Popular philosophy Books

Book Synopsis''Engaging, smart and wise, Mini-Philosophy is a diverse taster menu of ideas on life, the mind and the world. Nutritious, bite-sized portions of philosophy that whet the appetite for more'' - David Mitchell, author of Cloud Atlas and The Bone ClocksWhy do people enjoy watching scary movies? Should we bet on the existence of God? Why is pleasure better than pain? And when is a duck not a duck? Mini Philosophy is a fascinating journey into what some of the greatest minds of the last 2500 years have to say about the big questions in life, and why they are relevant to us today. Covering everything from Sun Tzu''s strategy for winning at board games to Freud''s insights into our ''death drive''; why De Beauvoir believed the mothering instinct is a myth to why Schopenhauer probably wasn''t much fun at parties, these mini meditations will expand your mind (and bend it too).Trade ReviewEngaging, smart and wise, Mini-Philosophy is a diverse taster menu of ideas on life, the mind and the world. Nutritious, bite-sized portions of philosophy that whet the appetite for more. * David Mitchell *A neat idea, deftly executed. If this doesn't light your philosophical fuse, you don't have one. * Julian Baggini *A joyfully playful and thought-provoking capsule encyclopedia of philosophical ideas, from Aristotle to Alan Turing, pondering on the nature of self, how we see and understand the world, and the delusions we use to comfort ourselves. An Epicurean delight. * Mick Brown *Lively, sharp and wide-ranging, a sparky bite-sized companion for the wilds and wilderness of philosophy * Eleanor Gordon-Smith *

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Book SynopsisNUMBER ONE BESTSELLER'A beautiful book of great tenderness, love of life, and wisdom' JOSEPH O'CONNORFor almost fifty years, Michael Harding has been crafting words in a bid to express himself and to explore truths about the human condition. But even still he found himself unable to say certain things he really wanted to. Then, while in recovery from surgery, he travelled to a cottage on the Atlantic coast and thought again about life and the people who had profoundly affected him over the years: mentors, loves and old friends.There at the ocean he wrote letters, with an intimacy not previously risked. Letters that would never be posted but that appear now in All the Things Left Unsaid - a vulnerable and beautifully wrought collection of insights into life, death, friendship and love.PRAISE FOR MICHAEL HARDING'S BOOKSHilarious, and tender ... and always beautifully written' Kevin Barry'Often funny, occasionally disturbing ... Harding has peeled back his soul and held it out on the palm of his hand for all to see' Christine Dwyer Hickey'It's rare for a memoir to demand such intense emotional involvement and rarer still for it to be so fully rewarded' The Sunday Times 'Searingly honest ... Harding's narrative seems to rest on the pulse of Ireland' The Irish Times

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Book SynopsisA lively collection of literature, science and art delving into the mysteries of human consciousness, with a new introduction by Mark Haddon, published to coincide with a major exhibition at Wellcome Collection in 2016 "The boundaries which divide Life from Death are at best shadowy and vague. Who shall say where the one ends and where the other begins?" Edgar Allan Poe Understanding the nature of consciousness continues to challenge even our leading scientists and psychologists. Yet we all experience some form of consciousness and make daily journeys between different conscious states as we sleep and wake. Through the eyes of writers, artists, scientists and philoso­phers, States of Mind explores the meaning of consciousness and, in particular, the nature of interrupted or liminal conscious experiences, such as somnambulism, synaesthesia and disorders of memory. These diverse - even conflicting - perspectives pose fundamental questions about what it means to be alive, aware and human. This engaging collection draws on five centuries of thinking, probing science and the soul, language and memory, being and not being. It includes works by Jane Austen, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Arthur Conan Doyle, Francis Crick, René Descartes, Emily Dickinson, H L Gold, Franz Kafka, H P Lovecraft, Marcel Proust, Mary Shelley, Henry David Thoreau, Alan Turing, H G Wells and Emile Zola. WELLCOME COLLECTION Wellcome Collection is a free museum and library that aims to challenge how we think and feel about health. Inspired by the medical objects and curiosities collected by Henry Wellcome, it connects science, medicine, life and art. Wellcome Collection exhibitions, events and books explore a diverse range of subjects, including consciousness, forensic medicine, emotions, sexology, identity and death. Wellcome Collection is part of Wellcome, a global charitable foundation that exists to improve health for everyone by helping great ideas to thrive, funding over 14,000 researchers and projects in more than 70 countries. wellcomecollection.org

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Book Synopsis'A PROBING EXPLORATION OF THE CREATIVE AND IMAGINATIVE POSSIBILITIES OF INACTIVITY' FINANCIAL TIMES 'To do nothing at all is the most difficult thing in the world.' Oscar Wilde More than ever before, we live in a culture that excoriates inactivity and demonizes idleness. Work, connectivity and a constant flow of information are the cultural norms, and a permanent busyness pervades even our quietest moments. Little wonder so many of us are burning out. In a culture that tacitly coerces us into blind activity, the art of doing nothing is disappearing. Inactivity can induce lethargy and indifference, but is also a condition of imaginative freedom and creativity. Psychoanalyst Josh Cohen explores the paradoxical pleasures of inactivity, and considers four faces of inertia - the burnout, the slob, the daydreamer and the slacker. Drawing on his personal experiences and on stories from his consulting room, while punctuating his discussions with portraits of figures associated with the different forms of inactivity - Andy Warhol, Orson Welles, Emily Dickinson and David Foster Wallace - Cohen gets to the heart of the apathy so many of us feel when faced with the demands of contemporary life, and asks how we might live a different and more fulfilled existence.Trade Review[Writing] clearly and beguilingly, his sentences mostly unclogged with jargon... Cohen is good at revealing all the ways in which, event as the 21st century induces exhaustion, it banishes the expression of it; and everyone will recognise what he has to say about how life can feel like a facsimile, one in which we merely go through the motions, when we should be living it to the full... A light thought alongside all my dark ones -- Rachel Cooke * Observer *A probing exploration of the creative and imaginative possibilities of inactivity and a decided pushback against the "sacralisation of work" that pervades the west... Cohen usefully grounds the more theoretical wrangling of each chapter with a composite case history gleaned from his consulting room... Not Working not only instructs us in the pursuit of aimlessness, it also teaches us about the psychoanalytic process... Less doing and more being is exactly what Not Working is advocating -- Lucy Scholes * Financial Times *A compassionate and thought-provoking way of thinking about what work is and might be... a convincing case that human contentment is only possible if we value equally work and non-work and make space for simply being -- David Hayden * Irish Times *Josh Cohen knows a great deal about the forces that drive and sometimes overpower us. In this compelling new book, he explores writers and artists, brings himself and what he has learned from his patients into the mix, to make a passionate argument for the benefits of floating free from the chains of work. Scintillating -- Lisa AppignanesiA beautifully written and potently argued post-Bachelardian case for reverie, and for stopping to listen to the quieter manifestations of the inner life' -- Chloe AridjisAn eloquent defence of the necessity of the daydreamer, the artist and the slacker as part of the essential repertoire of our humanity. Offering the delicious possibility of a world slowly imagined differently and more creatively -- Maria BalshawCohen's lucid and subtle book exposes something we all know but don't know how to recognise - that work doesn't work for most people and that even when it does work it is a refuge from so many other things. Remarkable and timely, Not Working is truly clarifying -- Adam PhillipsBeautifully written and constantly surprising, Not Working combines cultural criticism, psychoanalytic insight and autobiography to cast fresh light on a malaise that every reader will recognise: our compulsion to use time productively, and our fear of what happens if we don't -- William Davies, author * Nervous States: How feeling took over the world *A good and thoughtful corrective to our age of pathological distraction. Learning to stop, Cohen contends, might just be the way to start living again -- Anthony Quinn * Mail on Sunday *Not Working is a polemic against our overwork culture and a meditation on its alternatives...a highly personal, eloquent reimagining of our lives as a space for far niente in all its unfettered idiosyncrasy...brilliant...revealing -- Barbara Taylor * Guardian *There is much food for thought in this erudite homage to catatonia -- Houman Barekat * Spectator *Gently provocative, intensely humane and exceptionally thought-provoking -- Stephanie Cross * Lady *Brilliantly strange -- Ian Sansom * Ulster Tatler *Fascinating -- Rachel Long * Refinery 29 *Not Working has an expansiveness that far exceeds its modest size... [Cohen's] writing is on the whole beautiful * Times Higher Education *Cohen is fantastically good at making us question our hard-won strategies of avoidance and resistance to stopping... engaging -- Suzanne Moore * New Statesman *If you're in the process of trying to stand still in a culture that won't let you, [Not Working] may help you hold your nerve -- Alice Bloch * Prospect *Refreshing and relatable * Idler *Interesting and provocative * Irish Tech News *

