Through examples drawn from today's headlines, historical analysis and the thoughtful examination of leading intellectual thinkers, Loving Life clearly demonstrates that morality is a matter not of divine revelation or social convention or personal opinion-but, rather, of the factual requirements of human life and happiness. Biddle shows how a true morality is derived logically from observable facts, what in essence such a morality demands, and why it is a matter of pure self-interest.
Loving Life exposes the baseless nature of the various moralities that call for human sacrifice and lead to human suffering and shows how a true morality is derived logically from observable facts and what such a morality implies-personally, socially, and politically. With clarity and elegance, Biddle demonstrates the principles, values, and virtues that are essential to human life and happiness; and he defines and defends the social and political conditions that are required for people to live together as civilized beings.
This book is the perfect book to give to a friend or relative who needs an intellectual jumpstart in their lives.
Rejecting from the start the popular myth that morality comes from God, Biddle declares that "it is not a matter of divine revelation." Nor, he continues, "is it a matter of social convention or personal opinion. Being moral does not consist in obeying commandments, or in doing whatever is culturally expected, or in doing whatever one wants to do."
True morality, he believes, is not "a matter of faith or conformity or feelings" but "of the factual requirements of human life and happiness." Because of this, the subject of morality--for Biddle as for Rand (the philosopher whose ethics he presents in this book)--is "an indispensable guide to living well and loving life."
Thus, if you love your life and want to live it to the fullest--"if," the author says, "you want to achieve the greatest happiness possible"--then this book is definitely for you. With eloquence and above all clarity, Biddle demonstrates the essential means to that end--a proper, meaning objective, morality.