"Modern Ethics in 77 Arguments explores long-standing ethical and moral issues in light of our most urgent dilemmas. Divided into twelve sections, the book opens with a series of broad arguments on existence, human nature and morality. Indeed, "big" questions of the human condition are explored by some of our best-known and most accomplished living philosophers: What is the meaning of our existence? Should we really "do what we love"? How should we respond to evil? Is pure altruism possible?" -- From book jacket

On existence -- Meaningfulness of lives / Todd May -- There is no theory of everything / Simon Critchley -- Light at the end of suffering / Peg O'Connor -- Being there: Heidegger on why our presence matters / Lawrence Berger -- Against invulnerability / Todd May -- Why life is absurd / Rivka Weinberg -- A life beyond "do what you love" / Gordon Marino -- On human nature -- Evolution and our inner conflict / Edward O. Wilson -- Learning how to die in the anthropocene / Roy Scranton -- Is pure altruism possible? / Judith Lichtenberg -- Moral camouflage or moral monkeys? / Peter Railton -- How should we respond to "evil"? / Steven Paulikas -- Moral logic of survivor guilt / Nancy Sherman -- How to live without irony / Christy Wampole -- Deluded individualism / Firmin DeBrabander -- On morality -- Dangers of happiness / Carl Cederström -- Are we ready for a "morality pill"? / Peter Singer and Agata Sagan -- Why our children don't think there are moral facts / Justin P. McBrayer -- Morals without God? / Frans de Waal -- Dangers of certainty: a lesson from Auschwitz / Simon Critchley -- Confessions of an ex-moralist / Joel Marks -- Maze of moral relativism / Paul Boghossian -- Can moral disputes be resolved? / Alex Rosenberg -- Moral dispute or cultural difference? / Carol Rovane -- On religion -- Navigating past nihilism / Sean D. Kelly -- Does it matter whether God exists? / Gary Gutting -- Good minus God / Louise M. Antony -- Pascal's wager 2.0 / Gary Gutting -- Sacred and the humane / Anat Biletzki -- Why God is a moral issue / Michael Ruse -- Rigor of love / Simon Critchley -- God is a question, not an answer / William Irwin -- What's wrong with blasphemy? / Andrew F. March -- On government -- Questions for free-market moralists / Amia Srinivasan -- Is our patriotism moral? / Gary Gutting -- Irrationality of natural life sentences / Jennifer Lackey -- Spinoza's vision of freedom, and ours / Steven Nadler -- If war can have ethics, Wall Street can, too / Nathaniel B. Davis -- Moral hazard of drones / John Kaag and Sarah Kreps -- Reasons for reason / Michael P. Lynch -- On citizenship -- Morality of migration / Seyla Benhabib -- What do we owe each other? / Aaron James Wendland -- Can refugees have human rights? / Omri Boehm -- Dependents of the state / Amia Srinivasan -- Is voting out of self-interest wrong? / Gary Gutting -- On violence -- Philosophizing with guns / Simone Gubler -- A crack in the stoic's armor / Nancy Sherman -- Who needs a gun? / Gary Gutting -- Freedom of an armed society / Firmin DeBrabander -- Is American nonviolence possible? / Todd May -- On race -- Walking while black in the "white gaze" / George Yancy -- Race, truth and our two realities / Chris Lebron -- Getting past the outrage on race / Gary Gutting -- Philosophy's Western bias / Justin E.H. Smith -- Dear White America / George Yancy -- Of cannibals, kings and culture: the problem of ethnocentricity / Adam Etinson -- What, to the black American, is Martin Luther King Jr. Day? / Chris Lebron -- Is real inclusiveness possible? / Justin E.H. Smith -- On women -- When prostitution is nobody's business / Laurie Shrage -- On abortion and defining a "person" / Gary Gutting -- Girlfriend, mother, professor? / Carol Hay -- Disappearing woman / Rae Langton -- A feminist Kant / Carol Hay -- On family -- Think before you breed / Christine Overall -- Is forced fatherhood fair? / Laurie Shrage -- "Mommy wars" redux: a false conflict / Amy Allen -- End of "marriage" / Laurie Shrage -- My parents' mixed messages on the HOlocaust / Jason Stanley -- On eating -- Meat eaters / Jeff McMahan -- If peas can talk, should we eat them? / Michael Marder -- When vegans won't compromise / Bob Fischer and James McWilliams -- Enigma of animal suffering / Rhys Southan -- On the future -- Is humanity getting better? / Leif Wenar -- Should this be the last generation? / Peter Singer -- What do we owe the future? / Patricia I. Vieira and Michael Marder -- Importance of the afterlife. Seriously. / Samuel Scheffler -- Accepting the past, facing the future / Todd May