How Good People Make Tough Choices Rev Ed: Resolving the Dilemmas of Ethical Living Paperback – November 24, 2009

Very good read. The examples cited are all relevant and elicit thought and reflection. I recommend this book and predict I will read it again and again.

The late Rushworth Kidder, who founded the Institute for Global Ethics, wrote this and "Moral Courage" - both of which I have read and use regularly, and buy to give as training "prizes" (if the recipients are ethically allowed to accept!) in ethics training in the meetings & hospitality industry.Highly recommended.

This book points out aptly how several of our values, such as mercy and justice as one several pairs, come in conflict. It isn't so much a good value vs. a bad value in many cases, but that our values actually conflict. He covers this subject and hopefully contributes to the perception that most people intend to do good but simply weigh one value as higher than the other. This explains why, for instance, a judge may sentence a rich youth less severely than a poor youth, viewing the crime as either a mistake deserving mercy or a crime deserving justice, depending on the judge's own personal evaluation of or affinity for the youth.

This is the book my ethics class is based on. This author knows his subject well and I enjoyed reading the real-life scenarios presented. We have all faced right vs. right situations in our lives and this was very informative and though provoking.

This is a well-written introduction to practical ethics and more. A journalist, Kidder's first goal is to communicate clearly and effectively with a wide audience. Kidder gives readers a thorough discussion of what constitutes ethical thinking, including selected excellent quotes and references from historic and modern sources. His many examples can help real people faced with real ethical choices wade through "right versus wrong" moral temptations and, far more commonly and importantly, the "right versus right" dilemmas.The book is a "chewer," but the meal is a virtual Thanksgiving.Jim Hulbert

Not a bad read if you're looking into ways to break down moral decisions. The book provides a clear way to identify what kind of dilemma is in front of you and by the end provides the author's insight on which decisions seem to be most beneficial. However the criteria for decision making as the author hopes the readers to take in by the end of the book is at times muddled and subjective. Your idea of utilitarianism may be to save the bus full of children but my idea of it may be to save the one doctor who might go on to cure cancer. In the end all the reader is left with is the understanding that there are decisions which they will face with no right (or rather wrong) choice and that the choice they do make will define their ethical character. Whether you choose mercy over justice or the individual over society doesn't matter as long as you have the common sense to make the decision yourself and stand by it. Whether you need to read this book or not to make "tough" decisions depends on how hard set your core values are but you'll have nothing to lose from reading it.

I needed this book for one of my courses and loved it. Great read. Go for it.

Bought for a college course, really enjoying it so far.