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Book SynopsisWhat is knowledge? What makes me, me? Do we have free will? People have been asking such fundamental questions about the nature of reality for centuries, but how can they help us make sense of our existence in a 21st-century world of social media, cyber wars, cloning, artificial intelligence and virtual reality?Short Cuts: Philosophy provides the map you need to travel beyond traditional foundations and explore a diverse array of deep thinkers. Soul-searching questions prompt 'short cut' answers written by experts in their field, with each one the setting-off point for instructions that plot a path through the philosophical landscape.With 'one-stop' graphics visualizing a memorable theory or idea for each concept, and 'route map' glossaries explaining key words and their connections, Short Cuts: Philosophy will help you wrestle with the meaning of ancient and modern philosophical thought.

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Book SynopsisIn this joyous introduction to the major debates in Western philosophy, we see how cartoons can shed light and humour on life’s Big Questions. Topics such as gender, morality and the meaning of life are examined here with a razor wit and eye. Open this book (if it actually exists) and meet philosophers interrogating the world: De Beauvoir on a building site. Kant in a snowglobe. Machiavelli on a tennis court. This is philosophy as you’ve never seen it before.Trade Review‘I very much enjoyed it. Funny, succinct…just like a good cartoon.’ -- Matthew Dooley, award-winning cartoonist and author of The Practical Implications of Immortality

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Book SynopsisHow can new insights into evolution help us solve problems in life, art, business and science? ‘A wonderful, mind-expanding book. Prepare to be surprised, enlightened and awed.’ Alice Roberts, author of Ancestors In Darwin’s survival of the fittest, each step must be uphill as life progresses towards an evolutionary peak. There is no turning back. So what happens when life needs to cross a valley in the wilds of an adaptive landscape to reach the highest summit? World-renowned biologist Andreas Wagner reveals that life does not only walk – it also leaps. Drawing on pioneering research, Wagner explores life’s creative process and how it bears a striking resemblance to how we humans work. A beguiling symmetry links Picasso struggling through forty versions of Guernica and the way evolution transformed a dinosaur’s claw into a condor’s wing. This new understanding is already revolutionising our approach to problem-solving across the sciences. In the near future, applied in spheres as diverse as the economy and education, it will enable us to do so much more. Life Finds a Way is a thought-provoking and deeply hopeful look at the force that shapes our world.Trade Review‘An impressively brisk intellectual tour through the glory days of early 20th century evolutionary biology.’ * Wall Street Journal *‘Wagner has done it again. This is a wonderful, mind-expanding book. Prepare to be surprised, enlightened and awed as Wagner reveals the sources of human and natural creativity.’ -- Alice Roberts, Professor of Public Engagement with Science, University of Birmingham‘In this remarkably wide-ranging book, Andreas Wagner shows what nature can teach us about creativity, and his answers hold an important message for the way we educate our children and run our institutions and societies.’ -- Philip Ball, author of Beyond Weird‘Andreas Wagner has again cut through to the heart of a vital question. The notion that genomes are set up to explore, through trial and error, in the hope of leaping across the adaptive landscape to new peaks is a fresh concept. Wagner draws out fascinating parallels with the way innovation works in human society.’ -- Matt Ridley, author of The Evolution of Everything‘Finding surprising convergences between evolving species and an active imagination, Wagner persuasively argues that human inventiveness is a reflection not just of human nature but of nature itself.’ -- Anthony Brandt, composer and co-author of The Runaway Species‘Life Finds a Way weaves a coherent and compelling narrative about how nature achieves creativity. Not only that, we also learn how to cultivate creativity in our own lives.’ -- George Dyson, author of Turing’s Cathedral

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Book SynopsisA unique concept: 40 extraordinary people give answers to 10 searching questions about their beliefs. In our current age of uncertainty and turmoil, this is a book to give insight for life's journey and to encourage readers to confront the same questions themselves. "My suggestion or advice is very simple; that is, to have a sincere heart." - The Dalai Lama What Has Life Taught You? features the answers given by 40 outstanding people to 10 profound questions about life, the mind and the spirit. Author Zoe Sallis has a passion for stirring up debate on philosophical and ethical questions and journeyed all over the globe to ask well-known figures of widely varying beliefs the same 10 questions. Interviewees include: Nelson Mandela His Holiness the Dalai Lama Neale Donald Walsch Anjelica Huston Jack Nicholson Sophia Loren Teale Swan Richard Dawkins David Lynch Gore Vidal And more... The questions range from "What is your concept of God?" and "Do you think this life is all there is, or do you believe in an afterlife?" to "What has life taught you so far?" and "How do you find peace within yourself?" Socrates thought the unexamined life was not worth living, and perhaps that is why he roamed the streets of Athens accosting people and asking them their thoughts and beliefs. By sharing the wisdom of these truly inspiring people, the book hopes to provoke debate and encourage readers to examine what they have learned on their life journey so far and share their own insights with others.

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Book SynopsisEpictetus (c. 50-c. 135 AD) was a Greek Stoic philosopher. He believed that philosophy should be a way of life and not just a theoretical study. In this story, Epictetus is reminding us to focus only on what we can control – our own actions – and not spend time worrying about what we can't control. Happiness can only be achieved when we accept what we can't control and adopt the most positive outlook we can.By adapting famous animal parables, the Pocket Philosophy series seeks to introduce inquisitive readers of all ages – from 1 to 100! – to the biggest names in philosophy.

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Book SynopsisIn contemporary culture, there is no stronger imperative than to be authentic. But what does authenticity actually mean? Everywhere we turn, we are urged to "live our truth": an element of Western culture that is almost never questioned. Authenticity in all its contexts is becoming more significant than ever as digital culture breeds fakery and capitalism offers the illusion of infinite choice. In this climate, finding and being yourself is a more complex idea than it sounds - one that should not necessarily be taken as doctrine. In this set of six sharp, lively essays, the writer and journalist Emily Bootle explores how authenticity has pervaded every facet of our culture, from modern celebrity and identity politics to Instagram captions and wellness. Blending pop culture and philosophy, this book dismantles the ideology surrounding being ourselves at all costs, and questions what fuels our authenticity obsession.Trade ReviewA very elegant and sharp-eyed series of essays. Emily Bootle asks all the right questions about the changes social media is forcing upon our sense of self, what the public now expects from its celebrities and artists, and the extent to which the modern world has turned us all into performers. JONATHAN COE; Bootle is one of our shrewdest and wittiest cultural critics. Keenly attentive to the many absurdities of celebrity coverage, corporate branding tropes, social media affectations and online discourse, This Is Not Who I Am dismantles the contradictions that underpin contemporary culture. Turning her gimlet eye on the influencer economy, Kim Kardashian, astrology, artisanal coffee, Jane Austen, and the kind of man who considers himself "a creative, which is to say he has a humanities degree", Bootle exposes the fundamental collective delusion that links all of the above - our insistence on cultivating and exhibiting a single "authentic" self. ANNA LESZKIEWICZ - ASSOCIATE EDITOR, NEW STATESMAN; At a time when the personal has become deeply political, and vice versa, it's hard not to look at yourself in your front cam and think - in your best inner Nikki Grahame voice - "who is she"? Here, Emily Bootle has dared to poke an entire family of bears. From celebrity relatability through to personal branding, the wellness industry and the dominant narrative of "living your truth", this is a fascinating deep dive into the most lucrative and fractured phenomenon of the post-internet age: our selves. EMMA GARLAND - CULTURE WRITER; Timely and compelling ... This Is Not Who I Am offers a sharp commentary on the pervasiveness of "authenticity-culture" and probes its contradictions. THE MONTHLY

