The Latest Answers to the Oldest Questions: A Philosophical Adventure with the World's Greatest Thinkers
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Language: English
Published by Grove Press, 2007
- Hardcover
- New
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- Title
- The Latest Answers to the Oldest Questions: A Philosophical Adventure with the World's Greatest Thinkers
- Author
- Fearn, Nicholas
- Publisher
- Grove Press
- Publication year
- 2007
- Condition
- New
- Binding
- Hardcover
- Language
- English
- ISBN 10
- 0802118399
- ISBN 13
- 9780802118394
The work of the classic philosophers is well known. But where can the general reader discover what today’s philosophers believe about what it is to be a human being? In his serious, challenging, and remarkably accessible new book, Nicholas Fearn turns to contemporary philosophers to ask the age old questions: Who am I? What do I know? What should I do? In a work that is part travelogue, part search for higher meaning, Fearn consults with thinkers from around the world (including John Searle, Martha Nussbaum, Daniel Dennett, Jacques Derrida, among many others) to create an impressive survey of recent thought. Variously, they believe that free will, identity, and consciousness are not what they seem; that the difference between virtue and wickedness can be a matter of sheer luck; and that, one day, we will all be vegetarians. Kearn discovers that the topics haven’t changed, though our world has. Or has it? Moving deftly from pop culture to the writings of Plato, The Latest Answers to the Oldest Questions is a brilliant and entertaining guide to the current state of the philosophical art.
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Reviews
From Plato to Colin McGinn, thinkers have addressed the same set of core questions, making philosophy an enduring human science through imagination and debate. This book—concisely organized into three parts titled "Who Am I?" "What Do I Know?" and "What Should I Do?"—reviews not just the latest work on these age-old questions, but also the journey between ancient and modern philosophy. But where the title promises adventure, the broad overview obscures the quirky characters and theories that give life to today's great ideas. Further, Fearn seems unable to decide what kind of narrator he wants to be: he'll appear suddenly out of synthetic prose to interview—or to fail to interview—one of his more than 30 subjects. One of his stranger encounters is with Jacques Derrida: "Although he is renowned for his charm, I am unable to give a personal account of Derrida since he declined to be interviewed, and woke me up with a phone call at 7:30 a.m. to tell me so." In this way, the book certainly has its moments, especially in the later chapters, but too often loses momentum. (Jan.)
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Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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