Being Good

Ben Rogers, Sunday Telegraph, March 25 2001 Review from previous edition Simon Blackburn's short book takes the big moral questions head on and does so brilliantly. . . a witty, vivid writer with an enviable popular touch . . . this is a wonderfully enlightening book.

Sunday Times 21/04/2002 full of good sense

PLAY, The Times, 02/03/2002 But for anyone wondering how big questions have bothered us over the years, this witty, rigorous book fills in the gaps.

Waterstone's Quarterly January 2002 always lively and never simplistic

Ted Honderich Times 21/03/01 Good clearheaded stuff

The Philosopher's Magazine 'enjoyable and extremely readable . . . Blackburn . . . is breezy, helpful, reassuring'

Guardian 'sparklingly clear'

Nottingham Evaning Post 'a first rate and accessible guide which tackles the huge, perpetual questions'

<br>Simon Blackburn is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cambridge. Until recently he was Edna J. Doury Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the University of North Carolina, and from 1969 to 1999 was a Fellow and Tutor at Pembroke College, Oxford. He is the author of The OxfordDictionary of Philosophy (1994) and the best-selling Think (OUP, 1999), among other books.<br>

Preface; List of Illustrations; Introduction; SEVEN THREATS TO ETHICS; 1. The Threat of the Death of God; 2. The Threat of Relativism; 3. The Threat of Egoism; 4. The Threat from Evolutionary Theory; 5. The Threat of Determinism and Futility; 6. The Threat of Unreasonable Demands; 7. The Threat of False Consciousness; SOME ETHICAL IDEAS; 8. Birth; 9. Death; 10. Desire and the Meaning of Life; 11. Pleasure; 12. The Greatest Happiness of the Greatest Number; 13. Freedom from the Bad; 14. Freedom and Paternalism; 15. Rights and Natural Rights; FOUNDATIONS?; 16. Reasons and Foundations; 17. Living Well and Doing Good; 18. The Categorical Imperative; 19. Contracts and Discourse; 20. The Common Point of View; 21. Confidence Restored; Further Reading; Index