How to think like a philosopher : scholars, dreamers and sages who can teach us how to live / Peter Cave.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Cave, Peter, author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Philosophy.

Philosophers--History.

Philosophers.

Philosophers--Influence.

Conduct of life.

Philosophers--History--Influence.

philosophy.

ethics (philosophical concept).

Physical Description:

xii, 291 pages ; 22 cm

Place of Publication:

London : Bloomsbury Continuum, 2023.

Summary:

"In showing how the great philosophers of human history lived and thought - and what they thought about - Peter Cave provides an accessible and enjoyable introduction to thinking philosophically and how it can change our everyday lives. With a lightness of touch, he addresses questions such as: Is there anything òut there' that gives meaning to our lives? Does reality tell us how we ought to live? What indeed is reality and what is appearance - and how can we tell the difference? This book paints vivid portraits of an assortment of inspiring thinkers: from Lao Tzu to Avicenna to Iris Murdoch; from Hannah Arendt to Socrates and Plato to Karl Marx; from Kierkegaard and Nietzsche to Sartre to Samuel Beckett - and let us not forget Lewis Carroll for some thought-provoking fantasies and Ludwig Wittgenstein for the anguishes of a genius. As well as displaying optimists and pessimists, believers and non-believers, the book displays relevance to current affairs, from free speech to abortion to the treatment of animals to our leaders' moral character. In each brief chapter, Cave brings to life these often prescient, always compelling philosophical thinkers, showing how their ways of approaching the world grew out of their own lives and times and how we may make valuable use of 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"-- Provided by publisher.

Contents:

Prologue

Lao Tzu: the way to Tao

Sappho: lover

Zeno of Elea: tortoise backer and Parmenidean helper

Gadfly: aka 'Socrates'

Plato: charioteer, magnificent footnote inspirer - 'nobody does it better'

Aristotle: earth-bound, walking

Epicurus: gardener, curing the soul, ably assisted by Lucretius

Avicenna: flying man, unifier

Descartes: with princess, with queen

Spinoza: God-intoxicated atheist

Leibniz: monad man

Bishop Berkeley, 'that paradoxical Irishman': immaterialist, tar-water advocate

David Hume: the great infidel or Le Bon David

Kant: duty calls, categorically

Schopenhauer: pessimism with flute

John Stuart Mill: utility man, with Harriet, soul-mate

Søren Kierkegaard: who?

Karl Marx: Hegelian, freedom-fighter

Lewis Carroll: curiouser and curiouser

Nietzsche: God-slaying jester, trans-valuer

Bertrand Russell: radical, aristocrat

G. E. Moore: common-sense defender, Bloomsbury's sage

Heidegger: hyphenater

Jean-Paul Sartre: existentialist, novelist, French

Simone Weil: refuser and would-be rescuer

Simone de Beauvoir: situated, protester, feminist

Ludwig Wittgenstein: therapist

Hannah Arendt: controversialist, journalist?

Iris Murdoch: attender

Samuel Beckett: not I

Epilogue.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 270-280) and indexes.

Other Format:

Online version: Cave, Peter How to think like a philosopher

ISBN:

9781399407915

1399407910

9781399405911

1399405918

OCLC:

1336006309