A.C Grayling is professor of philosophy at Birbeck College ,University of London.He is the author of numerous philosophical works.Some of his popular books are ,Moral Values,The meaning of things ,In Freedom's name,Against all Gods.etc
"What is Good?"is a book about one of the perennial quests of human beings - "how shall I live ,in order to live a good life? He studies this by surveying the chief answers proposed by some of the philosophers and thinkers from the classical antiquity to the recent present.He argues that "there have been two large but different conceptions of what best life should be -one a broadly secular attitude rooted in views about human nature and the human condition.The other is a transcendental one that locates the source of moral values outside the human realm".His point is that mankind's quest for the good life has been a struggle between these two,humanism on the one hand and religious conceptions on the other hand. After studying and analyzing the philosophies/science and religions from the time of Aristotle to the present time ,he completely rejects the claims of religion that it is the source of morality and good behaviour and concludes that ,
"A good life is the considered life-free ,creative ,informed and chosen,a life of achievement and fulfillment ,of pleasure and understanding ,of love and friendship ;in short the best human life in a human world ,humanely lived".
Some quotes from the book,
"Religion is not only anti-moral,it is often immoral.Elsewhere in the world religious fanatics incarcerate women,amputate hands,bomb and kill innocents ,all in the name of their faith.It is a mistake to think that Christian clerics in western countries would never behave likewise for it is not long in historical terms since their predecessors were burning heretics at stake or mounting crusades against infidels etc. To this day adulterers are stoned to death in certain Muslim country;if the priests still had their once held powers in the western world,how different would things be"?
" World's major religions are not merely incompatible with one another,but mutually antithetical. All religions are such that ,if they are pushed to their logical conclusions,or if their founding litterateurs and early traditions are accepted literally,they will take the form of their respective fundamentalisms(Jehova's witness and Taliban etc)".
I personally found the book interesting and informative because it took me through a crash-course in ancient as well as modern philosophy ,describing intelligibly the arguments of some of the great philosophers and thinkers.What I particularly like about Grayling is that he wants his writings to be intelligible to the common man,that is very well manifested in here.He hesitates to use the academic or scientific jargons ,which is very likely to come up when writing a book on philosophy.This book should surely be read by those who are interested in philosophy ,religion and science.
