For Grayling, work on technical problems is only one aspect of philosophy. Another aspect, one which has been at the centre of philosophy's place in history, has more immediate application to daily life: the questions of ethics, which revolve upon what Grayling calls the great Socratic question, 'How should one live?'. In pursuit of what he describes as 'contributing to the conversation society has with itself about possibilities for good lives in good societies', Grayling writes widely on contemporary issues, including
war crimes, the
legalisation of drugs,
euthanasia,
secularism, human rights and other topics in the tradition of
Polemics. He has articulated positions on
humanist ethics and on the history and nature of concepts of liberty as applied in civic life. In support of his belief that the philosopher should engage in public debate, he brings these philosophical perspectives to issues of the day in his work as a writer and as a commentator on radio and television. Among his contributions to the discussion about religion in contemporary society he argues that there are three separable, though naturally connected debates: :(a) a metaphysical debate about what the universe contains; denying that it contains supernatural agencies of any kind makes him an atheist; :(b) a debate about the basis of ethics; taking the world to be a natural realm of natural law requires that humanity thinks for itself about the right and the good, based on our best understanding of human nature and the human condition; this makes him a humanist; :(c) a debate about the place of religious movements and organisations in the public domain; as a secularist Grayling argues that these should see themselves as civil society organisations on a par with trade unions and other
NGOs, with every right to exist and to have their say, but no greater right than any other self-constituted, self-selected interest group. On this last point, Grayling's view is that for historical reasons religions have an inflated place in the public domain out of all proportion to the numbers of their adherents or their intrinsic merits, so that their voice and influence is amplified disproportionately: with the result that they can distort such matters as public policy (e.g. on abortion) and science research and education (e.g.
stem cells,
teaching of evolution). He argues that winning the metaphysical and ethical debates is already abating the problems associated with (c) in more advanced Western societies, even the US. He sees his own major contribution as being the promotion of understanding of humanist ethics deriving from the philosophical tradition. Between 1999 and 2002 Grayling wrote a weekly column in
The Guardian called "The Last Word", on a different topic every week. In these columns, which also formed the basis of a series of books for a general readership, commencing with
The Meaning of Things in 2001, Grayling made the basics of philosophy available to the layperson. He is a regular contributor to ''The Guardian's
"Comment is free" group blog, and writes columns for, among others, the Prospect
and New Scientist'' magazines. Grayling is accredited with the
United Nations Human Rights Council, and is a patron of
Humanists UK, an Honorary Associate of the
National Secular Society, Patron of the Defence Humanists, and Chairman of the Judges for the 2014
Man Booker Prize. Grayling is also a Patron of the right to die organisation,
My Death My Decision. Grayling wrote a book on the
allied strategic air offensive in World War II,
Among the Dead Cities: The History and Moral Legacy of the WWII Bombing of Civilians in Germany and Japan (2006), as a contribution to the debate on the
ethics of war. In September 2010, Grayling was one of 55 public figures who sent a letter to
The Guardian expressing their opposition to
Pope Benedict XVI's state visit to the UK. In August 2014, Grayling was one of 200 public figures who were signatories to a letter to
The Guardian opposing
Scottish independence in the run-up to September's
referendum on that issue. A. C. Grayling was one of the contributors to the book,
We Are One: A Celebration of Tribal Peoples, released in October 2009. The book explores the cultures of peoples around the world, portraying both their diversity and the threats they face. Other contributors included not only western writers, such as
Laurens van der Post,
Noam Chomsky,
Claude Lévi-Strauss, but also indigenous people, such as
Davi Kopenawa Yanomami and
Roy Sesana. The royalties from the sale of this book go to the indigenous rights organisation,
Survival International. In recent years Grayling has been campaigning against the UK Government's response to the
2016 United Kingdom European Union membership referendum result. In his book,
Democracy and Its Crisis, Grayling argues that voting systems must be reformed to prevent certain results, such as
Brexit and the election of
Donald Trump. Grayling has tweeted that Brexit must be made to disappear like a "nasty, temporary, hiccup, soon forgotten". ==Personal life==