Decent People

Care has performed a valuable service by examining the variety of motivating factors that support a moral life. His caution and reluctance to accept easy answers are commendable. ― Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association

It is a distinctive feature of this engaging book that it contrives to be both unsettling and comforting at the same time. ― Practical Philosophy

Norman Care writes lucidly and engagingly, without technical jargon. His ideas speak to concerns everyone has, or should have. This often subtle and highly nuanced book makes in important contribution to philosophical ethics in the ways that it takes emotional responses seriously. ― Philosophy and Phenomenological Research

As part of his on-going project of becoming reconciled to the human condition, Norman Care asks how we are to respond to the apparent fact that people are, from time to time, simply indifferent to what they would even admit were serious moral issues. In taking up related issues, he considers the thorny problem of how to motivate concern for very distant future generations, which makes an important contribution to enviornmental ethics. One of the refreshing things about Norman Care’s work is that he is impossible to classify, he appears to have no axes to grind, and he defines issues for himself in a novel way. — Claudia Card