新たな選択肢、あるいは自身の宗教思想を補完してくれるものとして欧米でも仏教に関心を持つ人が増えています。現代の倫理的課題に対する答えを求める声も高まっており、本書は仏教の視点から現代人のモラルに深く関わる問題に取り組み、仏教入門書では扱われることの少ない仏教倫理に深く切り込んでいます。改訂新版は神経科学、人工知能、超人間主義、遺伝子編集といった最先端の生物医学技術が生んだ課題に仏教がどのような視点をもたらしてくれるかを検討しています。(cf. Buddhism, #003; The Buddha, #041)
   

• Offers an introduction to Buddhist moral teachings and considers Buddhist ethics surrounding some of the most pressing topics today
• Includes discussion of the ethical challenges posed by cutting-edge developments in science and biomedical technologies, including neuroscience, artificial intelligence, transhumanism, and gene editing
• New edition includes updates to take into account social and political developments since the first edition

   
With over 520 million followers, Buddhism is now the world's fourth largest religion. Over the last seventy years or so there has been a growing interest in Buddhism, and it continues to capture the imagination of many in the West, who see it as either an alternative or a supplement to their own religious beliefs.
   
For complex cultural and historical reasons, ethics has not received as much attention in traditional Buddhist thought as it has in the West. In this Very Short Introduction, Damien Keown explores how Buddhism approaches a range of moral issues of our age, including our relationship with our environment, our treatment of animals, and our stance on abortion, on sexuality and gender, on violence and war. This new edition also includes a discussion of the ethical challenges posed by cutting-edge developments in science and biomedical technologies, including neuroscience, artificial intelligence, transhumanism, and gene editing.