What is Good?: The Search for the Best Way to Live
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Product Description
INDEPENDENT
"This book reminds us that often the greatest disagreements are between priorities rather than principles."
Review
"A plain man's guide to ethics, from Homer's warriors to Nietzsche's superhero via Plato and Renaissance Man, clearly and elegantly written." SUNDAY TELEGRAPH "This book reminds us that often the greatest disagreements are between priorities rather than principles." INDEPENDENT "Intelligent introduction... rewards your endeavours." -- Martin Tierney THE HERALD "The book is beautifully written and highly engaging and it contains no footnotes." TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT "This popular yet nonetheless highly accomplished philosopher examines the different ways in which to live a good life, as proposed from classical antiquity to the present day." IRISH EXAMINER
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First Sentence
Many important and difficult questions arise in the course of a human life, but few can compare with the most significant question any individual can ask, namely, 'How shall I live, in order to live a good life?' Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Many important and difficult questions arise in the course of a human life, but few can compare with the most significant question any individual can ask, namely, 'How shall I live, in order to live a good life?' Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
116 of 118 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Anthony Grayling is a philosopher with a difference: he actually wants people to read what he writes! And, with books like this, we should all be reading him. The majority of the book is taken up with overviews of how the "good life" has been seen through the ages: from Plato and Aristotle, through the various religions, to more modern interpretations. Grayling beautifully debunks the claims of religion, not least by demonstrating that there is no connection between belief in a god, and behaving well to our fellow creatures. He also questions whether god, on the evidence of the Bible, is actually good, and, whether good or otherwise, why we should obey. Grayling's style is pacy and readable, free from jargon and easy to follow, though far from dumbed down. Grayling shows that a life free from religious superstition is far from bleak, lonely or immoral, but is, in fact, a life of reason, full of the joy of being a part of the natural world which science and the arts have opened up to us. He demonstrates that a morality based on a sincere regard for life is far more valid than one based on religious superstition and the fear of retribution from an "invisible pliceman". Anyone who has ever asked themselves questions such as "What is life for?" "Why am I here?" or "How do I live a good and meaningful life?" really needs to read this book.
26 of 26 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Grayling provides what must be the most enjoyable journey through the history of the search for the good life that is in print today. Always adopting a strong humanist slant (and he puts his cards on the table in the introduction) he charts the struggle between "free will" and submission to divine power across the centuries. In his closing chapters he endeavours to make an overwhelmingly strong case for the human life in a human world, humanly lived and in my opinion he succeeds.
33 of 35 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Unlike some of Graylings other books, this is not a collection of short articles, but a journey from Ancient Greece through to the UN Declaration of Human Rights.
It compares and contrasts the Stoics with Christianity, and then on to Darwin and Mill. The book builds to the final conclusion that you don't need organised religion, the public domain should be wholly secular, leaving religion to the personal sphere.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Enjoyable but flawed
This little volume is quite illuminating on an important subject, but is rather flawed when taken as a whole. Read more
Published 1 month ago by johann28
Well researched but a grating writing style
Although AC Grayling clearly possesses an in depth knowledge of issues concerning how to live a 'good life' spanning most major areas of philosophical thought on the issue, his... Read more
Published 4 months ago by caw1994
Superb: lucid, rational, cogent. Excellent!
My first A. C. Grayling purchase was the excellent Ideas That Matter, whose subtitle - 'A Personal Guide for the 21st Century' - hints at a similar approach to the one taken in... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Sebastian Palmer
Not all that enlightened
This is a readable book and amusing in places. It is not a practical guide to personal behaviour but a comparison of Enlightenment teaching with religious teaching. Read more
Published 8 months ago by budhen
This book and secular humanism are part of the answer
Broadly speaking, there are two "ways of understanding the nature and sources of value": the secular and the transcendental. Read more
Published on 26 Mar 2009 by Sphex
The Rediscovery of Ethics
If you are looking for a prescription of what constitutes a 'good life' then this book may disappoint. Read more
Published on 3 Jun 2008 by JA Foxton
The Book Dawkins Might Have Written
I will restrict my review to just the second chapter of this book, "The Ordinances of God". This perfectly formed 30 page section is the book that Dawkins should have written... Read more
Published on 22 Jan 2008 by A. Skarzynski
Dismay
I find the following smug assertion 'It is fortunate that many who choose to work in medicine, are by inclination, among the best equipped to think them [the dilemma of ethics]... Read more
Published on 24 Oct 2007 by J.V.A.Robinson
What a nice book!
This book is summary of centuries of philosophy. Grayling is surprisingly good in taking the reader through the debate between reason and superstition across the centuries. Read more
Published on 7 April 2007 by -
Talk about being bias!
I've read the bible quite a bit and come from a religious back-ground, what a coincidence that im going to write a negative review on this book..... Read more
Published on 9 Mar 2006 by Candyman
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