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What is Good?: The Search for the Best Way to Live
 
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What is Good?: The Search for the Best Way to Live (Paperback)

by A.C. Grayling (Author)
5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

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What is Good?: The Search for the Best Way to Live + The Meaning of Things: Applying Philosophy to Life + Life, Sex and Ideas: The Good Life without God
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Editorial Reviews

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

Product Description
One of the most fundamental questions in our life is to find out what we value - what principles we want to live by and which codes we will use to guide our behaviour. Most of us want to live a good life. But what, in today's secular society, does 'good' actually mean? To classical Greeks, the acquisition of knowledge, the enjoyment of the senses, creativity and beauty were all aspects of life to strive for. Then came the volcanic declarations of St Paul and his fundamentalist ideas on sin and human nature. In WHAT IS GOOD?, A.C. Grayling examines these and other proposals on how to live a good life, from the 'heroic' ideals of the Greek poets to Kant's theories on freedom and the UN Declaration on Human Rights.

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Product Details

  • Paperback: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Phoenix (an Imprint of The Orion Publishing Group Ltd ) (February 5, 2004)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0753817551
  • ISBN-13: 978-0753817551
  • Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 9.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.com Sales Rank: #348,948 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Goodness as an Enlightenment Value, April 18, 2009
A. C. Grayling is a philosopher in the Anglo-American philosophical style, but recently, he has taken to writing about "life" issues with the vigor and rigor than the analytic method requires, but eliminating the Ivory Towers so that only philosophical initiates can approach the "wisdom of everyday life." This book addresses how humans were once good toward each other before the religious trinity of Judeo-Christo-Islam infected the axiological order with divine commandments largely incoherent, if not inhumane.

In this well-designed book, Grayling appeals to the THREE Enlightenments: (1) the Greco-Roman (2) Renaissance, and (3) 18th century, which he continues to believe expresses the very best of the humanist response to religious dogma and absurd doctrines. He admits that Greek ethics is not for everyone -- even Aristotle admitted as much -- but we have more recent naturalistically moral writers, such as Hucheson, Hume, and Smith, that provide us with reason, experience, and empirical foundations to make prudent decisions -- without consulting a Bible, the Oracle at Delphi, or an Imam at Mecca.

For readers made timid by philosophy, Grayling makes commonsense of natural wisdom as accessible as fruit in an orchard. All one has to do in choose which course of action, based on what values one esteems, and what facts we are certain. The rest is rather clearcut and straight forward, and the joys of a humanistic goodness may again one day reign supreme -- before we all kill each other in their god's name.
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