A charming, informative, unique introduction to Western philosophy.
A Londoner and his canine companion consider thorny philosophical questions on their daily walks.
Accompanied by his beloved “scruffy Maltese terrier,” McGowan (The Art of Failing: Notes From the Underdog, 2017, etc.) muses on philosophy and philosophers as they set out on jaunts in and around London’s verdant landscapes. Sauntering across Hampstead Heath, Primrose Hill, and along the Thames from Richmond to Strawberry Hill, the author responds to Monty’s “earnest, quizzical look” by explaining complex ideas—epistemology, nominalism, empiricism, free will, and many more—in clear, accessible terms and with concrete illustrations to which Monty can relate. Thinking about Kant’s rule-based ethics, for example, the author reminds Monty of the time he stole a cheesecake that lay temptingly on a coffee table. Kant would say, “before you steal the cheesecake, ask: would it be right to universalize that action?” If not, don’t do it. Unraveling difficult concepts of structuralist linguistics, McGowan explains that “the material part is called the signifier, and the mental component is the signified,” which combine to form the sign. “The word DOG is a sign made up of the letters D-O-G, and the idea of a dog." When McGowan gives Monty a sausage, “the sausage is the signifier, the signified is ‘I love you.’" Socrates and Aristotle, Francis Bacon and René Descartes, Leibniz, Hume, Locke, John Stuart Mill, Wittgenstein, and Spinoza are among other philosophers featured in McGowan’s discussions, with cameo appearances by “mean, miserable, arrogant” Arthur Schopenhauer; the Franciscan monk William of Ockham; utilitarian Jeremy Bentham; and Thomas Hobbes, who “famously saw life in a state of nature as being a war of all against all.” Organized thematically, the chapters begin with a short recap of what the pair discussed on their last walk, which leads into topics that consider how we know right from wrong, how best to live in a community, how we know what we know, and how to live a good life.
A charming, informative, unique introduction to Western philosophy.Pub Date: Feb. 4, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-64313-311-9
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Pegasus
Review Posted Online: Oct. 6, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Nov. 1, 2019
A study, part academic and part popular, of the differences in moral conceptual systems that underlie the conservative-liberal debate. If your baby cries at night, do you pick him up? The answer to that question, suggests cognitive scientist Lakoff (Univ. of Calif., Berkeley), is the single best indicator of liberal or conservative values. Driven by curiosity about how liberals and conservatives can ``seem to be talking about the same things and yet reach opposite conclusions'' and why conservatives ``like to talk about discipline and toughness, while liberals like to talk about need and help,'' Lakoff sets out to discover where the difference lies in the two moral visions. He finds it in models of the family and of family-based values: Conservatives favor the ``Strict Father'' model, while liberals conceive of the family as a ``Nurturant Parent.'' That difference, Lakoff argues, yields systems of logic so disparate that liberals and conservatives cannot even begin to understand their opponents' reasoning on issues like abortion, welfare, capital punishment, and gay rights. That much is, on the surface, reasonable enough. Lakoff's argument steers onto more controversial ground, however, when he suggests that ``conservatives have a deeper insight into their worldview than liberals have into theirs,'' inasmuch as conservatives talk constantly of family values whereas liberals shy from discussions of hearth-and-home morality. The ``new understanding of American politics'' that he proposes, not surprisingly, favors conservative values. Lakoff concludes with the observation that ``public political discourse is so impoverished at present that it cannot accommodate'' discussions of matters like family-based moralities- -unless, that is, liberals and conservatives begin to develop a ``meta-language'' that will enable them to speak of such things. That conservatives and liberals see the world differently comes as no news to most, but Lakoff's look into just why that should be so makes for interesting reading.
Pub Date: May 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-226-46796-1
Page Count: 400
Publisher: Univ. of Chicago
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An account of how the Catholic Church in urban areas, with its largely ethnic parishes, responded to American racism and the ferment of the civil rights movement. Throughout most of this century, McGreevy (History/Harvard) asserts, Catholic parishes, with their distinctive emphasis on geographical boundaries, constituted a unique combination of educational, religious, and social communities, representing ``a specifically Catholic style of merging neighborhood and region.'' Catholics arriving in America gravitated to areas in which there were Catholic churches, and the neighborhoods developed a clear, intense ethnic identity that did not easily admit outsiders. McGreevy concentrates on the period between WW I, when the Catholic system of parishes and schools aggressively expanded into every section of the cities, and the early 1970s, when the system began to show signs of strain. He is especially interested in exploring how Catholics and African-Americans interacted with one another. There was, early on, clear Vatican impatience with the existence of separate Catholic institutions for blacks. A number of individuals in the Church were uneasy with the unintended results of the parish system: Jesuit John LaFarge worked for greater integration, as did the Federation of Coloured Catholics. Public figures like Bishop Sheen and Cardinal Spellman presented a vision of Catholicism as transcending national and racial boundaries. Many Catholics endorsed integration in principle but fiercely opposed upsetting the ethnic homeostasis of their own parishes. In the 1960s Catholics' social consciousness was raised by the Second Vatican Council and the civil rights movement. But as the model of integration came to be questioned in the name of respect for diversity, liberal Catholics who had fought against the parish system were, paradoxically, faced with a crisis. For many, their religious affiliation seemed an obstacle that protected a discredited status quo. A thorough, sensitive, and balanced contribution. (photos, not seen)
Pub Date: May 1, 1996
ISBN: 0-226-55873-8
Page Count: 351
Publisher: Univ. of Chicago
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 1996
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
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