For readers engaged in intellectual struggle, ethical thinking, and trying to figure out how to live a purposeful, fulfilling life, here is a critical and accessible approach to ethics. Moral dilemmas challenge us to think through sticky situations and lead us to look for moral grounding. Following Cicero and other ancient philosophers, the author views ethics in terms of the question of who and what sort of person one ought to be, without relying on religion or any other prescriptions.

Moral dilemmas challenge ethical theories and lead us to look for moral grounding. I offer a new approach based on identity understood as a systematic web of roles that explains why we are dilemma-prone, allows us to countenance both ethical objectivity and pluralism, and opens up new avenues for ethical thought.