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Book SynopsisWhat is 'truth' in today's freewheeling, pluralistic world, without certainties or fixed ideas? Does it lie in the Reason of Descartes and Kant? Is it Derrida's idea of an event, still being made? Or, according to Nietzsche, an ensemble of fictions? Internationally renowned philosopher John D. Caputo explores truth in the postmodern age.Trade ReviewCaputo's entertaining investigation into the nature of truth . . . sets out his case confidently, enlisting Nietzsche, Kierkegaard and Derrida as his allies. (His explanation of Derrida's thought is one of the clearest that I've read.) . . . The starting point for a more sophisticated discussion -- David Wolf * Prospect *Caputo has done a fine job of clarifying and classifying the postmodernist approach to truth and reality. His readable and eloquent book is an excellent guide to the outlook common in a certain strain of Continental European philosophy * The Times Literary Supplement *

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Book SynopsisWhat is beauty, and what is truth? These are some of the questions which aesthetics tries to answer. In our everyday life, we talk about the 'aesthetics' of an artwork or a piece of design. But aesthetics goes beyond the simple experience of art. It is also a branch of philosophy concerned with the whole nature of experience itself, explored through our perceptions, feelings and emotions.

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Book SynopsisThe author of the contemporary classic, In the Dust of This Planet, is back with another raw and unsettling look at the human condition. Comprised of aphorisms, fragments, and observations both philosophical and personal, Thacker’s new book traces the contours of pessimism, caught as it often is between a philosophical position and a bad attitude. Reflecting on the universe’s “looming abyss of indifference,” Thacker explores the pessimism of a range of philosophers, from the well-known (Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, Camus), to the lesser-known (E.M. Cioran, Lev Shestov, Miguel de Unamuno). Readers will find food for thought in Thacker’s handling of a range of themes in Christianity and Buddhism, as well as his engagement with literary figures (from Dostoevsky to Thomas Bernhard, Osamu Dazai, and Fernando Pessoa), whose pessimism about the world both inspires and depresses Thacker. By turns melancholic, misanthropic, and darkly funny, (“Birth is a metaphysical injury — healing takes time — the span of one's life”), many will find Infinite Resignation a welcome antidote to the exuberant imbecility of our times.Trade Review“Belongs on the shelf next to the likes of Nietzsche and Schopenhauer . . . Thacker’s voice is quiet, a desperate whisper into the void that is both haunting and heartbreaking.” —Into the Void “When life gives us lemons, Thacker refuses to make lemonade. Rather he adds lemon juice to the ink pot, and proceeds to write with an acerbic clarity—and touches of black humor—about the predicament of being human.” —Dominic Pettman, author of Human Error: Species Being and Media Machines

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Book SynopsisAn inspiring curated selection of 40 photographs and artworks with accompanying essays examining the skill of confidence. The difference between success and failure often comes down to an ingredient that we are seldom directly taught about and may forget to focus on: confidence. Here is a supreme guide to a fatefully neglected quality – made up of a series of short essays that encourage us into a new and more fruitful state of mind. We hear why we should dare to try, why the past doesn’t have to dictate the future, why we can alter the way we speak to ourselves and why there are so many reasons to keep faith with our most ambitious aspirations. The images that accompany each essay are there to ensure that we aren’t merely intellectually stirred to change our lives but are also given the best kind of visual assistance. Within its modest size, this book succeeds at a mighty feat: unlocking our latent powers and edging us on with kindness and creativity to become the best version of ourselves.

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Book SynopsisContemporary life is defined by excess. There must always be more, there is never enough. We need a surplus to what we need to be able to truly enjoy what we have. Slavoj Žižek's guide to surplus (and why it's enjoyable) begins by arguing that what is surplus to our needs is by its very nature unsubstantial and unnecessary. But, perversely, without this surplus, we wouldn't be able to enjoy, what is substantial and necessary. Indeed, without the surplus we wouldn't be able to identify what was the perfect amount. Is there any escape from the vicious cycle of surplus enjoyment or are we forever doomed to simply want more? Engaging with everything from The Joker film to pop songs and Thomas Aquinas to the history of pandemics, Žižek argues that recognising the society of enjoyment we live in for what it is can provide an explanation for the political impasses in which we find ourselves today. And if we begin, even a little bit, to recognise that the nuggets of enTrade Review[Žižek] could never be as dull a writer. He is a great caller of things stupid, which is a skill too little practised in a world dedicated to avoiding offence. But he also has genuine enthusiasms that constantly surprise the reader, such as a brilliant few pages on Shostakovich and, later, on the film Joker … Žižek is at heart really a close reader and a seriously inventive one. * The Spectator *Surplus-Enjoyment is the author at his most supple, addressing urgent current concerns and the need for a global solidarity that cannot be divorced from egalitarianism. ... Zizek is a pick-me-up for fatigued brains, a true radical and an authentic left-wing conservative who wants to prevent the social disintegration that threatens our civic life. * The Prisma: The Multicultural Newspaper *Table of ContentsOuverture: Living In A Topsy-Turvy World 1. Where Is The Rift? Marx, Capitalism, And Ecology 2. A Non-binary Difference? Psychoanalysis, Politics, And Philosophy 3. Surplus-Enjoyment, Or, Why Do We Enjoy Our Oppression Finale: Subjective Destitution As A Political Category Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisWe accept without shame that most organs in our bodies might at some point develop problems – and could need a bit of help. We should not make an exception of our minds. Our lives are so complicated and so filled with burdens, we should be completely unsurprised if, at some point, we felt a need to pull up a white flag and ask for help with our minds. This is a guide to how to cope with a variety of forms of mental pain and unwellness, from the very mild to the more severe. It explains to us how and why we might become ill, how we can explain things to friends and family, how we should take care of ourselves – and how we might adjust our view of ourselves and our future so as to live wisely alongside our difficulties. Throughout the tone is humane, encouraging and rich with experience. A central idea is that there is no need for any of us to suffer alone with our condition and that the best way to mend is to reduce shame, accept our troubles as very normal – and seek out understanding and friendship. It’s by exploring and discussing what has happened to us that we can heal and reduce our sense of isolation. Written with kindness, knowledge and sympathy, and drawing upon the experience and knowledge of The School of Life therapists, this book is an essential tool to help us on the way to our recovery.

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Book SynopsisAn insightful and illuminating guide on understanding the psychological legacy left to us by our parents.

