The Challenge of Things
Thinking Through Troubled Times
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- $17.99
Publisher Description
A. C. Grayling's lucid and stimulating books, based on the idea that philosophy should engage with the world and make itself useful, invariably cause discussion.
The Challenge of Things joins earlier collections such as The Reason of Things and Thinking of Answers, collecting Grayling's recent writings on the world in a time of war and conflict. In describing and exposing the dark side of things, he also explores ways out of the habits and prejudices of mind that would otherwise trap us forever in the deadly impasses of conflicts of all kinds.
Whether he is writing about the First World War and its legacy, free speech, the advantages of an atheist prime minister or the role of science in the arts, his essays are always enlightening, enlivening, and hopeful.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Every contentious issue you can think of nationalism, religion, abortion, drugs, wave-particle duality gets an interesting, bite-size rehash in this collection of essays. British philosophy prof Grayling (The God Argument) amasses short opinion pieces and book reviews he wrote for magazines and newspapers, and the result is a grab-bag of topical articles, historical ruminations, and ideological obsessions. His general perspective is mildly left-wing on economics and government, libertarian on social issues such as drugs and prostitution, cantankerously atheistic ("without brainwashing of the young religion would wither and die of its own absurdity"), and dyed-in-the-wool green ("the world is so utterly drunk that it has become insane lusting for the ghastly poison"). Grayling's opinions on current affairs are energetic and colorfully phrased, but, as when he denounces short-selling in the market and voices his worries about China's rise, not always convincing. More substantial are philosophical ruminations that consider the promise and pitfalls of brain imaging in the study of the mind; the link between science and artistic creativity; the bizarre concepts of quantum mechanics; and the tectonic shifts in civic outlook charted in ancient Greek drama. Grayling is an elegant and erudite writer, and though these pieces are too quickly tossed off to convert everyone, they make for an engaging browse.
