Meditations for the Humanist Ethics for a Secular Age

by Grayling, A. C.

• ISBN13: 9780195151589
• ISBN10: 0195151585
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2002-05-16
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

"Magnanimity is in short supply," writes A. C. Grayling is this wonderfully incisive book, "but it is the main ingredient in everything that makes the world a better place" And indeed Meditations for the Humanist: Ethics for a Secular Age is itself a generous, insightful, wide-ranging, magnanimous inquiry into the philosophical and ethical questions that bear most strongly on the human condition. Containing nearly fifty linked commentaries on topics ranging from love, lying, perseverance, revenge, racism, religion, history, loyalty, health, and leisure, Meditations for the Humanist does not offer definitive statements but rather prompts to reflection. These brief essays serve as springboards to the kind of thoughtful examination without which, as Socrates famously claimed, life is not worth living. As Graying notes in his introduction, "It is not necessary to arrive at polished theories on all these subjects, but it is necessary to give them at least a modicum of thought if one's life is to have some degree of shape and direction." The book is divided into three sections-Virtues and Attributes, Foes and Fallacies, and Amenities and Goods-and within these sections essays are grouped into related clusters. But each piece can be read alone and each is characterized by brevity, wit, and a liveliness of mind that recalls the best of Montaigne and Samuel Johnson. Grayling's own perspective on these subjects is broadened and deepened by liberal quotations from Sophocles and Shakespeare to Byron, Twain, Proust, Simone de Beauvoir, Martin Luther King, Jr., and many others. For those wishing to explore ethical issues outside the framework of organized religious belief, Meditations for the Humanist offers an inviting map to the country of philosophical reflection.

Author Biography

A. C. Grayling is Reader in Philosophy at Birbeck College, University of London, and Supernumerary Fellow of St. Anne's College, Oxford.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. vii
Virtues and Attributes
Moralising	p. 3
Tolerance	p. 7
Mercy	p. 10
Civility	p. 12
Compromise	p. 15
Fear	p. 18
Courage	p. 21
Defeat	p. 24
Sorrow	p. 26
Death	p. 29
Hope	p. 34
Perseverance	p. 37
Prudence	p. 40
Frankness	p. 42
Lying	p. 45
Perjury	p. 48
Betrayal	p. 51
Loyalty	p. 54
Blame	p. 56
Punishment	p. 58
Delusion	p. 60
Love	p. 63
Happiness	p. 71
Foes and Fallacies
Nationalism	p. 77
Racism	p. 80
Speciesism	p. 83
Hate	p. 86
Revenge	p. 89
Intemperance	p. 92
Depression	p. 96
Christianity	p. 99
Sin	p. 108
Repentance	p. 112
Faith	p. 116
Miracles	p. 125
Prophecy	p. 127
Virginity	p. 130
Paganism	p. 133
Blasphemy	p. 136
Obscenity	p. 138
Poverty	p. 142
Capitalism	p. 144
Amenities and Goods
Reason	p. 153
Education	p. 157
Excellence	p. 161
Ambition	p. 163
Acting	p. 165
Art	p. 168
Health	p. 170
Leisure	p. 173
Peace	p. 176
Reading	p. 178
Memory	p. 182
History	p. 186
Leadership	p. 189
Travel	p. 192
Privacy	p. 195
Family	p. 198
Age	p. 201
Gifts	p. 203
Trifles	p. 206
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