Life, Sex and Ideas: The Good Life without God
"A distinctive voice somewhere between Mark Twain and Michel Montaigne" is how Psychology Today described A.C. Grayling. In Life, Sex, and Ideas: The Good Life Without God, readers have the pleasure of hearing this distinctive voice address some of the most serious topics in philosophy—and in our daily lives—including reflections on guns, anger, conflict, war; monsters, madness, decay; liberty, justice, utopia; suicide, loss, and remembrance.
A civilized society, says Grayling, is one which never ceases having a discussion with itself about what human life should best be. In this book, Grayling adds to this discussion a series of short informal essays about ethics, ideas, and culture. A recurring theme is religion, of which he writes "there is no greater social evil." He argues, for instance, that liberal education is better than religion for inculcating moral values. "Education in literature, history, and appreciation of the arts," he says, "opens the possibility for us to live more reflectively and knowledgeably, especially about the nature and variety of human experience. That in turn increases our capacity for understanding others better, so that we can treat them with respect and sympathy, however different their outlook on life." Thought provoking rather than definitive, these essays don't tell readers what to think, but only note what has been thought about how it is best to live.
A person who does not think about life, the author reminds us, is like a stranger mapless in a foreign land. These brief and suggestive essays offer us the outlines of a map, with avenues of thought that are a pleasure to wander down.
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Life, Sex and Ideas: The Good Life without God
"A distinctive voice somewhere between Mark Twain and Michel Montaigne" is how Psychology Today described A.C. Grayling. In Life, Sex, and Ideas: The Good Life Without God, readers have the pleasure of hearing this distinctive voice address some of the most serious topics in philosophy—and in our daily lives—including reflections on guns, anger, conflict, war; monsters, madness, decay; liberty, justice, utopia; suicide, loss, and remembrance.
A civilized society, says Grayling, is one which never ceases having a discussion with itself about what human life should best be. In this book, Grayling adds to this discussion a series of short informal essays about ethics, ideas, and culture. A recurring theme is religion, of which he writes "there is no greater social evil." He argues, for instance, that liberal education is better than religion for inculcating moral values. "Education in literature, history, and appreciation of the arts," he says, "opens the possibility for us to live more reflectively and knowledgeably, especially about the nature and variety of human experience. That in turn increases our capacity for understanding others better, so that we can treat them with respect and sympathy, however different their outlook on life." Thought provoking rather than definitive, these essays don't tell readers what to think, but only note what has been thought about how it is best to live.
A person who does not think about life, the author reminds us, is like a stranger mapless in a foreign land. These brief and suggestive essays offer us the outlines of a map, with avenues of thought that are a pleasure to wander down.
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Life, Sex and Ideas: The Good Life without God

Life, Sex and Ideas: The Good Life without God

by A. C. Grayling
Life, Sex and Ideas: The Good Life without God

Life, Sex and Ideas: The Good Life without God

by A. C. Grayling

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Overview

"A distinctive voice somewhere between Mark Twain and Michel Montaigne" is how Psychology Today described A.C. Grayling. In Life, Sex, and Ideas: The Good Life Without God, readers have the pleasure of hearing this distinctive voice address some of the most serious topics in philosophy—and in our daily lives—including reflections on guns, anger, conflict, war; monsters, madness, decay; liberty, justice, utopia; suicide, loss, and remembrance.
A civilized society, says Grayling, is one which never ceases having a discussion with itself about what human life should best be. In this book, Grayling adds to this discussion a series of short informal essays about ethics, ideas, and culture. A recurring theme is religion, of which he writes "there is no greater social evil." He argues, for instance, that liberal education is better than religion for inculcating moral values. "Education in literature, history, and appreciation of the arts," he says, "opens the possibility for us to live more reflectively and knowledgeably, especially about the nature and variety of human experience. That in turn increases our capacity for understanding others better, so that we can treat them with respect and sympathy, however different their outlook on life." Thought provoking rather than definitive, these essays don't tell readers what to think, but only note what has been thought about how it is best to live.
A person who does not think about life, the author reminds us, is like a stranger mapless in a foreign land. These brief and suggestive essays offer us the outlines of a map, with avenues of thought that are a pleasure to wander down.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780195177558
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Publication date: 12/16/2004
Pages: 256
Sales rank: 732,434
Product dimensions: 5.20(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

A.C. Grayling is a British literary journalist and university professor of philosophy, who contributes the weekly column "The Reason of Things" to The London Times and writes frequently for Financial Times and The New York Review of Books. He is a Reader in Philosophy at Birbeck College, University of London, and Supernumerary Fellow of St. Anne's College, Oxford. His books include Meditations for the Humanist: Ethics for a Secular Age.

Table of Contents

Introductionxi
Moral Matters
Emotion3
Moral Education6
Emancipation and Ethics11
Symbols16
Religion20
Credulity24
Fasting27
Meat30
Evil33
Luxury36
Games39
Marriage42
Sex45
Benevolence60
Morality63
Public Culture
Identity69
Cultures72
Conservation76
Teachers82
Intellectuals84
Community and Society
Politics91
Voting94
Utopia97
Profit101
Power104
Protest106
Justice109
Liberty112
Pluralism116
Anger and War
Anger121
Conflict124
Guns126
War129
War's Causes132
Western Victories135
Triumph138
Safety141
War Crimes144
Vengeance146
Capital Punishment148
Bystanders151
Slavery154
Experience157
Grief and Remembrance
Suicide163
Loss166
Obsequies169
Remembrance172
Nature and Naturalness
Naturalness177
Nature181
Monsters184
Madness187
Clones193
Decay196
Reading and Thinking
The Essay201
Reading and Reviewing206
Biography215
Becoming Philosophical219
Philosophy228
Reality231
Values and Knowledge234
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