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Book SynopsisContemporary life is defined by excess. There must always be more, there is never enough. We need a surplus to what we need to be able to truly enjoy what we have. Slavoj Žižek's guide to surplus (and why it's enjoyable) begins by arguing that what is surplus to our needs is by its very nature unsubstantial and unnecessary. But, perversely, without this surplus, we wouldn't be able to enjoy what is substantial and necessary. Indeed, without the surplus we wouldn't be able to identify what was the perfect amount. Is there any escape from the vicious cycle of surplus enjoyment or are we forever doomed to simply want more? Engaging with everything from The Joker film to pop songs and Thomas Aquinas to the history of pandemics, Žižek argues that recognising the society of enjoyment we live in for what it is can provide an explanation for the political impasses in which we find ourselves today. And if we begin, even a little bit, to recognise that the nuggets of enjTrade Review[Žižek] could never be as dull a writer. He is a great caller of things stupid, which is a skill too little practised in a world dedicated to avoiding offence. But he also has genuine enthusiasms that constantly surprise the reader, such as a brilliant few pages on Shostakovich and, later, on the film Joker … Žižek is at heart really a close reader and a seriously inventive one. * The Spectator *Surplus-Enjoyment is the author at his most supple, addressing urgent current concerns and the need for a global solidarity that cannot be divorced from egalitarianism. ... Zizek is a pick-me-up for fatigued brains, a true radical and an authentic left-wing conservative who wants to prevent the social disintegration that threatens our civic life. * The Prisma: The Multicultural Newspaper *Table of ContentsOuverture: Living In A Topsy-Turvy World 1. Where Is The Rift? Marx, Capitalism, And Ecology 2. A Non-binary Difference? Psychoanalysis, Politics, And Philosophy 3. Surplus-Enjoyment, Or, Why Do We Enjoy Our Oppression Finale: Subjective Destitution As A Political Category Bibliography Index

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Book Synopsis"Thacker's discourse on the intersection of horror and philosophy is utterly original and utterly captivating..." Thomas Ligotti, author of The Conspiracy Against the Human Race The world is increasingly unthinkable, a world of planetary disasters, emerging pandemics, and the looming threat of extinction. In this book Eugene Thacker suggests that we look to the genre of horror as offering a way of thinking about the unthinkable world. To confront this idea is to confront the limit of our ability to understand the world in which we live - a central motif of the horror genre. In the Dust of This Planet explores these relationships between philosophy and horror. In Thacker's hands, philosophy is not academic logic-chopping; instead, it is the thought of the limit of all thought, especially as it dovetails into occultism, demonology, and mysticism. Likewise, Thacker takes horror to mean something beyond the focus on gore and scare tactics, but as the under-appreciated genre of supernatural horror in fiction, film, comics, and music.Trade ReviewGlenn Beck (ex-Fox News) has done a segment on his show unpicking the "pop-nihilist" conspiracy from the book; posted on youtube.com/watch?v=2IW8OK4_1gQ -- Glenn Beck September 2014

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Book SynopsisReligion is currently gaining a much higher profile. The number of faith schools is increasingly, and religious points of view are being aired more frequently in the media. As religion''s profile rises, those who reject religion, including humanists, often find themselves misunderstood, and occasionally misrepresented. Stephen Law explores how humanism uses science and reason to make sense of the world, looking at how it encourages individual moral responsibility and shows that life can have meaning without religion. Challenging some of the common misconceptions, he seeks to dispute the claims that atheism and humanism are ''faith positions'' and that without God there can be no morality and our lives are left without purpose. Looking at the history of humanism and its development as a philosophical alternative, he examines the arguments for and against the existence of God, and explores the role humanism plays in moral and secular societies, as well as in moral and religious education. Using humanism to determine the meaning of life, he shows that there is a positive alternative to traditional religious belief.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Table of ContentsIntroduction ; 1. The history of humanism ; 2. Arguments for the existence of God ; 3. An argument against the existence of God ; 4. Humanism and morality ; 5. Humanism and secularism ; 6. Humanism and moral and religious education ; 7. The meaning of life ; 8. Humanist ceremonies

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Book SynopsisEach book is summarised to convey a brief idea of what each one has to offer the interested reader, while a ''Speed Read'' for each book delivers a quick sense of what each book is like to read and a highly compressed summary of the main points of the book in question. The titles covered include thought-provoking classics on psychology, mindfulness, rationality, the brain, mathematical and economic thought and practical philosophy. The selection includes books about self-improvement as well as historically interesting accounts of how the mind works. Titles included go back as far as the Epictetus classic The Enchiridion and Bertrand Russell''s charming The ABC of Relativity, and proceed through classics such as Edward de Bono''s Lateral Thinking and into the digital era with titles such as The Shallows and Big Data. The books are arranged chronologically, which draws attention to some of the interesting juxtapositions and conn

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"[How to Keep an Open Mind] gives a modern audience an accessible introduction to the school of thought, and shows us a better way to think about skepticism in a radically polarized world."---Steven Gambardella, The Sophist (Medium)

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Book SynopsisWas love invented by European poets in the Middle Ages or is it part of human nature? Will winning the lottery really make you happy? Is it possible to build robots that have feelings? In this Very Sort Introduction Dylan Evans explores these and many other intriguing questions in this guide to the latest thinking about the emotions. Drawing on a wide range of scientific research, from anthropology and psychology to neuroscience and artificial intelligence, Evans takes the reader on a fascinating journey into the human heart, discussing the evolution of emotions and their biological basis, the science of happiness, and the role that emotions play in memory and decision making. Greeted by critics as a pop science classic when it was first published in 2001, the book has now been thoroughly revised and updated to incorporate new developments in our understanding of emotions, including new sections addressing the neural basis of empathy and the emotional impact of films. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Table of Contents1: The universal language 2: Why Spock could never have evolved 3: Short cuts to happiness 4: The head and the heart 5: The computer that cried Further reading Index

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Book Synopsis'A sensual and intellectual pleasure from start to finish' - Deborah Levy, author of The Cost of LivingWe are all dressed. But how often do we pause to think about the place of our clothes in our lives? What unconscious thoughts do we express when we dress every day? Can memories, meaning and ideas be wrapped up in a winter coat?These are the questions that interest Shahidha Bari, as she explores the secret language of our clothes. Ranging freely through literature, art, film and philosophy, Dressed tracks the hidden power of clothes in our culture and our daily lives. From the depredations of violence and ageing to our longing for freedom, love and privacy, from the objectification of women to the crisis of masculinity, each garment exposes a fresh dilemma. Item by item, the story of ourselves unravels. Evocative, enlightening and dazzlingly original, Dressed is not just about clothes as objects of fashion or as a means of self-expression. This is a book about the deepest philosophical questions of who we are, how we see ourselves and how we dress to face the world.Trade ReviewBari’s investigation into how we construct our selves, individually and collectively, is a sensual and intellectual pleasure from start to finish. -- Deborah LevyA deeply original, compelling thinker and a brilliant writer. Dressed is the finest philosophy of clothes since Tomas Carlyle’s Sartor Resartus in 1834. Bari’s writing is limpidly clear, informed by a rich literary knowledge, theoretically and historically informed, sensuous and deeply textured, like a piece of luxurious fabric. It is also funny. But make no mistake: this is a work of philosophy. It just happens to be about clothes. -- Simon CritchleyDressed is a feast of a book, a supreme example of the new kind of essay – exploratory, reflective, full of the personal energy of Shahidha Bari herself and also her wide knowledge. -- Marina Warner[A] clever, subtle book… Although [Bari's] writing is critically informed…her tone is insistently personal, intimate even… Between her main chapters she drops in lyrical accounts of her own encounters with specific items of clothing… Bari wants us to think not so much about what clothes say as how they make us feel. -- Kathryn Hughes * Guardian *[There are] many delectable facts waiting to be discovered in Shahidha Bari’s Dressed… Dressed is irresistible when Bari riffs with extraordinary breadth and depth on the cultural meanings of the items she describes… I put Dressed down having been dazzled by Bari’s learning and insights... In the end, Dressed is an argument for taking apparently frivolous things seriously... More than this, though, Bari communicates the joy and powerful sense of interconnected humanity clothes can bring.” -- Lucy Moore * Literary Review *

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Book SynopsisHow to be Free is Tom Hodgkinson''s manifesto for a liberated life.Modern life is absurd. How can we be free?If you''ve ever wondered why you bother to go to work, or why so much consumer culture is crap, then this book is for you. Looking to history, literature and philosophy for inspiration, Tom Hodgkinson provides a joyful blueprint for a simpler and freer way of life. Filled with practical tips as well as inspiring reflections, here you can learn how to throw off the shackles of anxiety, bureaucracy, debt, governments, housework, supermarkets, waste and much else besides.Are you ready to be free? Read this book and find out.''One of the most provocatively entertaining, creatively subversive and, frankly, essential manifestoes of this or any moment'' Time Out''Crammed with laugh-out-loud jokes and witty put-downs . . . acts as a survival guide for everything from the government to housework. Random

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Book SynopsisMeera Lee Patel''s first guided journal, Start Where You Are, inspired thousands of readers through a rare combination of stunning watercolour art and thoughtful, empowering prompts and quotations. Made Out of Stars will pick up the journey once more, encouraging readers to recognize and embrace what makes them truly special. A booster shot of self-care when you need it most, this beautiful, intimate book will be a touchstone for anyone looking to better understand themselves so they can clear out the noise and be who they are.

