The scope of modern science is so vast and complex that no one person can have a deep understanding of all topics. Should you wish for the best available summary between two covers, reach for The Frontiers of Knowledge by Anthony Grayling (A.C. Grayling). In very recent times humanity has learnt a great deal about […]
Tim Scanlon (Thomas M. Scanlon | Department of Philosophy) was the Alford Professor of Natural Religion, Moral Philosophy, and Civil Polity in Harvard University’s Department of Philosophy, where he has taught since 1984. In this book Scanlon advances a ‘contractualist’ theory of ethics. An act is wrong if its performance under the circumstances would be disallowed by any
What We Owe to Each Other by T. M. Scanlon Read More »
Jay Frank Rosenberg (Jay Rosenberg – Wikipedia) was an American philosopher and historian of philosophy. He spent his teaching career at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where he joined the Department of Philosophy in 1966 and was appointed Taylor Grandy Professor of Philosophy in 1987. In this book Rosenberg sets out the central metaphysical
Thinking Clearly About Death by J. F. Rosenberg Read More »
Nobody could accuse Peter Watson (Biography – Peter Watson, author) of lack of ambition. In this 1152 page book the author presents the history of human thought between two covers. The story begins nearly two million years ago with the invention of hand-axes and explores how some of our most cherished notions might have originated
Ideas: A History From Fire To Freud by Peter Watson Read More »
Imagine a new political party in the UK. It launches as the ‘Anti-Democratic Party’. Its purpose is clearly and unambiguously stated. It promises to abolish democracy and replace it with a dictatorship in the UK. The Houses of Parliament will be turned into an upmarket shopping mall. During campaigning it does not use any form
The Myths We Live By – Peter Cave Read More »
Sarah Bakewell (About | Sarah Bakewell) has provided the reader with a really useful and enjoyable history of humanist freethinking over the past 700 years in this book. Be prepared to meet a large cast of characters who have contributed to the humanist outlook: Giovanni Boccaccio, Francesco Petrarca, Leontinus Pilatus, Niccolo Niccoli, Poggio Bracciolini, Aldus
Humanly Possible by Sarah Bakewell Read More »
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) (https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/schopenhauer/) was scornful of those who could not look at the fundamentals of the human situation squarely. By this he meant the pervasive presence of dissatisfactoriness, suffering and death. Instead, humans manufacture a myriad of avoidance techniques. His view was that if we dare to peer over the perimeter fence of our
The Conspiracy against the Human Race by Thomas Ligotti Read More »
Of all the species known to have existed on planet Earth, 99% are now extinct. and (https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/evolution/extinction/massext/statement_03.html) There is no adequate reason to believe our species will defy the odds. Humans will suffer extinction either by environmental catastrophe, global pandemic, asteroid (or similar) impact, substitution by artificial intelligence or self destruction. Two recent books make
Vices of the Mind by Quassim Cassam Read More »
We have somehow drifted into an intellectual culture in which anybody’s opinion is as good as anyone else’s. Partly this is about the availability of platforms to shout your mouth off. Billions of social media posts, e-mails, snapchat, video clip contents, and web page opinions are washing around the globe as an ocean of irrational
Post Truth by Evan Davis Read More »
