After Dinner Conversation - Government Ethics

Philosophy | Ethics Short Story Fiction

By: W.M. Pienton, Jan McCleery, Ty Lazar, Earl Smith, David Rose, Sierra Simopoulos, Brian Howlett, David Rich, Richard Pettigrew, Kelly Piner

Narrated by: Virtual Voice

Length: 4 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's summary

Ranked Top 10 "Best Lit Mags of 2023" by Chill Subs

Synopsis: Carefully curated stories from our monthly magazine to create a themed short story book about the philosophy and ethics of government law and regulation. Perfect for classrooms and book clubs, each story is 1,500-7,000 words and comes with five suggested discussion questions.

• The Book Of Approved Words: A government approved "author" is tempted to show the world the words they are missing.
• The Draft: Society forces all babies to be born, but creates a lottery system requiring all men to care for the offspring.
• For Your Safety: Zoe is visited by the government for having sexual relations without first filing an "Intimate Partnership Agreement."
• Understanding Ice Cream: Professor Gault meets a mysterious stranger that causes him to question the underlying causes of political polarization.
• Prohibition: A wealthy addict heads to a seedy part of town for his fix and gets more than he bargained for.
• The Decay: Benjamin's pharmacy suggests he consider enrolling in a government program to end his life.
• The Kill Registry: In a world where everyone in society gets "one free kill," the narrator finds out his attractive coworker got a promotion.
• The Crate: Two women escape from a country that forces equal treatment to one that encourages differences, and find both have their issues.
• Form Seven Alpha: A city resident is caught breaking the law and is given the choice between one of five punishment options.
• Euthanasia: In a dystopian future, Hank works on a farm for the euthanizing of sick, unwanted, or abandoned animals.

Reviews ★★★★★
“With Science fiction we can explore other galaxies and alien conflicts, but with philosophical fiction we can explore other minds and ethical conflicts. Let this book take you on a Phi-Fi adventure.”
— William Irwin, Ph.D. - Philosophy Professor, King's College

“After Dinner Conversation has taken up the initiative to write themed collections of short stories that fit focused ethics courses – say, a course on bioethics, AI ethics, Tech ethics etc. These collections can offer a spine for such courses or individual stories could be added to a course as illustrative material to stimulate discussion. The stories are lively and engaging and followed by a set of questions to start classroom discussion. Also, outside of educational contexts, the stories will work nicely to stimulate conversation in families, elder hostels, youth clubs, or book groups.”
— Luc Bovens, Ph.D. - Philosophy Professor, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill