- Rational Ethics.- Selecting a Philosophical Basis for a Rational Ethic.- 7 The Rules We Live By.- The Code of Family.- The Code of Amity.- The Code of Equity or Justice.- The Code of Enmity.- The Code of Commonwealth.- Are There Other Moral Codes?.- Ethics and the Survival of Democracy.- 8 Looking to the Future.- The Need for a More Ethical Society.- The Ethical Potential of Our Species.- Men and Women of Goodwill.- An Era of Renewal.- Getting Ethics Applied.- Author Index.