How to Be Perfect: The Correct Answer to Every Moral Question

Schur presents How to Be Perfect as a kind of guidebook to ethical decision-making. To that end, he summarizes and synthesizes the work of multiple noted philosophers, showing how each makes a valuable and useful contribution to ethical theory. In fact, he structures the text to emphasize the way that each system of moral philosophy fills gaps or adds nuance to the others, suggesting that a holistic, pragmatic approach is superior to adopting any single philosophical system as definitive.

At first, as Schur introduces the major schools of moral philosophy, he devotes a chapter each to virtue ethics, utilitarianism, and deontology, showing the advantages and limitations of each. As he proceeds, touching on the work of dozens of additional philosophers along the way, it becomes clear that Schur is not interested in semantic debates. For instance, he more or less glosses over the fundamental contradiction between utilitarianism, which judges morality solely by results, and deontology, which sees actions themselves as being right or wrong, regardless of their consequences. Instead of trying to resolve this conundrum in favor of one or the other, Schur simply cherry picks his way through philosophy, applying various theories as they suit the question at hand.