Synopses & Reviews
A compelling guide to ethical thinking for everyday life In How to Make Good Decisions and Be Right All the Time Iain King presents an introduction to moral philosophy from the ancient Greeks to the Enlightenment and beyond. He argues that right and wrong need a Newtonian revolution so that they are no longer a matter of judgment or guesswork and presents a system of simple formulas for solving difficult moral quandaries. Clearly argued, the book combines new ideas with old and rips apart traditional tenets of morality, dismantling even the golden rule that you should "do unto others as you would have done unto you." In their place, the author constructs a new, comprehensive system of ethics, identifying the basic DNA of right and wrong and offering clear advice on how to be good in today's complicated and challenging world. Sometimes controversial and thoroughly engaging throughout, How to Make Good Decisions and Be Right All the Time is required reading for anyone with a difficult decision to make.
Synopsis
A compelling guide to ethical thinking for everyday life In How to Make Good Decisions and Be Right All the Time Iain King presents an introduction to moral philosophy from the ancient Greeks to the Enlightenment and beyond. He argues that right and wrong need a Newtonian revolution so that they are no longer a matter of judgment or guesswork and presents a system of simple formulas for solving difficult moral quandaries. Clearly argued, the book combines new ideas with old and rips apart traditional tenets of morality, dismantling even the golden rule that you should do unto others as you would have done unto you. In their place, the author constructs a new, comprehensive system of ethics, identifying the basic DNA of right and wrong and offering clear advice on how to be good in today's complicated and challenging world.
Sometimes controversial and thoroughly engaging throughout, How to Make Good Decisions and Be Right All the Time is required reading for anyone with a difficult decision to make.
Synopsis
A compelling guide to ethical thinking for everyday life In How to Make Good Decisions and Be Right All the Time Iain King presents an introduction to moral philosophy from the ancient Greeks to the Enlightenment and beyond. He argues that right and wrong need a Newtonian revolution so that they are no longer a matter of judgment or guesswork and presents a system of simple formulas for solving difficult moral quandaries. Clearly argued, the book combines new ideas with old and rips apart traditional tenets of morality, dismantling even the golden rule that you should "do unto others as you would have done unto you." In their place, the author constructs a new, comprehensive system of ethics, identifying the basic DNA of right and wrong and offering clear advice on how to be good in today's complicated and challenging world.
Sometimes controversial and thoroughly engaging throughout, How to Make Good Decisions and Be Right All the Time is required reading for anyone with a difficult decision to make.
Table of Contents
Part I. The Problem: We Need to Make Decisions, But We Don't Know How1. Five challenges to the formula of right and wrong2. Desperately seeking a system3. Unreliable advice from religion and dice4. The Enlightenment decision-making machine: do whatever is best...5. ... does not seem best6. Can we fix it: the pieces of the puzzle
Part II. The Proof: Finding the Basics of Right and Wrong7. The meaning of life8. A plan for Robinson Crusoe9. Answering an eight-year old who incessantly asks 'why?'10. I say this, you say that - can we ever know who's right?11. Applying the Sherlock Holmes method12. How to become a better person (and answer Aristotle)13. The Help Principle14. The DNA of right and wrong
Part III. The Principle: Refining the Help Principle15. Putting the DNA of 'right' and 'wrong' in a Petri dish16. Using your watch to tell right from wrong17. Letting people choose for themselves18. Torturers and charitable show-offs19. Revenge, reciprocity and received wisdom20. What if you didn't mean to do it?21. The new ladder to humility22. The first seven Principles of right and wrong
Part IV. The Programme: Extending the Principles to Other Problems23. The myth of blame24. Punishment, mercy and remorse25. Something funny about promises26. A credible rule on lying and the Richard Nixon problem27. Rules for romance and sex28. How to choose in small groups29. How to choose in large groups30. The system for making decisions31. The riddle answered?
Part V. Practical Advice: For Real People in the Modern World32. So why aren't people good then?33. Why people hate lawyers34. When it's best to be bad35. The Live Aid problem: does charity begin at home?36. The Mother Teresa quandary: can you be good without giving everything away? 37. The man on the morning train38. How to lead a good life in a rough world
Part VI. The Prognosis: How to Make Good Decisions and Be Right All the Time39. Newton's limits40. What to do and why