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Book SynopsisFrom the Sunday Times bestselling authors of THE LITTLE BOOK OF HUMANISMA humanist funeral allows us the freedom to remember and celebrate the life of someone in exactly the way we want to and - as the most popular alternative to a religious ceremony - put us more closely in touch with the precious nature of life.In a beautiful collection of insights from humanist celebrants, as well as quotes, poems and meditations from humanist writers and thinkers throughout history, THE LITTLE BOOK OF HUMANIST FUNERALS is the perfect introduction to the humanist approach to life and death.Trade ReviewWhat a treasure - inspiring, comforting, and brimming with the equanimity one longs for in coming to terms with a death -- Steven Pinker

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Book SynopsisThe alternate self is a persistent theme of modern culture. From Robert Frost to Sharon Olds, Virginia Woolf to Ian McEwan, poets and novelists—and readers—are fascinated by paths not taken. In an elegant and provocative rumination, Andrew H. Miller lingers with other selves, listening to what they have to say about our stories and our lives.Trade ReviewAn expertly curated tour of regret and envy in literature…By approaching regret and envy from multiple angles, Miller’s insightful and moving book—both in his own discussion and in the tales he recounts—gently nudges us toward consolation. Yes, we might live only one among countless possible lives, and those we haven’t lived will haunt us. But, as Miller notes in conclusion, at least we have had the chance to live the one life that has been given to us. * Wall Street Journal *Counts the ways in which narratives of unlived lives can examine or come to terms with the present…Miller believes, in short, that stories of unled lives make real life livelier…[A] capacious book. -- Daisy Hildyard * Times Literary Supplement *Miller is charming company, both humanly and intellectually. He is onto something: the theme of unled lives, and the fascinating idea that fiction intensifies the sense of provisionality that attends all lives. An extremely attractive book. -- James WoodOn Not Being Someone Else reminds us just how alluring and confounding our singularity is and how, through literature, we make sense of being ourselves. To be someone—to be anyone—is about being someone and not being someone else. Miller’s amused and inspired book is utterly compelling about this, and about so much else. -- Adam Phillips, author of One Way and Another: New and Selected EssaysA compendium of expressions of wonder over what might have been…We have unled lives for all sorts of reasons: because we make choices; because society constrains us; because events force our hands; most of all, because we are singular individuals, becoming more so with time…Swept up in our real lives, we quickly forget about the unreal ones. Still, there will be moments when, for good or ill, we feel confronted by our unrealized possibilities. -- Joshua Rothman * New Yorker *I wish I had written this book—a wish that is surely the best response to reading it… Cosmic metaphysical speculation is combined with, and conveyed through, meticulous analysis of pictures, poems, novels and films…Examining art’s capacity to transfix, multiply, and compress, this book is itself a work of art. -- Jane O’Grady * Times Higher Education *Excellent…For Miller, imagining who we might have been or once were, or who we might yet become, is anything but frivolous…In spirited and incisive close readings of texts like Robert Frost’s ‘The Road Not Taken,’ Carl Dennis’s ‘The God Who Loves You,’ and Ian McEwan’s Atonement (among many, many others), Miller pursues this slippery, elusive meaning and the many questions it leaves unanswered…The idea of unled lives could hardly be more resonant…How many literary scholars today write so engagingly? -- Morten Høi Jensen * Commonweal *Shows that the idea of lives unled is stitched into works of art across genres and across centuries, making clear that the stories we tell are often rooted in considering alternatives to the choices we’ve made. -- Linda Levitt * PopMatters *A book of admirable insight and sensitivity…Throughout this quiet, engrossing book, Miller aptly reveals the uncanny mesmerism of the unlived life, of the untaken road—our very modern preoccupation with who we are not…This is a text fresh and alive with the power and mystery of art, steeped in feeling, and, like life itself, resplendent with possibilities as yet unrealized, with knowledge not yet known. -- Alexandre Leskanich * Philosophy Now *Wonderfully lucid about murky questions of what might have been…Both literature specialists, who will appreciate Miller’s breadth of examples, and general readers, who can enjoy the universal topics he explores, will find much food for thought in this pleasant work. * Publishers Weekly *A strong, pleasing work that is as much about living as about reading and writing. * Kirkus Reviews *Fascinating. -- David Aaronovitch * The Times *What a provocative book! It is interesting and alive on every page, and entertaining the idea of a different life is a profound experience. -- Michael Gorra, author of Portrait of a Novel: Henry James and the Making of an American MasterpieceMiller’s book is a poetics of the unled life, a poetics of ‘what if…’ Through poems, novels, films, philosophy, and psychoanalysis—the texts of our modernity—Miller leads us to profound questions about the imagination, the self and identity, history, marriage, children, regret, atonement, storytelling, and the ethics of choice. Above all, he makes us feel the pressure and immediacy of possibility, the road not taken. -- Isobel Armstrong, author of Novel Politics: Democratic Imaginations in Nineteenth-Century FictionA one-of-a-kind book that is at once literary and personal, drawing us into a world of reflection about lives we have not lived. Why do we return to the past to understand who we are now? This is a profound question, and this book explores possible answers more acutely than anything I have seen on the subject. -- Garry L. Hagberg, author of Describing Ourselves: Wittgenstein and Autobiographical ConsciousnessA thoughtful, generous, amusing, tender, meandering, self-deprecating, wistful, even reverent style of thinking about our lives in relation to the stories we read. -- Matthew Rubery * Public Books *Blend[s] literary criticism and personal essay into a beguiling hybrid…Will remain widely compelling for a long time to come, not only because of [its] many discrete merits, but because of [its] readership’s new intimacy with the ‘unled lives’ of lockdown and quarantine. -- Elizabeth Brogden * Journal of Victorian Culture *Deeply reflective and at the same time uncommonly readable…Although no book of literary criticism can be accused of being a page turner, On Not Being Someone Else comes close. * Choice *[A] marvelous, melancholic, middle-aged meditation on the meaning of lives unled…Miller is a profoundly gifted close reader—someone whose company one would like to keep, and return to again and again. -- David LaRocca * Victorian Studies *

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Book SynopsisThought-provoking short essays by Britain''s leading public philosopher that show us how to discover our own answers to life''s challengesWhile most philosophy is written in abstruse and ponderous prose, Grayling''s is a model of clarity and elegance'' The Times''An enthusiastic thinker who embraces humour, common sense and lucidity'' Independent~ If beauty existed only in the eye of the beholder, would that make it an unimportant quality?~ Are human rights political?~ Can ethics be derived from evolution by natural selection?~ If both sides in a conflict can passionately believe that theirs is the just cause, does this mean that the idea of justice is empty?~ Does being happy make us good? And does being good make us happy?~ Are human beings especially prone to self-deception?As in his previous books of popular philosophy, including the best-selling The Reason of Things and The Meaning of Things, rather than presenting a set of cTrade Review'If there is any such person in Britain today as The Thinking Man, it is A.C. Grayling' * The Times *'An enthusiastic thinker who embraces humour, common sense and lucidity' * Independent *‘While most philosophy is written in abstruse and ponderous prose, Grayling's is a model of clarity and elegance' * The Times *‘He is a philosopher engaged in what he rightly praises, adding value to life, in a way that is not too taxing' * Guardian *

