"What is Good? The Search for the Best Way to Live" by A.C. Grayling

Phoenix Publishing, 2004.
ISBN 978-0753817551

“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?’”

Pop philosopher Anthony Grayling presents a condensed history of thought on how best to live one’s life, covering authors from the classical era through to the 20th century. 

Grayling first examines Greek philosophers including the Stoics, Epicureans and Cynics, outlining their assumptions and conclusions on how life is best lived. His admiration for these philosophers is clear, and it’s quite noticeable that the tone of the book changes abruptly once the subject of Christianity is broached. His coverage of antiquity is largely concerned with decrying anti-intellectual Christianity (and, to a significant extent, all religion), and expounding rationality and humanism as the right path to philosophical enlightenment.

To be fair to Grayling, he admits in the introduction that he is writing from a personal rather than an academic perspective; still, it sometimes feels like one has to read through Grayling’s pro-humanist bias for a whole chapter. To be any less subtle, the book would have to come with little glasses with “humanism rules OK” printed on the lenses. Sure, at first, the novelty value would be good, but once you’d gone to a fancy dress party dressed as a fundamentalist-atheist once, the fun would wear off and you’d be left with another non-recyclable item in a throwaway world. All in all, you have to applaud Grayling for taking the decision to save the environmental damage caused by throwaway humanism blinkers, and instead opting to instil the same quality in his rhetoric. But I digress.

The work cheers up by the time the 18th century philosophes are on the scene, and the last 300 years of philosophy gives Grayling plenty of theories to explore. He continues to focus on philosophers he considers to be part of enlightenment or humanist thought, although some rebuttals and alternative viewpoints are presented.  Turning to ethics in the 20th century, subjects from the nature of man to euthanasia get an airing. 

Just when one expects to find an epilogue, Grayling seems to have dropped a pro-humanist flier into the manuscript. The publishers have faithfully reprinted the out-and-out pitch for atheism and humanism, in which science is to replace religion, leading to “a better and finer understanding of what conduces   to the human good”.

Ok, I admit it; I enjoyed reading this book, and as something of a philosophical ignoramus I learned plenty from it. Most of Grayling’s humanist evangelising is well-reasoned if poorly veiled, and I didn’t find it too distracting from the core subject of thinkers and philosophies. While certainly not complete or in depth history of philosophy, it’s not trying to be a textbook, and it does provide an interesting and whistle-stop tour through 2 millennia in a little over 200 pages.