"After completing each section, the reader will be compelled to stop and ponder for a while."
--San Antonio Current
". . . extremely well written."
--Mind (UK)
"Imagine that you could choose a book that everyone in the world would read. My choice would be this book
by Peter Singer. It is a good philosophy book, which covers many historical, social, and biological issues with
command and verve, but I would choose it because its persuasive power could change many people's lives for the
better, both from their own point of view and from that of the world as a whole."
--Ethics
Prometheus Books Web Site, January, 2002
Summary
"Is there still anything worth living for? Is anything worth pursuing, apart from money, love, and caring
for one's own family?" Internationally known social philosopher and ethicist Peter Singer has an answer to
these and other questions in this compelling new volume. "If we can detach ourselves from our own immediate
preoccupations and look at the world as a whole and our place in it, there is something absurd about the idea that
people should have trouble finding something to live for."
Singer suggests that people who take an ethical approach to life often avoid the trap of meaninglessness, finding
a deeper satisfaction in what they are doing than those people whose goals are narrower and more self-centered.
He spells out what he means by an ethical approach to life, and shows that it can bring about significant and far-reaching
changes to one's life.