How to Think Like a Philosopher: Scholars, Dreamers and Sages Who Can Teach Us How to Live

Description

How ought we to live? What is it to flourish as a human being? How should we best approach death? We all think about these questions at one time or another, and, as Socrates famously said, 'the unexamined life is not worth living'. In showing how the great philosophers of human history reasoned - and what they reasoned about - the popular philosopher Peter Cave provides a readable and entertaining introduction to thinking philosophically, and how to change our everyday lives. He addresses questions the great philosophers have grappled with: When we look at the world, what is it that tells us what morally we ought to do? And how do we even know that something exists? This book paints vivid portraits of a global assortment of great thinkers throughout history: from Confucius, Plato, Augustine and Spinoza to Samuel Beckett, Mary Wollstonecraft, Iris Murdoch and Simone de Beauvoir. But thiere is also contemporary relevance here - the book relates to current affairs and issues such as debates over free speech, moral character in leaders, ethical issues such as abortion debates, gun control and religion. In each brief chapter, Cave brings to life these often prescient, always compelling philosophical thinkers, showing how their way of approaching the world grew out of their own lives and times and how we can use their insights today. Now more than ever we need to understand how to live, and how to understand the world around us. This is the perfect guide.

Peter Cave is a popular philosophy writer and speaker. He read philosophy at University College London and King's College Cambridge and has held lectureships in philosophy at University College London, University of Khartoum, Sudan, and City University London. Peter is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, Honorary Member of Population Matters, former member of the Council of the Royal Institute of Philosophy and Chair of Humanist Philosophers - and is a Patron of Humanists UK. Peter has scripted and presented BBC radio philosophy programmes - from a series on the Paradox Fair to more serious ones on John Stuart Mill. He is the author of Philosophy: A Beginner's Guide, Ethics: A Beginner's Guide and The Big Think Book: Discover Philosophy through 99 Perplexities.

This is an ideal guide to philosophical thinking; it does not try to reduce the views of those that it covers to bullet points, but instead engages with them in a thoughtful and witty way. Peter Cave is the perfect companion for a bright but leisurely walk through these labyrinths. * Derek Matravers, Professor of Philosophy, The Open University, Fellow of Churchill College, Cambridge * Britain's wittiest philosopher. * Raymond Tallis * Here is an extraordinary philosophical journey taking us through a maze of thinkers. For all those seeking to understand the myriad modes of philosophical thinking-ancient and modern-this is the perfect introduction. * Dan Cohn-Sherbok, Emeritus Professor of Judaism, University of Wales * Peter Cave introduces the reader to thirty different thinkers. Not all are easily classified as academic philosophers: some are better thought of as sages or poets or playwrights. But each has something important to say about things that matter: rationality, science, sex, and duty, among other topics. Cave's approach is to introduce each thinker through their chosen questions. From Sappho to Wittgenstein, from Arendt to Spinoza, we are able to enter into a chosen figure's preoccupations and enjoyably think along. This is a much more effective and engaging approach than simple intellectual biography or summaries of key ideas. An absorbing and rewarding book. * Tom Sorell, Professor of Politics and Philosophy, University of Warwick. * Peter Cave introduces his top thirty thinkers with wit and clarity, and crams a surprising amount of judicious reflection into each of the short chapters. * John Cottingham, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, University of Reading * Read this book. You may not learn to love like Sappho, cure like Avicenna, ponder like Spinoza, disguise yourself like Kierkegaard or rival any of the other fascinating eccentrics who fill the volume. But if you learn to think like Peter Cave - with freshness, humour, objectivity and penetration - you will have been amply rewarded. * Professor Felipe Fernandez-Armesto, University of Notre Dame, author of Out of Our Minds: What We Think and How We Came to Think It *