Thinking of Answers - Hardcover

A.C. Grayling is Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London, and a multi-talented author. He believes that philosophy should take an active, useful role in society. He has been a regular contributor to The Times, Financial Times, Observer, Independent on Sunday, Economist, Literary Review, New Statesman and Prospect, and is a frequent and popular contributor to radio and television programmes, including Newsnight, Today, In Our Time, Start the Week and CNN news. He is a Fellow of the World Economic Forum at Davos, and advises on many committees ranging from Drug Testing at Work to human rights groups.

Unlike many other academic philosophers, Grayling cares too much about philosophy to leave it in the classroom. Indeed, as he applies the philosophic habit of mind to the issues arising in ordinary life, he opens remarkably expansive horizons. To be sure, only careful analysis can sound the depths of the larger questions engaged: Can humans ever reach objective truth, or does truth finally disappear in a welter of individual perspectives? What is the source and meaning of personal identity? But even casual reflection on relatively small matters—such as smoking and tanning—can yield surprising insights. Scornful of all forms of dogmatism, Grayling disavows any intention of definitively settling the controversies he visits in this array of diverse short pieces (first published in various popular journals): he simply aims to stimulate thought, inviting readers to revise or even reject his views. Because the author repeatedly echoes the antireligious diatribes of Dawkins and Hitchens, among others, devout readers will welcome the invitation to develop their own line of reasoning. A bracing miscellany. --Bryce Christensen