Almost every hour of every day, people will try to change your mind -- and they don't want you to notice, because none of it consists in giving you good reasons. You are nudged, anchored, and incentivized. Products are designed with the help of neuromarketing to appeal to unconscious minds; the taste of food is improved merely by brand association. Covert PR can start wars -- the emotional testimony of fifteen year-old Nayirah which helped the case for the first Gulf War was assembled by PR firm Hill and Knowlton. Book covers adorned with favorable quotes are a powerful 'social proof', whether the quotes are real or bogus. These hidden techniques for changing our minds are everywhere, once we know how to spot them. Philosopher James Garvey presents not just a requiem for rationality, but a call to think again about the way we think now.
The Story of Philosophy sees philosophy for what it is: a passionate, exhilarating quest for human understanding that cannot be reduced to dry categories or simple definitions. It's a story with plot twists, a murder, accidental discoveries, disastrous love affairs, geniuses, idiots, monks, and vagabonds. At the heart of it all are the ideas and obsessions that have captured great thinkers from the very beginning. Packed with intriguing anecdotes and fascinating detail, James Garvey and Jeremy Stangroom bring us face to face with the most important philosophers in western history. Rigorous, refreshingly free of academic jargon, and highly accessible, this is the ideal introduction for anyone who wants to gain a new perspective on philosophy's biggest thoughts. This paperback book has 419 pages and measures: 19.7 x 12.8 x 2.6cm.
The essential guide to the top twenty greatest books in philosophy for those who have just never quite found the time to read them. In this witty and engaging book, James Garvey offers an introductory account of the must-read books from the whole history of philosophical writing. From Plato to Popper, Descartes to Wittgenstein, the greatest books in philosophy have had a huge impact on the development of contemporary society, politics, economics and culture. This entertaining and intelligent guide introduces the philosophical questions central to these books that are of genuine interest to the general reader and opens up often complex and challenging ideas for wider debate. This is the ideal book for those coming to philosophy for the first time. Garvey introduces the key themes and terms in philosophy before exploring each of the twenty great philosophy books with humour and clarity. The book presupposes no background in philosophy and encourages the reader to actively engage in philosophical thinking. The Twenty Greatest Philosophy Books is the essential guide for anyone with an interest in this fascinating subject.The Twenty Greatest Philosophy Books are Plato's Republic, Aristotle's Nicomachean Ethics, Descartes's Meditations on First Philosophy , Hobbes's Leviathan, Locke's Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Berkeley's Principles of Human Knowledge, Hume's Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Rousseau's Social Contract, Kant's Critique of Pure Reason, Hegel's Phenomenology of Spirit, Schopenhauer's The World as Will and Representation, Marx's Communist Manifesto, Mill's Utilitarianism, Nietzsche's Thus Spake Zarathustra, James's Pragmatism, Wittgenstein's Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus , Ayer's Language, Truth and Logic, Sartre's Being and Nothingness, de Beauvoir's The Second Sex, Popper's The Logic of Scientific Discovery.
Etika klimatické změny vyšla původně sice již v roce 2008, takže by se mohlo zdát, že ve světle nových poznatků musela zastarat. Garveyho kniha však není v první řadě souborem faktů o změně globálního klimatu a vlivu člověka na ni, ale filosofickým dílem, jež pojímá dané téma jako morální problém. To znamená, že některé faktické informace, jež Garvey uvádí, je třeba ve světle nových poznatků aktualizovat, ale filosofický obsah jeho knihy a návrhy na řešení situace jsou nejen stále platné, nýbrž vyznívají nyní naléhavěji než před deseti lety. O existenci klimatické změny a vlivu člověka na ni lze totiž dnes pochybovat ještě méně než tehdy, avšak lidstvo mezitím udělalo pro řešení ekologické krize žalostně málo a vyhlídka na katastrofu nabyla ještě reálnějších obrysů. Vzhledem k tomu, že téma se tak či onak týká nás všech, je rovněž záslužné, že James Garvey napsal svou knihu velmi přístupným stylem.
