The emphasis is on the need to think for yourself, and that ethical behaviour rests largely on tolerance and empathy for others, and respect for their beliefs, desires and ways of life.

Concentration on differences rather than commonalities, and a failure to appreciate the rights of different stakeholders has led to appalling destruction and cruelty worldwide. This is often founded on a sense of ethnic, class or religious difference.

If the world is to become a more peaceful place, it is vital that ethical decision making becomes an integral part of life for all of us. The ability personally to make the right ethical decisions in difficult circumstances and under pressure, taking account of all concerned, is a necessary ingredient for a good life.

Am I Right? or Am I Right? introduces Dilemma Training® - a six-step method of ethical decision making, and the moral theories relevant to it. It examines the meaning of 'integrity' and then describes the training in action: in education, business, government, the media and the armed forces, and in combating substance abuse.

It tracks the changes in the Western moral climate from a historical, social, cultural and perspective, with emaphasis on the historical development of people learning to 'think for themselves', and a description of ethical decision making in the context of religion.

Dilemma Training strengthens people's ethical decision-making and enables them to recognise the right action in their own everyday lives. It is central to strengthening personal, social and corporate responsibility, and to help to identify key influences on the current moral climate.

The book discusses some 'big ethical issues': environment, animals, racial equality, science and technology, capital punishment, euthanasia, and suicide. This is followed by examples from literature,

Am I Right? or Am I Right? is written in a non-academic way for anyone who wants to know more about solving ethical dilemmas without necessarily referring to an external moral authority - for anyone who wants to be 'morally fit' - and who might also welcome the opportunity to look at various ethical issues in more depth.

PREFACE

AM I RIGHT? OR AM I RIGHT?

Insurance against guilt

Like a house on fire

DEFINE YOUR TERMS

What do we mean by ‘integrity’?

What are virtues?

What are values?

Integrity – who needs it?

I wouldn’t be seen dead…

Can integrity be taught?

DO UNTO OTHERS…

Who are the ‘others’ – Prioritising loyalties

Live8 – Extending the circles

EXCUSES, EXCUSES

Conclusion

ETHICS – APPLYING THE THEORIES

Do your duty

Think of the consequences

Virtue ethics – morality without moralising?

How do you choose your theory?

USE AND ABUSE OF ARGUMENT

What is an argument?

The inductive argument

Arguments underpinning ethical decision making

Necessary and sufficient conditions

Essential reading

CRY FREEDOM!?

I AM FIT, THEREFORE I THINK?

DILEMMA TRAINING IN ACTION?

EDUCATION?

Lessons from a man child?

A-moral, im-moral or differently moral??

Living up to the convention

Autonomy and equality

What schools are doing

Feelings or reason?

Dilemmas at school

Right vs right dilemmas

Six steps training

Benefits of the training

To tell, or not to tell – the dilemma

What did the school think of the training?

What next?

Ways out of the moral maze

SUBSTANCE ABUSE – SAYING ‘NO!’

Don’t say ‘Don't'

Four levels from temptation to abuse

Drugs prevention programmes

Mind and muscle

TOBACCO DOESN’T KILL; SMOKING KILLS

AMSTERDAM EMBRACES DILEMMA TRAINING

The Integrity Bureau

Does it work?

Who does it?

Centralising data

Analysis – prevention and cure

What the managers say

Brass from muck – an inherited scam

Why Dilemma Training?

ETHICS IN BUSINESS

Resolving the contradictions

Power to the consumers

The bottom line

TRAINING THE ARMED FORCES

Ethics in Combat

The Geneva Conventions

Example, Example, Example

Life after Srebrenica

An ethical decision-making model

Dilemmas in combat

Philosophy of military ethics

MEDIA ETHICS

Communication ethics – What is it?

Media giant tries ethics training

Media ethical issues

BIG ISSUES

ENVIRONMENT – WHO IS RESPONSIBLE?

What is ‘the environment’?

Environmentalism – pandas before people?

Theoretically speaking

Americans abroad

Is small beautiful?

How green is my revolution?

SCIENCE – PLAYING GOD?

Inheriting some difficult dilemmas

Pressure to behave ethically

Unfolding the mysteries of creation

Mutants on the march?

You’re never alone with a clone

ANIMALS – CAN THEY SUFFER?

Animals, pets, religion and vegetarianism

ISSUES OF RACE and DIFFERENCE

Kofi’s Choice

Vive la difference

Race – the long view

Dilemma Training and race

MAN vs THE MACHINE – A DILEMMA

The optimists

The pessimists

Conclusion

DOES THE PUNISHMENT FIT THE CRIME?

Capital punishment or state murder?

Is it right to punish?

EUTHANASIA – LETTING DIE OR KILLING?

Killing vs letting die

Be yourself and be damned

THE ULTIMATE DILEMMA – TO BE OR NOT TO BE

Suicide – a free prescription

But first – David Hume…

And now for Jean-Paul Sartre…

Death – fear of the unknown

A tentative conclusion

FICTION – STRANGER THAN TRUTH

Circles of stakeholders

Integrity and betrayal

Poetry in emotion

A BRIEF HISTORY OF ETHICAL DECISION MAKING

From Greeks to PC fundamentalism

Think for yourself! A catchphrase with a long history

Religion – what has God got to do with it?

The Church under attack – Deism

The age of miracles is dead

THE LAST WORD

REFERENCES & INFORMATION

The author, Simon Geschwindt, worked for many years as a foreign correspondent for Financial Times Business Information and La Tribune and l'Agence Economique et Financière in Paris, before joining UK ethics consultancy, Dialogue Works. He is now managing editor of Environment Matters International. Simon is married with five children and lives in Johannesburg, South Africa.