<div>&ldquo;Secular-minded readers seeking an alternative to The Purpose-Driven Life have an excellent starting point here.&rdquo;&mdash;Publishers Weekly For readers who are serious about confronting the big issues in life&mdash;but are turned off by books which deal with them through religion, spirituality, or psychobabble, this is an honest, intelligent discussion by a philosopher that doesn&#39;t hide from the difficulties or make undeliverable promises. It aims to help the reader understand the overlooked issues behind the obvious questions, and shows how philosophy does not so much answer them as help provide us with the resources to answer them for ourselves. &ldquo;Useful and provocative.&rdquo;&mdash;The Wall Street Journal &ldquo;Looking for a clear guide to what contemporary philosophy has to say about the meaning of life? Baggini takes us through all the plausible answers, weaving together Kierkegaard, John Stuart Mill, Monty Python, and Funkadelic in an entertaining but always carefully reasoned discussion.&rdquo;&mdash;Peter Singer, author of How Are We To Live &ldquo;The question of the meaning of life has long been a byword for pretentious rambling. It takes some nerve to tackle it in a brisk and no-nonsense fashion.&rdquo;&mdash;New Statesman</div>

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What's It All About?

<div>This study of an ordinary town in Northern England is &ldquo;a thoughtful, sympathetic portrait of white working-class life&hellip;essential reading&rdquo; (Guardian). What do the English think? Every country has a dominant set of beliefs and attitudes concerning everything from how to live a good life, how we should organize society, and the roles of the sexes. Yet despite many attempts to define England&rsquo;s national character, what might be called the nation&#39;s philosophy has remained largely unexamined until now. Philosopher Julian Baggini pinpointed postcode S66 on the outskirts of Rotherham as England in microcosm&mdash;an area that reflected most accurately the full range of the nation&#39;s inhabitants, its most typical mix of urban and rural, old and young, married and single. He then spent six months living there, immersing himself in this typical English Everytown, in order to get to know the mind of a people. It sees the world as full of patterns and order, a view manifest in its enjoyment of gambling. It has a functional, puritanical streak, evident in its notoriously bad cuisine. In the English mind, men should be men and women should be women (but it&#39;s not sure what children should be). Sympathetic but critical, serious yet witty, Baggini&#39;s account of the English as represented by this particular spot on its map is both a portrait of its people and a personal story about being an alien in your own land. &ldquo;Baggini turns out to be a sensitive observer who takes people and places on their own terms. He is also good at examining his own prejudices and fears.&rdquo;&mdash;Independent &ldquo;An insightful and often amusing investigation of what it means to be English.&rdquo;&mdash;London Review of Books</div>

Welcome to Everytown

<div>A philosopher takes a second look at sayings, proverbs, and bits of homespun wisdom: &ldquo;Every society needs its guardian of good sense: Baggini is ours.&rdquo; &mdash;The Financial Times These short, stimulating, and entertaining capsules of philosophy delve into the familiar words that live in our consciousness yet are rarely examined. Should you really do as the Romans do when in Rome and practice what you preach? Is the grass always in fact greener on the other side of the fence, and is there ever smoke without fire? Is beauty always in the eye of the beholder and is it actually better to be safe than sorry? From the popular author of The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten, cofounder of The Philosophers&rsquo; Magazine, and academic director of the Royal Institute of Philosophy, this is a witty, deeply thought-provoking reminder that we should never stop asking questions.</div>

Should You Judge This Book By Its Cover?

<div>“For anyone who has ever given serious thought to the degree to which our actions are within our own control, Freedom Regained will give you a lot to chew on.” —Spectrum Culture It’s a question that’s puzzled philosophers and theologians for centuries and is at the heart of numerous political, social, and personal concerns: Do we have free will? In this cogent, compelling book, Julian Baggini explores the concept of free will from every angle, blending philosophy, sociology, and cognitive science to find rich new insights on the intractable questions that plague us. Are we products of our culture, or free agents within it? Are our neural pathways fixed early on by a mix of nature and nurture, or is the possibility of comprehensive, intentional psychological change always open to us? And what, exactly, are we talking about when we talk about “freedom” anyway? Freedom Regained brings the issues raised by the possibilities—and denials—of free will to thought-provoking life, drawing on scientific research and fascinating encounters with everyone from artists to prisoners to dissidents. Baggini looks at what it means to be material beings in a universe of natural laws. He asks if there’s any difference between ourselves and the brains from which we seem never able to escape. He throws down the wild cards and plays them to the fullest: What about art? What about addiction? What about twins? And he asks, of course, what this all means for politics. Ultimately, Baggini challenges those who think free will is an illusion. Moving from doubt to optimism to a hedged acceptance of free will, he ultimately lands on a satisfying conclusion: It is something we earn. The result is a highly engaging, new, and more positive understanding of our sense of personal freedom, a freedom that is definitely worth having. “Entertaining.” —The Wall Street Journal “While firmly rooted in the philosophical tradition, Baggini also gets out and talks to people for whom freedom—and lack of it—is a real and pressing matter.” —Literary Review</div>

Freedom Regained

<div>An urgent defense of reason, the essential method for resolving&mdash;or even discussing&mdash;divisive issues: &ldquo;A timely masterpiece.&rdquo;&mdash;Patricia S. Churchland, author of Touching a Nerve Reason, long held as the highest human achievement, is under siege. According to Aristotle, the capacity for reason sets us apart from other animals, yet today it has ceased to be a universally admired faculty. Rationality and reason have become political, disputed concepts, subject to easy dismissal. Julian Baggini argues eloquently that we must recover our reason and reassess its proper place, neither too highly exalted nor completely maligned. Rationality does not require a cold, sterile worldview&mdash;it simply involves the application of critical thinking wherever thinking is needed. Addressing such major areas of debate as religion, science, politics, psychology, and economics, the author calls for commitment to the notion of a &ldquo;community of reason,&rdquo; where disagreements are settled by debate and discussion, not brute force or political power. Baggini&rsquo;s insightful book celebrates the power of reason, our best hope&mdash;indeed our only hope&mdash;for dealing with the intractable quagmires of our time. &ldquo;The toxic gloating of &lsquo;gut feelings,&rsquo; hateful politics and heart-over-head attacks on good sense urgently need an antidote. Baggini has risen to the occasion&hellip;compelling.&rdquo;&mdash;Patricia S. Churchland, author of Conscience: The Origins of Moral Intuition</div>

Julian Baggini
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Books By Julian Baggini (5 Books)

What's It All About?

Welcome to Everytown

Should You Judge This Book By Its Cover?

Freedom Regained

The Edge of Reason

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© 2024 OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA

Julian BagginiFollow this author

Books By Julian Baggini (5 Books)

What's It All About?

Welcome to Everytown

Should You Judge This Book By Its Cover?

Freedom Regained

The Edge of Reason

RELATED POSTS ABOUT JULIAN BAGGINI

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More from

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© 2024 OPEN ROAD INTEGRATED MEDIA

Julian Baggini
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