EGGHEAD CHOICE – Crack open for a hard boiled think

Waking up on New Year 2018 may have brought some random thoughts like ‘Oh! God’, ‘Why me?’ ‘Why here?’, accompanied by a general sense of apprehension. Pressing the doubt and unease further may lead to a question which has troubled many for centuries, namely ‘Why is there Anything rather than just Nothing?’ The question was […]

Those who give thought to ethics and moral psychology will welcome this book. Here is a ‘mise en bouche’ of the argument before you rush out to acquire the volume. Some goods that we generate for others, as when we give them attention, help or encouragement, require us to provide that benefit under the actual

Marcus du Sautoy (https://www.simonyi.ox.ac.uk/) shows us the successes and limitations of maths and science in this book. The reader is taken to seven different ‘edges’ of knowledge and is shown why even Newton, Leibniz, and Galileo didn’t have a comprehensive grip on knowledge in their own day. From chaos theory, which ‘placed huge limits on what

In order for you to be reading this sentence you must be conscious. You have a private, direct and intimate possession of consciousness. Awkwardly though, science and philosophy are having a devil of a problem defining what consciousness actually is. There has been a whole crop of theories, some competing, some overlapping and some mutually

In this book a leading psychologist reveals how the emotion of pride has shaped our minds and our culture, and shows how we can harness its power. Long understood to be a powerful drive in the self-conscious human animal, it has been classed as first in the list of seven deadly sins by religion. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seven_deadly_sins) Why

Nicholas Carr’s Utopia is Creepy: and Other Provocations is significant for the questions it raises about our relationship with technology. Such as, how is the Internet affecting our powers of concentration? Can personal technology seduce us away from things we find pleasurable or fulfilling? Can we have the peace and prosperity technological enthusiasts promise without an accompanying

Polly Toynbee (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polly_Toynbee) turned 70 a few weeks ago. The celebrated Guardian columnist has got more sensible things to say than dozens of hair brained media pundits put together. To enjoy a book length exposition of her thoughts I’d start with Unjust Rewards, co-authored with David Walker. It concerns the obscene level of riches that

Lies, distortion, ignorance and falsity now saturate our culture. A fresh acme was reached during the US Presidential Trump campaign in late 2016 when ‘post-truth’ (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Post-truth_politics) became celebrated. Fact checkers couldn’t keep count of the lies which were being spewed out. Thank goodness the cool voice of reason and a love of truth still exist.