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Book Synopsis''Perfect for fans of Marie Kondo'' Publishers WeeklyDISCOVER THE LIFE-CHANGING MAGIC OF LISTS IN THIS INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLERThe humble list has the power to change your life. In its immediacy, its simplicity and its concise, contained form, the list enables us to organise, to save time and to approach facts with clarity. Yet why do we end up with interminable To Do Lists that are never completed?After decades living in Japan, Dominique Loreau has become a master in the art of de-cluttering and simplifying. Now, in L''art de la Liste - a huge bestseller in her native France and translated into English for the first time - she turns her attentions to better list-making, showing you how to organise them and use them intelligently. Taking you on a step-by-step journey to greater productivity, this practical, inspiring book influences every aspect of your life - from home, diet and beauty to mental health and self-awareness.To perfect the art of the list is to live simpler, richer and more organised lives.Trade ReviewPerfect for fans of Marie Kondo * Publishers Weekly *

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Book SynopsisWOULD YOU KILL ONE PERSON TO SAVE FIVE OTHERS?If you could upload all of your memories into a machine, would that machine be you? Is it possible we''re all already artificial intelligences, living inside a simulation?These sound like questions from a philosophy class, but in fact they''re from modern, popular video games. Philosophical discussion often uses thought experiments to consider ideas that we can''t test in real life, and media like books, films, and games can make these thought experiments far more accessible to a non-academic audience. Thanks to their interactive nature, video games can be especially effective ways to explore these ideas.Each chapter of this book introduces a philosophical topic through discussion of relevant video games, with interviews with game creators and expert philosophers. In ten chapters, this book demonstrates how video games can help us to consider the following questions:1. Why do video games make for goTrade ReviewFascinating . . . a unique insight into the culture that surrounds videogames and the work that is being produced within the industry . . . allows you to explore complex philosophical questions through videogames that you know, love and understand; it's a link between worlds. . . a genuinely insightful and delicately crafted thought experiment - gamesTM

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Book SynopsisA wonderful introduction to history''s most influential scribblers.--Steven PinkerWhat is truly at stake in politics? Nothing less than how we should live, as individuals and as communities. This book goes beyond the surface headlines, the fake news and the hysteria to explore the timeless questions posed and answers offered by a diverse group of the 30 greatest political thinkers who have ever lived.Are we political, economic, or religious animals? Should we live in small city-states, nations, or multinational empires? What values should politics promote? Should wealth be owned privately or in common? Do animals also have rights? There is no idea too radical for this global assortment of thinkers, which includes: Confucius; Plato; Augustine; Machiavelli; Burke; Wollstonecraft; Marx; Nietzsche; Gandhi; Qutb; Arendt; Nussbaum, Naess and Rawls. In each brief chapter, the authors paint a vivid portrait of these often prescient, always compelling poTrade ReviewA wonderful introduction to history’s most influential scribblers, filled with clear explanations and engaging detail. -- Steven Pinker, author of 'Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress'The authors have written a kind of Plutarch’s Lives of the great political philosophers. Their lively and engaging style make even the most abstract ideas come alive. This is a book that can be read and enjoyed by all. -- Steven B. Smith, Alfred Cowles Professor of Political Science, Yale University, author of Political PhilosophyAn elegant meditation on political power … Garrard and Murphy take a self-critical view of citizenship, insisting that "you may not care about politics, but politics cares about you" -- Eric Beerbohm, Professor of Government, Harvard UniversityThis book offers an excellent preparation for those who seek to distinguish the best from the worst in political life. -- Michael D. Gillespie, Professor of Political Science and Philosophy, Duke UniversityTable of ContentsThinker Dates Introduction: Politics - Might Made Right ANCIENTS 1 Confucius: The Sage 2 Plato: The Dramatist 3 Aristotle: The Biologist 4 Augustine: The Realist MEDIEVALS 5 Al-Farabi: The Imam 6 Maimonides: The Lawgiver 7 Thomas Aquinas: The Harmonizer MODERNS 8 Niccolò Machiavelli: The Patrio 9 Thomas Hobbes: The Absolutist 10 John Locke: The Puritan 11 David Hume: The Sceptic 12 Jean-Jacques Rousseau: The Citizen 13 Edmund Burke: The Counter-Revolutionary 14 Mary Wollstonecroft: The Feminist 15 Immanuel Kant: The Purist 16 Thomas Paine: The Firebrand 17 Georg Wilhelm Freidrich Hegel: The Mystic 18 James Madison: The Founder 19 Alexis de Tocqueville: The Prophet 20 John Stuart Mill: The Individualist 21 Karl Marx: The Revolutionary 22 Friedrich Nietsche: The Psychologist CONTEMPORARIES 23 Mohandas Gandhi: The Warrior 24 Sayyid Qutb: The Jihadist 25 Hannah Arendt: The Pariah 26 Mao Zedong: The Chairman 27 Friedrich Hayek: The Libertairan 28 John Rawls: The Liberal 29 Martha Nussbaum: The Self-Developer 30 Arne Naess: The Mountaineer Conclusion: The Unhappy Marriage of Politics and Philosophy Suggested Further Reading Acknowledgements Index

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Book SynopsisHow should I live?What is my purpose? Can I find happiness?Ever felt as though life would be simpler if it came with an instruction manual? There are no easy answers to the big questions. And life does not follow a straight path from A to B.Since the beginning of time, people have asked questions about how they should live and, from Ancient Greece to Japan, philosophers have attempted to solve these questions for us. The timeless wisdom that they offer can help us to find our own path. In this insightful, engaging book, renowned existential psychotherapist and philosophical counsellor Antonia Macaro and bestselling philosopher Julian Baggini cover topics such as bereavement, luck, free will and relationships, and guide us through what the greatest thinkers to ever walk the earth have to say on these subjects, from the Stoics to Sartre.Discover advice from the world's greatest thinkers on questions like:Is there a right way to grieve?What is free will?How can we learn from past mistakes?Do we make our own luck?Trade ReviewAn absolute joy ... This fascinating book is as close as you'll get to hiring history's wisest minds as your personal life advisers * Oliver Burkeman, author of The Antidote: Happiness for People Who Can't Stand Positive Thinking *An inspired navigation tool for the maze of existence * Robin Ince, author of I'm a Joke and So Are You: Reflections on Humour and Humanity *As we all know, life doesn't come with an instruction manual. But Baggini's and Macaro's book, building on the wisdom of thousands of years of philosophy, comes pretty close to it. * Massimo Pigliucci, author of The Stoic Guide to a Happy Life *

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Book SynopsisIn this modern tale for the ages, hit Instagram illustrator @iuliastration takes us a on a healing journey.Following the story of a traveller as they move from darkness to light through the rhythm of the seasons, this is a deeply relatable quest for inner peace told through calming and original illustrations.Using ancient wisdom and philosophical quotes from around the world - from Rumi to Emily Dickinson - to anchor her striking visual storytelling, Iulia Bochis weaves a timeless story of personal growth and self-love.

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Book SynopsisA brain workout book for uncertain times. We are living in a world where facts don't count, certainty no longer exists and complexity means we never quite know what will happen next. To prepare ourselves better for such a world, we need a brain workout that isn't so much about finding answers as getting our heads around questions. We need The Compleat Thunks(R) Book. In The Compleat Thunks(R) Book, Thunks(R) creator Ian Gilbert brings together Thunks(R) from a number of his books as well as over 100 new ones, all designed to get you thinking, questioning, debating and arguing your way to a better understanding of how to survive in a world gone dangerously bonkers. Some of these Thunks(R) were previously published in The Book of Thunks(R), ISBN 978-184590092-2 and The Little Book of Thunks(R), ISBN 978-184590062-5. Thunks is a registered trademark to Independent Thinking Ltd.

