For the Good of the World

A lucid and inspiring consideration of the challenges we and our world now face, and a proposal for a way to avoid disaster. Can we human beings agree on a set of values which will allow us to confront the numerous threats that we and our planet face? Or will we continue our disagreements, rivalries and antipathies, even as we collectively approach what, in the not impossible extreme, might be extinction? To answer these questions, A. C. Grayling considers the three most pressing challenges facing the world: climate change, technology and justice. As every day brings new stories about the wider issues Grayling considers, from recent extreme weather events (fires on the US west coast and floods in Europe), through Pegasus spyware and lethal autonomous weapons systems, to the health imbalance between the northern and southern hemispheres (seen in the unequal distribution of the Covid vaccine), the key question Grayling asks – Is a Universal Ethics Possible? – becomes ever more urgent. The solutions he proposes are both pragmatic and inspiring.