Person, Polis, Planet

"Schmidtz's central question -- what counts as a life well lived?' -- is as near as may be the same as Plato's: 'for our inquiry is not about some chance matter but about how we should live our lives' (Republic 344e). Here, then, is a prime example of how to continue 'the conversation that Plato began'...an altogether satisfying, rewarding, and above all, challenging read." - Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews "Part of what ties the essays together and makes the whole more than the sum of its parts is the fact that almost all of the pieces, in one way or another, address the question of what counts as a well-lived human life. Perhaps more important, they are united by a distinctive and attractive methodological approach, one that combines the high degree of analytical clarity and rigor that one would expect from a first-rate philosopher with a kind of commonsense wisdom that is not always so common, an attention to empirical detail that goes well beyond the use of examples as mere illustrations, and a refreshingly humanistic concern with life as it is lived by people as they actually are...Those who are already familiar with Schmidtz's body of work will welcome Person, Polis, Planet as a worthy brief of his accomplishments over the last fifteen years or so. And for those who have not yet discovered Schmidtz, the collection will provide a superb introduction to his work and will likely prompt readers to seek out more of his writing." -Ethics