EGGHEAD CHOICE – Crack open for a hard boiled think

Moral philosophers don’t often get prizes for the lucidity of their writing. Many have a deplorable writing style. Difficulty in comprehension does not equal profundity of meaning, however. Every now and again a philosophy book comes along that shows the lie, and stands out for its clarity, directness, and accessibility. Mortal Questions by Thomas Nagel […]

In this collection 15 writers consider the impact of their bilingualism on the development of their craft. All agree that, in some sense, it was precisely the feeling of not quite fitting into their surroundings that made them writers at all. Amy Tan, Josef Skvorecký, Ariel Dorfman, Leonard Michaels, Luc Sante and others look back

In China, the year 1997 was marked by the death of Deng Xiaoping, the country’s leader for two decades, and the return of Hong Kong from British rule. Peter Hessler (http://www.peterhessler.net/) spent two years teaching English literature in a small town on the Yangtze, and observed Chinese political life first hand. He is able to

Many dedicated readers, who are devoted to the life of the mind, understand that deep thought can be represented in literature. Angus Fletcher (http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/nytimes/obituary.aspx?pid=183131649) shows here how thought gets expressed in the language of history writing, poetic writing, philosophical writing, and fiction writing. Fletcher’s references are wide and rich. We are taken into the mind

In this collection of 17 brief essays Elena Passarello (https://www.elenapassarello.com/bio/) traces stories of famous animals and how they have reshaped our thinking about humans. She reflects on our need for new language in an age of mass extinction, the way that Albrecht Dürer’s wildly inaccurate rhinoceros prints influenced popular imagination in 16th century Europe, and

Happiness studies have shown repeatedly that people with accumulated wealth are less fulfilled than those with little money. How, then, can we explain the glorification of profit and the insatiable quest for riches that pervades our culture? From Hippocrates, Plato, and Seneca to Montaigne and Cervantes, many first rate minds have viewed the love of

It’s often useful to absorb the best arguments of thinkers whom one disagrees with most sharply. Only then can your own position be strengthened. In the same way, a chess player wishing to improve seeks out the strongest opponent. In this book Philippa Foot (https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/oct/05/philippa-foot-obituary) sets out a naturalistic theory of ethics, which she calls