Debates

Having a book called "Contemporary Debates in Applied Ethics" as my bedtime reading.

Yes, it sounds dull. I bought this 350-page text some years ago from the Eslite Bookstore (誠品書店) of Taiwan, but did not have the courage to thumb through it until very recently.

Most of my friends know just too well I have little interest in discussions of this kind. To my surprise, the book turns out to be highly interesting. (A substantial portion of the topics are somehow related to medicine, but that's beyond the point.) This is, I must admit, the first time I read serious logical arguments for and against stem cell research, euthanasia, free immigration, privacy ordinance, and so forth.

You may wonder why I bought this book in the first place. The truth is rather a nuisance: I find this paper-back volume lying next to a copy of the original English translation of Franz Kafka's The Castle - which was what I looked for.

PS. By original English translation I mean the text has not been edited by Max Brod or others before it is converted into English. The part-time insurance officer is famous for writing stories of obscure meaning, but much of the difficulties in interpretation roots from his friends and followers who try to explain what the Czech novelist was trying to say.