A Philosophical Consideration of Wisdom, Friendship, and Value

My third book, Other People's Shoes: a philosophical essay on wisdom, friendship and value, argues that in order to have good relationships with others we ought to cultivate humility, open-mindedness and the skill of empathetic perspective-taking in such a way that we can overcome our egoistic bias without becoming paralyzed by self-doubt. The book concludes with a discussion of the way in which the case of personal relationships is a microcosm for our relationships with more distant others where the same policies of wisdom are also vital. The book's main contribution is to the continuing investigation into how to be a good person and live a good life. It also contributes new knowledge to the emerging interdisciplinary field of empirically informed ethics by demonstrating how empirical research is relevant to normative ethical theory (that is, theory that aims to guide action).