Meditations for the Humanist: Ethics for a Secular Age

Rating:
Summary: Ethics without the burden of religion
Review: "Meditations for the Humanist: Ethics for a Secular Age" is a collection of 61 short essays, many only 2 pages long, that are meant to prompt reflection on a range of ethical questions and other issues of the human condition. As the title suggests, the book attempts (quite successfully) to address its topics from a perspective orthogonal to that of Christianity and other religious systems. The longest essays are, however, "Christianity" and "Faith," and Grayling does discuss religious viewpoints when relevant.

Grayling writes with wit and his arguments are both persuasive and well reasoned (other than his essay, "Speciesism," which uses the underlying false argument that 0.98 is so close to 1 that (0.98)^n = 1 for any n.) But the best reason to read "Meditations for the Humanist" is that it is uplifting in its ethical and moral message - and by being so proves many of its points.

Rating:
Summary: A Very Enjoyable Read - but read the caveat
Review: Beware : this is actually a perfect duplicate of "The Meaning of Things" - so don't be fooled or mislead into buying the same book twice, like I was.

However, here is my review for "The Meaning of Things" :

I'm sure any reader of this book will take away some favourite sections. For me, the consecutively-placed entries on Betrayal, Loyalty & Blame were exemplary juxtapositions of those complementary topics.

I would also recommend the entry on Racism.

Given the brevity of the articles, sure they can't give you an in-depth discussion on the topic, but its just deep enough to get one thinking about the topics.

I think this would be an excellent 'pocket-book' to dip into for anyone in their late teens trying to come to terms with the world.

Having read this book, I moved directly to reading Graylings follow-up book, The Reason of Things.

Only disappointment - no Bibliography, so when Grayling frequently quotes other Authors / Philosophers, I don't know where to go to for further reading.

Rating:
Summary: A Very Enjoyable Read - but read the caveat
Review: Beware : this is actually a perfect duplicate of "The Meaning of Things" - so don't be fooled or mislead into buying the same book twice, like I was.

However, here is my review for "The Meaning of Things" :

I'm sure any reader of this book will take away some favourite sections. For me, the consecutively-placed entries on Betrayal, Loyalty & Blame were exemplary juxtapositions of those complementary topics.

I would also recommend the entry on Racism.

Given the brevity of the articles, sure they can't give you an in-depth discussion on the topic, but its just deep enough to get one thinking about the topics.

I think this would be an excellent 'pocket-book' to dip into for anyone in their late teens trying to come to terms with the world.

Having read this book, I moved directly to reading Graylings follow-up book, The Reason of Things.

Only disappointment - no Bibliography, so when Grayling frequently quotes other Authors / Philosophers, I don't know where to go to for further reading.

Rating:
Summary: A jewel of practical philosophy
Review: These pithy, lucid and elegant essays are about the things that really matter in life. A. C. Grayling is a philosopher who brings a remarkably wide range of reading and thought to bear on the big questions, in a way that is accessible to everyone, while being full of surprises and illumination. Not many philosophers these days are able to speak with authority yet clarity to anyone interested to read; and he does so with profound good sense strongly fortified by the great resource of literature and ideas in the Western tradition. He writes about the human condition for human beings; he has no truck with superstitions and religions, and believes that the good for humankind is to be found in the best human things - kindness, reason, culture, education and love - which is a message of hope and aspiration. There is something about A. C. Grayling's beautiful style and unflinching steadiness of purpose which makes these essays, even when he affirms anew the old wisdoms, belong to the same vintage as Montaigne and Bacon, Hazlitt (about whom he has written a wonderful biography: see elsewhere in Amazon) and Emerson, J. S. Mill and Oliver Wendell Holmes. This is a very good read, and a very educative one.

Rating:
Summary: A jewel of practical philosophy
Review: This excellent collection of short, pithy, elegant essays on life's great questions is a best-seller in England, where it was first published, and it attracted rave reviews which your readers should know about (all the following appear on the British paperback edition): "Grayling writes with clarity, elegance, and the occasional aphoristic twist, conscious of standing in that long essayistic tradition that runs from Montaigne and Bacon to Emerson and Thoreau" (Sunday Telegraph); "This is a book to be dipped into and savoured over time; deeply humane and subtle in its thought as well as being imbued with a rare spirit of enlightenment" (Financial Times); "Astute and informative" (Independent on Sunday); "The essays are neatly turned, well researched, and dense with quotations from an impressive variety of sources; I admire the sheer courage of the undertaking - there is much to like" (Sunday Times);"Enlightened and enlightening" (Private Eye);"Grayling combines wide learning with wise argument to fulfil the role he assigns to these essays - to be prommpts to reflection" (Freethinker); and so on for many more. - I think this book makes a difference for the good, and everyone should read it.