Ideas That Matter: The Concepts That Shape the 21st Century: An Opinionated Guide
A. C. Grayling
Language: English
Pages: 448
ISBN: 2:00234628
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
Ideas can, and do, change the world. Just as Marxism, existentialism, and feminism shaped the last century, so fundamentalism, globalization, and bioethics are transforming our world now. In Ideas that Matter, renowned philosopher A.C. Grayling provides a personal dictionary of the ideas that will shape our world in the decades to come. 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—provoking and elucidating throughout.
Ideas are the cogs that drive history, and in explaining the most complex and influential ones in laymen’s terms, Ideas that Matter will help every engaged citizen better understand it.
Reviews:
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."
latter that most sharply brings out the essential character of each. So, the self-sacrifice of a soldier to save the lives of his comrades, and causing serious harm to others to gain an advantage for oneself, constitute focal cases of each. On some views, an act cannot be truly altruistic if performing it brings some benefit to the actor. So if one takes pleasure or satisfaction in helping others, even if no material gain or public recognition is involved, the act can be construed as
advocate with a strong case, and Bryan’s best argument was that the people of Tennessee had a right to defend themselves against the ‘untested hypothesis’ of evolutionary theory, given (as he and the people of Tennessee claimed) its danger to morality. Both legs of this argument were easily cut away by Darrow, who went on to force Bryan onto the witness stand, where he was cross-examined and, in short, humiliated. He died a few days after the trial, having confessed that he had neither studied
legislatures and governments are elected, but a whole package of concepts besides, centrally including the following: the rule of law characterized by due 100 D E M O C R AC Y process; respect and protection for civil liberties and human rights; and the freedom for civil society organizations to exist, representing interests and meeting needs across a wide spectrum. But democracy has not always had such a good press. Rather the contrary, for Western civilization has in fact been profoundly
to identify what they ought to do, in the sense of identifying what is the right or good thing for them to do. As a branch of philosophy, it is the study of concepts such as good, right, evil, wrong, moral obligation, duty, and of the kinds of reasoning (often called ‘practical reasoning’) used in working out what one should do in given circumstances, and more generally how one should live. The key question in ethics concerns this last matter – how one should live, or what kind of life is best –
written, is a scandal. To rational minds the ‘state’ of being dead is indistinguishable from the ‘state’ of being unborn; and as a final release from the vicissitudes of the embodied condition, complete cessation of existence seems a sweet and desirable promise. Among the Romans it was regarded as the last and greatest freedom; they were free of the fear of death therefore. Marcus Aurelius wrote, ‘It is not death that men should fear, rather he should fear never beginning to live.’ The phenomenon