Recommending How to Be Perfect by Michael Schur
How to Be Perfect by Michael Schur is an introduction to moral philosophy book that explores philosophical schools of thought, drawing on 2,500 years’ worth of philosophy in a manner I found particularly appealing. The book presents a series of ethical and moral dilemmas, each relating to various philosophers and their ideas.
Overall, I found the book to be a very lighthearted read that provides insight into philosophy in a way that feels natural rather than forced. Does it help that Schur’s work includes The Good Place, Parks & Rec, and The Office? Maybe. Regardless, feel free to let me know your thoughts on it.
My wife and I really, really liked The Good Place. I also got us a copy of How To Be Perfect and thought it was a decent read. Not particularly EA, but very balanced to consider all the major western schools of moral philosophy and give each a fair hearing. I do think it was a bit lacking in covering eastern schools of thought like the role-based ethics of Confucius, but I understand it was targeted towards an english speaking audience.
As a primer on ethics, it’s very approachable, but I do think it simplifies some things, and feels ever so slightly biased against consequentialism towards something like virtue ethics, but I’ll admit, I’m pro-Utilitarianism, and might myself be biased in the other direction.
From an EA perspective, it may not be the best introduction to us, as I believe there’s mention of EA, but it’s mostly the view that Peter Singer and his arguments are very demanding and perhaps unreasonably so, albeit, it’s a logical and important nudge towards caring and doing more (he hedges a lot in the book).
At the end of the day, the book shies away from deciding which moral theory is more correct, and as such is kinda wishy-washy, choose your own morality from a menu of possibilities, which somewhat disappointed me (but I also understand picking sides would be controversial). I’d still recommend the book to someone relatively unfamiliar with morality and ethics because it is a much friendlier introduction than say a moral philosophy textbook would be.