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Ideas That Matter: The Concepts That Shape the 21st Century, by A. C. Grayling
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Ideas can, and do, change the world. Just as Marxism, existentialism, and feminism shaped the last century, so are fundamentalism, globalization, and bioethics transforming our world now. In Ideas That Matter, renowned philosopher A. C. Grayling provides a personal and heartfelt guide to the ideas—past and present—that will shape our future. With customary wit, fire, and erudition, Grayling ranges across the gamut of essential theories, movements, and philosophies—from animal rights to neurophilosophy to war crimes—to deliver a rich, elucidating book intended both to arm readers with vital knowledge and to engage them in provocative philosophical debate.
- Sales Rank: #134437 in Books
- Brand: Brand: Basic Books
- Published on: 2012-01-03
- Released on: 2012-01-03
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 9.25" h x 1.13" w x 6.13" l, 1.25 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 456 pages
- Used Book in Good Condition
From Publishers Weekly
Grayling (The Choice of Hercules) winnows a universe of ideas, ideologies, and philosophies into a personal dictionary for understanding the new century. With topics chosen according to the author's interests and for their intrinsic significance, the alphabetically organized list leaps from the antediluvian—Afterlife; War—to the contemporary—Artificial Intelligence; Internet. Each self-standing entry includes a concise introduction intended as a starting point for further investigation by the reader, but the author eschews references and includes only a brief bibliography. While some readers will question the inclusion or omission of specific concepts—why Vegetarianism but not global warming?—the list is largely conventional if abstract and rather coolly academic. Grayling's dictionary will appeal to readers looking for a perspective of the 21st century's big ideas as seen from the ivory tower. (Apr.)
Copyright � Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
From Booklist
Philosopher and public intellectual Grayling has long nurtured a passion for philosophical pedagogy as well as an abiding commitment to humanism, and this book smoothly blends the two. A personal dictionary of ideas, it collects a number of brief, alphabetically ordered essays on the ideas that, by Grayling’s account, are the key ideas to know about if we are to understand the intellectual forces that have shaped today’s world and are shaping tomorrow’s. Many of the topics covered, such as skepticism, philosophy of mind, and ethics, are subfields of philosophy that are of sustained relevance to human existence in general; together, they constitute a brief and pithy core curriculum in philosophical thought. Other topics, such as neuroscience, creationism, and string theory, pertain to debates unique to our age. Areas of scientific inquiry also figure heavily in the mix. As always, Grayling delights in a bit of polemic while expressing himself with the crispest of prose; his sharpest jabs are reserved for the irrational aspects of religion. But, like most of his books, this account is designed to be more thought-provoking than utterly authoritative. It succeeds. --Brendan Driscoll
Review
Simon May, Literary Review (UK)
“A work of great scope, erudition and spirit…. it is informed by humanity, hope (not the same, of course, as optimism), a passion for reason and justice, and encyclopedic learning: in short the spirit of the Enlightenment. Its very range (Cloning to Creationism, Quantum Mechanics to Religion, Logic to String Theory) reflects the conviction that only through knowledge, investigation and thought – using one’s own understanding and pursued without coercion – can human beings fulfill their individual potential.”
Iain Finlayson, The Times (UK)
“If there is any such person in Britain today as The Thinking Man, it is AC Grayling, Professor of Philosophy at Birkbeck. He provides generous help for the ethically challenged, the philosophically perplexed and the culturally confused. There are any number of ideas in the modern world; they are like trees in a forest... Clearly and succinctly, without jargon or condescension, Grayling takes on the intellectual world and names its parts. He does us great service with this useful handbook."
Publishers Weekly
“Grayling winnows a universe of ideas, ideologies, and philosophies into ‘a personal dictionary’ for understanding the new century.... [His] dictionary will appeal to readers looking for a perspective of the 21st century’s big ideas as seen from the ivory tower.”
Library Journal
“Grayling’s learning is remarkable: he covers, among many other topics, string theory, capitalism, and Orthodox Christianity…. Even readers with different points of view…will benefit from Grayling’s clear accounts of his topics. He is especially good at explaining clearly difficult ideas, e.g., the standard model of physics; the entries on philosophical topics are particularly well done. All readers interested in the issues discussed – and who isn’t? – will gain much from this book.”
Kirkus
“As always, Grayling delights in a bit of polemic while expressing himself with the crispest of prose; his sharpest jabs are reserved for the irrational aspects of religion. But, like most of his books, this account is designed to be more thought-provoking than utterly authoritative. It succeeds.”
America Magazine
“Grayling scans a vast spectrum of problems and issues with lively, often ultra-opinionated prose…. [I]nquiring minds who ignore Grayling will miss a spirited, even raucous show."
Most helpful customer reviews
26 of 27 people found the following review helpful.
Succinct, sharp, intelligent and worldly wise
By Dennis Littrell
Grayling has made an effort here to distinguish between ideas that were once formative such as free will, determinism and perhaps angels dancing on a pin (which he has left out), and ideas that either are newly shaping the world, such as the Internet and artificial intelligence, or old ideas with new influences, such as democracy and history. The book consists of mini essays on 130 ideas from "absolutism" to Zeitgeist," covering subjects as diverse as string theory and romanticism. Grayling writes well and displays a sharp and considered intelligence that make this book a pleasure to read. He doesn't mealy mouth around what he sees as cant, error, willful ignorance or just rank stupidity. But he is eminently fair and not interested in inciting any riots.
