Fewer Rules, Better People

“Barry Lam’s case for the importance of discretion is a breath of fresh air in an increasingly bureaucratic world. When there is no room for qualified people of good will to recognize exceptions to the rules, we de-humanize ourselves. Lam’s book encourages us to find a way to preserve our humanity in the face of bureaucracy and technology.” – Sean D. Kelly, Dean of Arts of Humanities at Harvard University and co-author of All Things Shining“…a slim, thoughtful book, Barry Lam… has a point: well-intentioned rule-making can inadvertently strangle productivity and occlude moral judgment… as enjoyable and irritating as a university philosophy seminar.” – The Economist“The suggestion that more rules makes life less fair is a little perverse, but in this punchy treatise, Lam makes the case elegantly.” – Mischa Frankl-Duval - Financial Times

Barry Lam is a professor of philosophy at the University of California, Riverside, and the host and producer of the Hi-Phi Nation podcast for Slate, a show about the moral and philosophical issues implicated in science, law, and everyday life.