Publisher Description
From the creator of The Good Place and the cocreator of Parks and Recreation, a hilarious, thought-provoking guide to living an ethical life, drawing on 2,500 years of deep thinking from around the world.
Most people think of themselves as “good,” but it’s not always easy to determine what’s “good” or “bad”—especially in a world filled with complicated choices and pitfalls and booby traps and bad advice. Fortunately, many smart philosophers have been pondering this conundrum for millennia and they have guidance for us. With bright wit and deep insight, How to Be Perfect explains concepts like deontology, utilitarianism, existentialism, ubuntu, and more so we can sound cool at parties and become better people.
Schur starts off with easy ethical questions like “Should I punch my friend in the face for no reason?” (No.) and works his way up to the most complex moral issues we all face. Such as: Can I still enjoy great art if it was created by terrible people? How much money should I give to charity? Why bother being good at all when there are no consequences for being bad? And much more. By the time the book is done, we’ll know exactly how to act in every conceivable situation, so as to produce a verifiably maximal amount of moral good. We will be perfect, and all our friends will be jealous. OK, not quite. Instead, we’ll gain fresh, funny, inspiring wisdom on the toughest issues we face every day.
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“The narrative voice is not that of a gentle professor but of a slightly manic bar-room joker who is actually funny and genuinely excited to share his passion with anyone who will listen…one of the most accessible entry points to philosophical ethics available—in short, a very good place to start.”
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Wall Street Journal
About the Narrators
Kristen Bell is an American television and film actress. She is best known for her role as the title character on the television series Veronica Mars, which earned her national fame and critical praise. She is the recipient of a Satellite Award and Saturn Award, and has been nominated several times for the Television Critics Association Awards and Teen Choice Awards.
Ted Danson has acted in a wide variety of roles in both film and television, including his starring role in the television series Cheers. He has won two Emmy Awards and three Golden Globe Awards and been nominated for many more, and he currently appears in three critically acclaimed television shows: Damages, Bored to Death, and Curb Your Enthusiasm. Originally from Arizona, he earned a bachelor of fine arts from Carnegie Mellon University. In 1987 Danson helped to found the American Oceans Campaign, an organization established to alert Americans to the hazards created by oil spills, offshore development, toxic waste, sewage, pollution, and other ocean abuses. In 2001 the American Oceans Campaign became Oceana, the largest international organization focused solely on ocean conservation, and Danson serves on Oceana’s board of directors. He lives with his wife and family in Los Angeles.
Kiff VandenHeuvel, voice talent and audiobook narrator, is originally from Grand Rapids, Michigan, and is an alumni of the Second City comedy theater. He is an accomplished improviser and sketch comedy director, and he teaches voice-over, improv, and directing at Second City Hollywood. He has appeared in hundreds of television and radio commercials and is well known in the video game community as the voice of Zachary Hale Comstock in Bioshock: Infinite.