PERSONAL ETHICS IN AN

IMPERSONAL WORLD

C. Eugene Conover

Today you rarely find a book that deals with personal ethics in the context of philosophy and theology. This book does and its focus on the effect of the "impersonality" of our world makes it unique.

Taking the campus as a microcosm of society, this critical analysis of its moral climate points up the differing views of the older and younger generations. It reveals the presence of both a new radicalism and a new "privatism" that interpret morality as a personal matter. It examines five perspectives for moral decisions. Each centers on a different criterion the individual's demand for freedom and authenticity, the unique situation calling for decision, the culture with its folk- ways, universal ethical principles, and the theological teach- ings of a particular form of religion.

As our society makes us increasingly dependent on other per- sons, there is a continuing need for a personal morality, and a call for new relationships intermediate to those which are fully personal and those which are "open" and impersonal. But the sense of social responsibility that marks today's theo- logical ethics, our scientific resources for overcoming ig- norance and prejudice, and the universal obligations our moral philosophers formulate, point to a coming social moral- ity that will transcend class, racial, cultural, and religious barriers.

C. EUGENE CONOVER is a graduate of The College of Wooster, Union Theological Seminary, and the University of Cincinnati (Ph.D.). Formerly an active pastor, he is now Pro- fessor of Philosophy, Chairman of the Department of Phi- losophy and Religion, and Dean of Chapel at Lindenwood Col- lege, Missouri. He is also author of Moral Education in Family, School, and Church.