Markkula Center of Applied Ethics

From the Editors

Welcome to the second issue of Issues in Ethics, the newsletter of the Santa Clara University Center for Applied Ethics. The Center is dedicated to the idea that our human capacity to deal with ethical issues can develop and improve through study, learning and thoughtful reflection. Issues in Ethics is one means by which the Center attempts to facilitate thoughtful reflection on moral questions.

Although life in our society raises a large number of moral dilemmas, there are few places where people can go to discover ways of analyzing the ethical aspects of these dilemmas. Consequently, in this issue of Issues in Ethics, we have included an article addressing the subject of how one goes about thinking through an ethical dilemma. Also included is an article describing some relevant research on how people's willingness to behave unethically changes when they are given the opportunity to reflect on their moral behavior.

As in every issue, this one also contains several "Ethics Briefs." These Briefs are not intended to take a position on the issues they address. Rather, the Briefs try to provide balanced summaries of the positions taken on each side of the issues, identifying the moral values at stake in these debates. The Center hopes the Ethics Briefs will enable readers to understand the issues more clearly and begin to make up their own minds about their personal positions.

Several readers have remarked on the absence of bylines in our articles. "Why isn't the author of the article identified?" they ask. The reason is simple: the articles are jointly written by the staff. If bylines were included, the same names would appear at the end of every article. To save space we have simply omitted bylines.

We hope this issue of Issues in Ethics is informative. We continue to welcome your letters containing comments, suggestions or alternative points of view on any of the topics in this newsletter.