Geoffrey M. Cox
Macroethics. Personal Responsibility in an Age of Global Problems

Review Assignment
Make a summary of the author’s main contentions

This study starts with the point of view that classic ethics are failing when they are confronted with many global problems. Compared to other periods of time, the world is able to connect nowadays. Because of the possibilities of the media, nearly ever person has qualitatively and quantitatively choices. The author emphasizes that we don’t choose to be global citizens; she claims that the world’s people are global citizens. People would choose the way of living with the media. The human nature is the basis for the philosophical morality. The concept of virtue, which was defined by Aristotle and other philosophers is basing on the philosophical morality. They underline that people fulfill their potential by using their intellect and will. „Excellent“ would not be given by nature, people have to put afford in work to achieve this status. Besides, other philosophers characterized mortality apart from particular human talents and functions. For examples Kant refers to rationality or Hume choose rationality as criterion. Other authors also claim natural right as the source of ethics. In all of these described concepts, ethics are based on essential human experience and our notions of ethical goodness are intrinsically bound up with our self-definition. At the macro level, ethics deduce from the essential nature like social beings. Through social connections and the fabrics of communal life, people are shaped. Over those actions, people obtain beliefs, values, habits, purposes and goals, which are ingredients of the human life. These ingredients are not completely private. As products of our social life, they derive from interactions with others. The wind of change would sometimes blow through the social landscape