The Power of Ethics

November 1, 2020
An easy-to-use manual for determining ethical behavior in our bewildering times. Liautaud, who runs her own consulting company and teaches ethics at Stanford, proves that it's possible to write a book about ethics without deploying the words virtue or utilitarian or the names Plato, Aristotle, Kant, Bentham, or Mill. Readers accustomed to historically grounded philosophical works of broad abstraction or technical argumentation will find this text less demanding. In one sense, the book is philosophy for the digital age: In promising that this "book will arm you with four straightforward steps to tackle any dilemma," the author flirts with subsuming ethical deliberation to an algorithm. Applying her framework of identifying guiding principles, gathering relevant information, considering all stakeholders, and anticipating possible outcomes will direct an actor toward a decision. However, without normative standards for principles, ethics can quickly collapse to vested interests. The author sometimes reduces difficult philosophical questions to a series of bullet points that would fit nicely in a corporate PowerPoint presentation. Furthermore, if ethicists of the digital era such as Jaron Lanier and Tristan Harris have taught us anything, it's that algorithms are not neutral. Liautaud neglects to interrogate some of the assumptions of her framework. Why, say, should we consider all stakeholders? Even if we allow applied ethics some lassitude with theory, the author runs headlong into the reality that we tend not to apply frameworks to our ethical dilemmas. Let's say that after reading this book, we do apply the author's framework but do not like the outcome it provides. Is it more likely that we will act against our intuitions or that we will plug some different principles into the framework until we get an outcome we feel better about? Liautaud provides several fascinating cases studies of recent ethical issues, which she analyzes with the kind of nuance we sorely need these days. Despite shortcomings, the simple-to-understand narrative encourages deliberate reflection, an ethical act in its own right.

COPYRIGHT(2020) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

December 1, 2020
In this approachable guide, Stanford University ethics lecturer Liautaud empathizes with people striving to apply ethical reasoning in contemporary society. She walks readers through a framework designed to evaluate situations and get through the confounding clutter of grey areas and misinformation. The framework includes four steps: recentering personal ethics; considering if there's sufficient information at hand to make an informed decision; determining who or what outside source might be influencing a decision; and imagining possible consequences, both immediate and future. She applies this process to multiple scenarios taken from recent headlines, and examines each in depth, delving into nuances and modeling the framework process. Throughout, Liautaud emphasizes that individual choices do matter, and urges readers to take responsibility for their actions and hold public officials and personalities responsible for theirs. Her final message is that ethics are a crucial component of our humanity, and that we all should take action, raise our voice, and take a stand. Readers will appreciate her logical guidance.

COPYRIGHT(2020) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.