Moral Geographies: Ethics in a World of Difference - Softcover

Smith, David M.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0748612793 ISBN 13: 9780748612796

Publisher: Edinburgh University Press, 2000

Synopsis

This book explores the interface between geography, ethics and morality. It considers questions that have haunted the past, are subjects of controversy in the present, and which affect the future. Does distance diminish responsibility? Should we interfere with the lives of those we do not know? Is there a distinction between private and public space? Which values and morals, if any, are absolute, and which cultural, communal or personal? And are universal rights consistent with respect for difference? David Smith shows how these questions play themselves out in politics, planning, development, social and personal relations, the exploitation of resources, and competition for territory. After introducing the essential elements of moral philosophy from Plato to postmodernism, he examines the moral significance of concepts of landscape, location and place, proximity, distance and community, space and territory, justice, and nature. He is concerned above all with the morality people practice, to se

About this title

About the Author:

David M. Smith is professor of geography, Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London.

Review:

There is a strong skipper at the helm of this ship ... The book is impressive on several grounds ... it is an innovative text that is the product of much reading in several disciplines brought against the standard of considerable accumulated wisdom ... the writing is lucid and never obscure ... it is a pioneering effort and sets out a seminal agenda for subsequent work. Among a mixed crop of current books, here is a volume that can be commended as essential reading. A far reaching, insightful and even-handed account of the multiple theories of morality developed by contemporary philosophy; how parts of these became illustrated and refined through geographical examples; and how the very essence of geography invokes moral issues ... its wide review, critiques and examples would convince any sceptical reader of the importance of connecting geography and morality. I enjoyed the book immensely and will use it in my classes ... I found the book to provide strong evidence that there are ways of viewing the moral and the good that only geography provides. The first major text book that seeks to explore in an integrated fashion the interface between geography and moral philosophy ... In a brief review, it is impossible to do full justice to this important work ... an extremely wide ranging book. In only some 214 pages of text, it seeks to relate all of these issues to central debates in contemporary moral philosophy, and it does so with both panache and commitment. "A richly suggestive text, written by a deeply learned and widely travelled scholar. An extremely wide ranging book ... seeks to relate all of these issues to central debates in contemporary moral philosophy, and it does so with both panache and commitment. There is a strong skipper at the helm of this ship ... The book is impressive on several grounds ... it is an innovative text that is the product of much reading in several disciplines brought against the standard of considerable accumulated wisdom ... the writing is lucid and never obscure ... it is a pioneering effort and sets out a seminal agenda for subsequent work. Among a mixed crop of current books, here is a volume that can be commended as essential reading. A far reaching, insightful and even-handed account of the multiple theories of morality developed by contemporary philosophy; how parts of these became illustrated and refined through geographical examples; and how the very essence of geography invokes moral issues ... its wide review, critiques and examples would convince any sceptical reader of the importance of connecting geography and morality. I enjoyed the book immensely and will use it in my classes ... I found the book to provide strong evidence that there are ways of viewing the moral and the good that only geography provides. The first major text book that seeks to explore in an integrated fashion the interface between geography and moral philosophy ... In a brief review, it is impossible to do full justice to this important work ... an extremely wide ranging book. In only some 214 pages of text, it seeks to relate all of these issues to central debates in contemporary moral philosophy, and it does so with both panache and commitment. "A richly suggestive text, written by a deeply learned and widely travelled scholar. An extremely wide ranging book ... seeks to relate all of these issues to central debates in contemporary moral philosophy, and it does so with both panache and commitment.

About this edition

• Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 0748612793
• ISBN 13: 9780748612796
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272