{"product_id":"meditations-for-the-humanist-ethics-for-a-secular-age-9780195151589","title":"Meditations for the Humanist: Ethics for a Secular Age","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"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 ones 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. Graylings 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.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45648176218165,"sku":"ByrdShop_0195151585","price":34.07,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780195151589.jpg?v=1781711752","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/meditations-for-the-humanist-ethics-for-a-secular-age-9780195151589","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}