Benjamin Whichcote once said that “only madmen and fools arepleased with themselves: no wise man is good enough for his ownsatisfaction.” While Whichcote’s wise man accepts thisdisparity, the madmen and fools suffer from a deluded self-satisfactionwhich, one can assume, might make them dangerous. The twenty-four briefchapters of Imperfection develop this governing idea as itrelates to the present state of the God debate, modern ethnic conflictsin which religion is a marker of identity, and the idea of freedom inrelation to the uncertainties of self-determination.
Human beings are imperfect creatures who nonetheless have ideas aboutperfection. Grant argues that the most interesting and creative thingspeople do are shaped in the gap between these two poles. Aretrospective view of his work over forty years, Imperfectiondisplays the scope of his insights and reveals an important Canadianpublic intellectual.