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Book SynopsisA brilliantly wide-ranging essay collection from the author of My Struggle, spanning literature, philosophy, art and how our daily and creative lives intertwine.In the Land of the Cyclops is Karl Ove Knausgaard's first collection of essays to be published in English, and these brilliant and wide-ranging pieces meditate on themes familiar from his groundbreaking fiction.Here, Knausgaard discusses Madame Bovary, the Northern Lights, Ingmar Bergman, and the work of an array of writers and visual artists, including Knut Hamsun, Michel Houellebecq, Anselm Kiefer and Cindy Sherman.These essays beautifully capture Knausgaard's ability to mediate between the deeply personal and the universal, demonstrating his trademark self-scrutiny and his deep longing to authentically see, understand, and experience the world.'Knausgaard is among the finest writers alive' New York TimesTrade ReviewA profound (and profoundly eclectic) collection of essays * Daily Telegraph, *Summer Reads of 2021* *A modern Roland Barthes... Knausgaard has a gift for stopping the reader in their tracks with an unexpected, casual profundity -- Steven Poole * Daily Telegraph *

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Book SynopsisWhy We Drive is a rebellious and daring celebration of the human spirit and the competence of ordinary people by the bestselling author of The Case for Working with Your Hands.Once we were drivers on the open road.Today we are more often in the back seat of an Uber.As we hurtle toward a 'self-driving' future, are we destined to become passengers in our own lives too?In Why We Drive, the philosopher and mechanic Matthew Crawford celebrates the risk, skill and freedom of driving. He reveals what we are losing to technology and government control in the modern world, and speaks up for play, dissent and occasionally being scared witless.'Fascinating... A pleasure to read' Sunday Times'Persuasive and thought-provoking... A vivid and heartfelt manifesto' ObserverTrade ReviewOne of the most original and mind-opening studies of practical philosophy to have appeared for many years -- John Gray * Unherd *Persuasive and thought-provoking ... a vivid and heartfelt manifesto against ...the loss of individual agency and the human pleasure of acquired skill and calculated risk ... Not since Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance has someone better articulated the soul-enhancing possibilities of tinkering with tools, making useful stuff work well ... a powerful (and enjoyable) corrective against that wisdom that suggests the unchecked march of all-seeing tech monopolies ... is essential to human progress -- TIM ADAMS * Observer *Matthew Crawford is the grand master of the everyday. He alerts us to the deeper meaning in ordinary activities, such as driving a car, and how they connect to concerns about freedom, responsibility and moral choice. Even if you have no interest in driving you will find yourself swept up by his elegant prose and glad to find his humane intelligence doing battle with some of the most troubling trends in modern life -- DAVID GOODHART, author of The Road to SomewhereMatthew Crawford is one of those who believes that western societies are being blighted by what he terms safetyism, the elevation of safety above all else. He argues that when the state cocoons its citizens from dangers, people lose the elemental pleasure, autonomy, mastery and sense of discovery that comes from taking their own decisions and risks ... He makes the case for a broader view of the purpose of life than simply the defence of it ... I am with Crawford -- JENNI RUSSELL * The Times *A pleasure to read ... His thesis demands that he convey the pleasure of driving, and he's up to the task ... And he addresses some huge, fascinating issues: how people retain self-respect when computers are deskilling them, and sovereignty over their lives when computers are spying on them. Much of modern life raises these questions, but people's relationship with their cars perhaps best exemplifies them ... an enjoyable, scenic cruise round a fascinating landscape -- EMMA DUNCAN * Sunday Times *

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Book SynopsisA collection of meditations in the Stoic tradition. Meditations on Self-Discipline and Failure provides access to the ruminations, practices, and applications of ancient Stoic philosophy as deployed by a contemporary professional philosopher with twenty five years of experience teaching, researching, and publishing articles in academic journals. Each meditation is presented in the second person, encouraging the reader to examine their struggles and failures in the pursuit of self-improvement and enlightenment.Trade ReviewWritten in the spirit of Epictetus' Manual, Bill Ferraiolo's Meditations exposes the common human fallacies that lead to depression, anxiety, guilt, anger, and other toxic emotions. From the self-defeating desire to control the minds of others to the unrealistic demand that politicians tell the truth, Ferraiolo challenges the most insidious human tendencies to undermine one's own peace and solemnity. Read it, and always keep a copy close at hand. -- Elliot D. Cohen PhD, author of What Would Aristotle Do? Self-Control through the Power of Reason Ferraiolo offers a provocative contemporary adaptation of his reading of the Stoic philosophers Marcus Aurelius and Epictetus and other ancient philosophers of similar minds. The book is well-organized and easy to read. It will be welcomed by anyone fascinated with or open to meditative philosophy of the Roman Stoic variety. An interesting and worthwhile read. -- Dr. Hugh Benson, author of Socratic Wisdom: The Model of Knowledge in Plato's Early Dialogues In this wonderful book of bracing thoughts, questions, and guidance, William Ferraiolo provides a modern version of the challenges presented to us in the ancient past by such philosophers as Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius. You can read just a few pages at a time, and have much to ponder about your life, day-to-day. -- Tom Morris, bestselling author of If Aristotle Ran General Motors, The Stoic Art of Living, The Oasis Within Meditations on Self-Discipline and Failure will make you pause and reflect, whether or not you agree with any or all of its contents. Written in the style of Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, and with a strong flavor of Epictetus, it confronts the reader with what happens if one looks at reality in the eyes and considers regulating his life accordingly. To do so takes both wisdom and courage, but Ferraiolo argues that it is well worth the effort. -- Massimo Pigliucci PhD, author of How to Be Stoic: Using Ancient Philosophy to Live a Modern Life

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Book SynopsisThe Daily Doctor is a page-a-day guide to living your best Time Lord life. As days turn to weeks turn to months, stay serene with your daily dose of the inspirational plans, pronouncements and principles that bring order this crazy and chaotic universe.From what it means to be human, when it's best to run and the best approach to filling your pockets, this book contains nothing less than the tao of Doctor Who - 365¼ hot tips on life and how to live it!

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Book SynopsisIn this exciting, innovative work, Polish feminist philosopher Ewa Majewska maps the creation of feminist counterpublics around the world-spaces of protest and ideas, community and common struggle, that can challenge the emergence of fascist states as well as Western democratic "public spheres" populated by atomized, individual subjects.Drawing from Eastern Europe and the Global South, Majewska describes the mass labor movement of Poland's Solidarnosc in 1980 and contemporary feminist movements across Poland and South America, arguing that it is outside of the West that we can see the most promising left futures. Majewska argues for the creation of a feminist public-a politics and a world held in common-and outlines the tactics this political goal demands, arguing for a feminist political theory that does not reproduce the same forms of domination it seeks to overcome.Trade ReviewEwa Majewska looks at the ways that feminist spaces resist the tide of fascism. * Lit Hub (75 Nonfiction Books You Should Read This Summer) *A central figure in Polish feminism. -- Amia Srinivasan * New Yorker *

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Book SynopsisProbably the most famous living philosopher, Slavoj Žižek explores the concept of 'event', in the second in this new series of easily digestible philosophyWhat is really happening when something happens?In the second in a new series of accessible, commute-length books of original thought, Slavoj Žižek, one of the world's greatest living philosophers, examines the new and highly-contested concept of Event. An Event can be an occurrence that shatters ordinary life, a radical political rupture, a transformation of reality, a religious belief, the rise of a new art form, or an intense experience such as falling in love. Taking us on a trip which stops at different definitions of Event, Žižek addresses fundamental questions such as: are all things connected? How much are we agents of our own fates? Which conditions must be met for us to perceive something as really existing? In a world that's constantly changing, is anything new really happening? Drawing on references from Plato to arthouse cinema, the Big Bang to Buddhism, Event is a journey into philosophy at its most exciting and elementary.Slavoj Žižek is a Hegelian philosopher, Lacanian psychoanalyst, and Communist political activist. He is the author of numerous books on dialectical materialism, critique of ideology and art. His main work is Less Than Nothing, a study on the actuality of Hegelian dialectics.Trade ReviewHis prose is irrepressible, sometimes bonkers but never boring * New Statesman *

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Book SynopsisAre you still the person who lived fifteen, ten or five years ago? Fifteen, ten or five minutes ago? Can you plan for your retirement if the you of thirty years hence is in some sense a different person? What and who is the real you? Does it remain constant over time and place, or is it something much more fragmented and fluid? Is it known to you, or are you as much a mystery to yourself as others are to you?With his usual wit, infectious curiosity and bracing scepticism, Julian Baggini sets out to answer these fundamental and unsettling questions. His fascinating quest draws on the history of philosophy, but also anthropology, sociology, psychology and neurology; he talks to theologians, priests, allegedly reincarnated Lamas, and delves into real-life cases of lost memory, personality disorders and personal transformation; and, candidly and engagingly, he describes his own experiences. After reading The Ego Trick, you will never see yourself in the same way again.

