Pursuing Perfection: People, Groups, and Society

Front Cover
Bloomsbury Academic, Mar 30, 1999 - Education - 220 pages
The pursuit of perfection is one of humanity's most basic aspirations. In the tradition of meliorism, this volume addresses timeless questions such as: How can we lead a better or more satisfying existence? How can we be happier than we are now? What must we know or do to achieve such an important, elusive goal? In the absence of everlastingly valid principles, the author proposes seven useful, if imperfect, guides for us to follow as we edge towards perfection—determinism, imperfection, singularity, perspective, evaluation, searching, and surprise. Drawing upon the findings of psychologists, sociologists, philosophers, and anthropologists, this volume challenges and helps its readers to improve their existence as individuals and as members of groups and society.

About the author (1999)

LEONARD W. DOOB is Sterling Professor Emeritus of Psychology at Yale University. Throughout his career he has focused his research on interdisciplinary topics and has sought to apply promising scholarly findings to real-life situations, concentrating in particular on psychological warfare and conflicts in Africa and Northern Ireland. He has published numerous articles and books, including Panorama of Evil (Greenwood, 1978), The Pursuit of Peace (Greenwood, 1981), and Sustainers and Sustainability (Praeger, 1995).

Bibliographic information