It is clear from reading the entries (I read most of them) that Grayling is a philosopher first and a historian and social critic second. He is the author a couple of dozen books, mostly on philosophic subjects such as reason, meaning, Bishop Berkeley, Wittgenstein, philosophic logic and so on. Some of the ideas on philosophic subjects presented here such as consequentialism, deontology, and verificationism were a bit beyond the reach of this reader, but then that would be my problem. On the subjects about which I have some knowledge I found his treatment interesting, enlightening and mostly agreeable.
The closing paragraph on "communism"may serve as an example of the sort of deep understanding that Grayling brings to his diverse subject matter:
"China is the only country to try the experiment of a capitalist economy with a communist-style unelected central party command government. Despite that party being called the Communist Party of China, it is in almost all functional respects a mere reprise of the authoritarian imperial government commonplace throughout China's history. In this it is paradigmatic of what communism has been wherever it has been put into effect in the modern world; most of the experiments in this regard have failed in what, in historical terms, is the blink of an eye." (p. 88)
Or, consider this from the entry on "consumerism":
"The joke phrase 'retail therapy' used to denote the restoration of good spirits that a shopping expedition induces--usually the forage among brand-name goods in a variety of shops, with a few triumphantly found bargains or exactly suitable items--is in fact an accurately descriptive phrase. More to the point, the word 'forage'...is also speakingly accurate: if anthropological models of hunter gatherer societies are correct, foraging among bushes and roots for edibles was an important task for women while their menfolk were away on (probably often unsuccessful) hunting expeditions."
Grayling is particularly sharp on religions, believing that overall they do more harm than good. He has entires on Buddhism, Catholicism, Christianity, creationism, fundamentalism, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Protestantism, and religion in general. Typically he presents a brief history, highlights the religion's major tenets, and then sums up and gives his opinion. In the final paragraph on Catholicism he writes: "For a thousand years it stood at the centre of European history, for good and ill both; but in the judgement of this writer, mostly the latter." On Islam he concludes, "...it is the faith which at present anyway has an extremely violent fringe from which murder has come, continues to come, and can all too readily come in response to perceived insult or threat." (p. 194) Interesting in this regard is this from Grayling's entry on the fallacies of informal logic, where he is referring to the fallacy called argumentum ad baculum, which is the "appeal to force: "'believe what I say (do what I tell you) or I will beat you up'...; this, though it puts the matter more bluntly than usual, is the essence of divine-command moralities.)." (p. 219)
Grayling even finds fault with deism calling it a "fudge" "reached for." He writes that "to answer the question 'why does the universe exist?'...by saying 'because Fred made it' obviously does not constitute an answer, for who or what is Fred?" He adds, "[T]he arbitrary, ad hoc invocation of something to serve as the first term of a putative explanation is no good, but neither is substituting the word 'God' for 'Fred'--for a substitute is all it is." (p. 320) Spoken like a true philosopher!
On science: "It is a magnificent achievement of the human intellect, indeed it is the greatest of all mankind's achievements...even though some of what science has done (or rather, has been made to do in the more perverted interest of politics and war) cannot be regard as good." (p. 320)
The entry on vegetarianism might very well serve as either a satisfying rant or as providing material for PET activists, so very strongly and effectively does Grayling express his opposition to meat eating.
I found it curious that Grayling has an entry on "sociobiology" but doesn't even use the more contemporary term "evolutionary psychology." He might have explained why.
The 130 (if I counted right) entries are in alphabetical order. There is a short bibliography arranged according to the entries, and an index. I think it is a fine thing that Professor Grayling took the trouble to write this book. His scholarship and wisdom are evident throughout. Another book that covers some of the same ground with a different emphasis is:
The World Is Not as We Think It Is
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful.
Great book presenting the personal (and thus biased) views of a very intelligent person
By Jackal
The author has made his selection of ideas that he considers important. The author states that the alphabetically arranged short articles are introductions to the ideas only. The reader will have to do extra reading to really understand these ideas. Since the chapters are merely introductions, the author takes some liberties with objectivity. In short, he presents his own reasoned view of the ideas. Whether you agree or not is secondary; primary is that the articles are thoughtful and written in a rather entertaining manner.
However, I would assume that liking the book will require you to share at least half of the author's opinions. If you find yourself disagreeing with everything he says, I think the book becomes dull and annoying. So to help potential readers here are some of the views of the author:
Vegetarianism. YES
Postmodernism. NO
Fundamentalism. NO
Atheism. YES
Islam. NO
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
This should be required reading!
By frugal-foto-nc
This book is a handy reference tool for anyone who likes to think. It's an alphabetical list of the issues and ideas that are important to the American culture now and in the near future. The author is a specialist in philosophy, but he covers a good many scientific and medical issues. He writes in an easy-to-understand style without "dumbing down" or insulting the reader's intelligence. I'm looking forward to the Kindle version...
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