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Book SynopsisDrawing on the writings of the great philosophers, You Kant Make it Up sends the reader on thrilling, non-stop tour of their most outrageous and counter-intuitive conclusions. Harry Potter is real. Matter doesn't exist. Dan Brown is better than Shakespeare. All these statements stem from philosophy's greatest minds, from Plato to Nietzsche. What were they thinking? Overflowing with compelling arguments for the downright strange - many of which are hugely influential today - popular philosopher Gary Hayden shows that just because something is odd, doesn't mean that someone hasn't argued for it. Spanning ethics, logic, politics, sex and religion, this unconventional introduction to philosophy will challenge your assumptions, expand your horizons, infuriate, entertain and amuse you.Trade Review"A well-put-together collection of the most intriguing philosophical thoughts and arguments from Socrates to the present day… Provocative and inviting." * The Good Book Guide *'This book could be picked up and enjoyed by people no matter how much or how little they already know... you should buy two, and give one to someone you could have a good argument with.' * The Book Bag *

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Book SynopsisSuccess is all very well, but failure teaches us what is most important: humility. Costica Bradatan tells the stories of four thinkers who, for all their external success, courted failure throughout their years. From Simone Weil to Seneca and Gandhi, the greatest of us made meaningful lives by grasping the epiphanies of failure.Trade ReviewBradatan, a philosopher, writes with elegance and wit, his every thought and sentence slipping smoothly into the next…I was absorbed by Bradatan’s book even—or especially—when I felt uncomfortable with its implications. -- Jennifer Szalai * New York Times *Bradatan wears his erudition lightly. He is a pleasure to read, and his prose conveys a happy resilience in the face of life’s inevitable contradictions. His lessons in humility remind us that the pursuit of success is often motivated by the dread of failure—and that our attempts to create things are often driven by an avoidance of our mortality. -- Michael S. Roth * Washington Post *Charming and brilliant…Bradatan transcends the pessimistic visions of Cioran and co, for it is clear that he believes in the possibility of spiritual progress once we have been sufficiently humbled by failure. -- Anna Katharina Schaffner * Times Literary Supplement *What [Bradatan] offers is a normative argument for why we should be humbled by failure rather than, like Hitler and Silicon Valley entrepreneurs, see failure as a mere ‘stepping-stone to success’…Humans in Bradatan’s eyes are not featherless bipeds or rational animals but the only creatures who can recognize failure. It is this failure-detecting faculty, rather than, say, Aristotle’s nous, that makes us fully human…Thought-provoking. -- Alexander Raubo * Literary Review *Bradatan argues that we should not run from failure, but face it, clear eyed, because facing our failures makes us humble, and, by becoming humble, we can live better lives…This book is about the art of living a good life, and Bradatan’s voice is like a steady and charming guide through a moonless night. -- Elisabeth Lasch-Quinn * Hedgehog Review *[Bradatan] has an encyclopedic knowledge combined with the gift of a master storyteller who knows how to stay out of the weeds. His prose is limpid and calm but spiced with just the right dash of irony. Most chapters move gracefully along, with switchbacks between a tale about one blunderer and a story about another. A rarity, In Praise of Failure is at once a substantial history of ideas and a page-turner. -- Gordon Marino * Christian Century *In Praise of Failure is a book that nearly anyone can read, and yet it will spark reflection in even the most seasoned professor. Both highly readable and thought-provoking, Costica Bradatan challenges readers theoretically, but also, and perhaps more importantly, challenges them on a more practical level…In our times of multiple crises, and especially for us who live in cultures where success is directly analogous to dignity, failure is something we all experience in penetrating ways. * Philosophy Now *The style of [this book] reflects the humility Bradatan advocates at the moral level. His clear thinking and erudition come through in limpid, simple, yet highly articulate sentences. -- Robert Pogue Harrison * New York Review of Books *Each of the four failures in this book—physical, political, social, and ultimate—shows us the importance of philosophy for finding a good life. How shall we live today? We live in a fallen world, and the author inspires us to consider how to weave a life story, around and through our failures, into a better future. -- Karen Altergott Roberts * Englewood Review of Books *‘More than a form of behavior…humility should be seen as a form of knowledge,’ writes Bradatan. Such a knowledge has always been essential, but it is now so more than ever as our creaturely existence is threatened on every side…In Praise of Failure is a helpful orientation into this way of knowing—one that is an invitation toward the ground of our being. -- Ragan Sutterfield * Plough Quarterly *Bradatan makes a persuasive case for failure’s generative ability to knock us out of our self-centeredness…Give[s] us good reason to hope that failure and disappointment are better understood as preludes, not conclusions, to the messy but fascinating narrative of becoming we call ‘life.’ -- Jennifer Ratner-Rosenhagen * Yale Review *Invites us to lean into failure, to domesticate it and allow it to guide us on the journey from the nothingness before birth to the nothingness after death…Bradatan is precise and captivating. -- Polona Osojnik * Textual Practice *The ideas are boldly counterintuitive, and the illuminating historical examples complicate what it means to succeed. This is, ironically enough, a triumph. * Publishers Weekly *Provocative, stimulating, wise—the book that our success-obsessed age needs to read. -- Tom Holland, author of Dominion: How the Christian Revolution Remade the WorldIn this deeply inspiring book, Costica Bradatan invites us to humble up and embrace the fact that we are all prone to failure. But the real lesson is that this embrace is a first step on a long journey toward self-transformation and growth. We all fail, but only the wise understand that their imperfections are what make them whole. -- Marcelo Gleiser, author of The Island of Knowledge: The Limits of Science and the Search for MeaningI have nothing but praise for this revealing and riveting, probing and provocative book. Bradatan has succeeded in reminding us why failure is not only inevitable, but, if viewed properly, so very vital. A brilliant tour de force. -- Robert Zaretsky, author of The Subversive Simone Weil: A Life in Five IdeasIn Praise of Failure takes a set of corrosively prophetic lives and makes them new again through a compelling, cross-cutting, swift, and entirely original mode of narration. Costica Bradatan writes with the same daring, the same interpretive anger that made his subjects notorious in their own day for choosing failure over what their respective worlds counted as success. A gripping read, start to finish. -- Jack Miles, author of God: A BiographyA belletrist following in the footsteps of Walter Benjamin and Susan Sontag, Costica Bradatan exhibits, yet again, that he is an original thinker of real merit. -- James Miller, author of Examined Lives: From Socrates to NietzscheWith eloquent passion—and compassion—Costica Bradatan puts fear of failure at the heart of human existence, yesterday, now, and forever, from the failures that frustrate our daily existence to the ultimate failure that is death. Weaving together the life and work of such disparate souls as Simone Weil, Seneca, Gandhi, E. M. Cioran, and Yukio Mishima, he reminds us why our fellow humans have always ascribed to the mad, the misfits, and those on the verge of death an uncanny capacity for second sight. A unique, insightful meditation on the essential questions of human existence that aims to heal as well as to provoke. -- Ingrid Rowland, coauthor of The Collector of Lives: Giorgio Vasari and the Invention of Art

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