A Decent Life, Todd May
A Decent Life, Todd May
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A Decent Life
Morality for the Rest of Us

Author: Todd May

Narrator: Keith Sellon-Wright

Unabridged: 6 hr 16 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 09/10/2019


Synopsis

In a world full of suffering and deprivation, it's easy to despair—and it's also easy to judge ourselves for not doing more. Even if we gave away everything we own and devoted ourselves to good works, it wouldn't solve all the world's problems. It would make them better, though. So is that what we have to do? Is anything less a moral failure? Can we lead a fundamentally decent life without taking such drastic steps?

Todd May has answers. He's not the sort of philosopher who tells us we have to be model citizens who display perfect ethics in every decision we make. He's realistic: he understands that living up to ideals is a constant struggle. In A Decent Life, May leads readers through the traditional philosophical bases of a number of arguments about what ethics asks of us, then he develops a more reasonable and achievable way of thinking about them, one that shows us how we can use philosophical insights to participate in the complicated world around us. He explores how we should approach the many relationships in our lives—with friends, family, animals, people in need—through the use of a more forgiving, if no less fundamentally serious, moral compass.

With humor, insight, and a lively and accessible style, May opens a discussion about how we can, realistically, lead the good life that we aspire to.


About Todd May

Todd May is the Class of 1941 Memorial Professor of the Humanities at Clemson University. He is the author of many books, including A Fragile Life and A Significant Life.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Libby

I was expecting a book on moral philosophy, but this is really just a book on the author's perception of morality, and a hectoring and presumptuous morality at that. I wasn't expecting to be lectured about climate change and vegetarianism at such length, and I thought the author was speaking from a......more

Goodreads review by Chris

This instantly became one of my favorite books. It’s definitely in my top 10. I was talking with someone about effective altruism and how it’s provided me with a solid moral framework, and they said it sounded similar to Todd May. I’ve had May recommended before, but I finally grabbed a copy of one......more

2.5 rounded up to 3 This is the most aggressively average book I have read in a while. There are some good points here and there but it didn't need to be a whole book. The 30 or 40-page article would have been enough.And at the same time, it doesn't feel complete. Every solution seems introductory a......more