How to Be Good

What is goodness? Is goodness achievable, and if so, how? If being a good person is a matter of doing the right thing, then what is the right thing to do? Is it acting rationally, promoting happiness, exercising moderation in all things or respecting the freedom of others, or is it somehow a concoction of all these abilities, wisely adjusted to suit circumstances?

In this instructive, entertaining and often humorous book, Gary Cox, best-selling author of How to Be an Existentialist and How to Be a Philosopher, investigates the phenomenon of goodness and what, if anything, it is to be a good person and a paragon of virtue. Part easygoing exploration of the age-old subject of moral philosophy, part personal development and improvement manual, How to be Good carefully leads the reader on a fascinating journey through the often strange and surprising world of ethics.

This book covers issues from abortion to animal rights and delves into the meaning, achievability and reality of goodness through an examination of the work of major philosophical thinkers such as Aristotle, Ayer, Bentham, Gautama Buddha, Hare, Hobbes, Kant, Mill, Nietzsche, Moore, Plato, Sartre, Singer, Thomson and Warnock.