As Honderich would have it, whether you read his book is not a matter of choice. Nonetheless, recommended for those with...
Honderich (Philosophy/University College, London) ponders an age-old question—are we free agents or pawns of unknown forces?—and winds up embracing determinism.
The author arrives at this conclusion through a series of closely argued deductions and thought experiments (readers unfamiliar with the terms of standard philosophical debate will welcome the excellent glossary at the end). His basic point is that all our actions are effects resulting from earlier causes; there is, then, no room for free will. Evidence for this lies, he believes, in a careful study of human neurology. He rejects epiphenomenalism, the theory that the mind is a byproduct of brain activity; rather, he sees actions as caused by "psychoneural'' events that involve the combined effort of mind and brain. Nonetheless, Honderich argues that there is in fact no "self'' within us that originates actions. His weakest moment comes when confronting the most popular recent challenge to determinism, quantum theory, which insists on the uncertainty of events within the subatomic world; here, his response is that maybe subatomic events don't have much to do with our level of reality, and, in any case, a new physics may come along that is based on determinism. Extrapolating his position into social spheres, he points out that in a determinist world there is no room for moral blame, and therefore punishment for the sake of punishment should be abolished; also, he suggests, those who deny free will may choose to move to the political left, which emphasizes social remedies over individual responsibility.
As Honderich would have it, whether you read his book is not a matter of choice. Nonetheless, recommended for those with well- muscled brains.Pub Date: Oct. 1, 1993
ISBN: 0-19-212328-9
Page Count: 160
Publisher: Oxford Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 15, 1993
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis...
Privately published by Strunk of Cornell in 1918 and revised by his student E. B. White in 1959, that "little book" is back again with more White updatings.
Stricter than, say, Bergen Evans or W3 ("disinterested" means impartial — period), Strunk is in the last analysis (whoops — "A bankrupt expression") a unique guide (which means "without like or equal").Pub Date: May 15, 1972
ISBN: 0205632645
Page Count: 105
Publisher: Macmillan
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: May 1, 1972
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.
The legendary booze-addled metal rocker turned reality-TV star comes clean in his tell-all autobiography.
Although brought up in the bleak British factory town of Aston, John “Ozzy” Osbourne’s tragicomic rags-to-riches tale is somehow quintessentially American. It’s an epic dream/nightmare that takes him from Winson Green prison in 1966 to a presidential dinner with George W. Bush in 2004. Tracing his adult life from petty thief and slaughterhouse worker to rock star, Osbourne’s first-person slang-and-expletive-driven style comes off like he’s casually relating his story while knocking back pints at the pub. “What you read here,” he writes, “is what dribbled out of the jelly I call my brain when I asked it for my life story.” During the late 1960s his transformation from inept shoplifter to notorious Black Sabbath frontman was unlikely enough. In fact, the band got its first paying gigs by waiting outside concert venues hoping the regularly scheduled act wouldn’t show. After a few years, Osbourne and his bandmates were touring America and becoming millionaires from their riff-heavy doom music. As expected, with success came personal excess and inevitable alienation from the other members of the group. But as a solo performer, Osbourne’s predilection for guns, drink, drugs, near-death experiences, cruelty to animals and relieving himself in public soon became the stuff of legend. His most infamous exploits—biting the head off a bat and accidentally urinating on the Alamo—are addressed, but they seem tame compared to other dark moments of his checkered past: nearly killing his wife Sharon during an alcohol-induced blackout, waking up after a bender in the middle of a busy highway, burning down his backyard, etc. Osbourne is confessional to a fault, jeopardizing his demonic-rocker reputation with glib remarks about his love for Paul McCartney and Robin Williams. The most distinguishing feature of the book is the staggering chapter-by-chapter accumulation of drunken mishaps, bodily dysfunctions and drug-induced mayhem over a 40-plus-year career—a résumé of anti-social atrocities comparable to any of rock ’n’ roll’s most reckless outlaws.
An autobiography as toxic and addictive as any drug its author has ever ingested.Pub Date: Jan. 25, 2010
ISBN: 978-0-446-56989-7
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2009
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