Thinking of answers : questions in the philosophy of everyday life

In his acclaimed columns in the London Times and Prospect, A. C. Grayling often responds to provocative questions posed by editors and readers. These questions serve as the basis for the essays in Thinking of Answers, among them searching examinations of the following: - Are human beings especially prone to self-deception? - If beauty existed only in the eye of the beholder, would that make it an unimportant quality? - Are human rights political? - Can ethics be derived from evolution by natural selection? - If both sides in a conflict passionately believe theirs is a just cause, does this mean the idea of justice is empty? - Does being happy make us good? And does being good make us happy? As in his previous books on philosophy for the general public, including Meditations for the Humanist and Life, Sex and Ideas, rather than presenting a set of categorical answers, Grayling offers suggestions for how to think about every aspect of the question at hand and arrive at one's own conclusion. Nobody can read Thinking of Answers without being fully engaged, for Grayling challenges with his intellect and inspires with his humanity. As In His Previous Books Of Popular Philosophy, Including The Best-selling The Reason Of Things And The Meaning Of Things, Rather Than Presenting A Set Of Categorical Answers To Philosophical Questions, Grayling Offers Instead Suggestions For How To Think About Every Aspect Of The Question, And Arrive At One's Own Conclusions. Happiness And The Good -- Morality And Empathy -- Friendship -- The Moral And The Ethical -- The Entitlement To Moralise -- Ethics And Darwin -- Human Rights And Politics -- Poverty -- Is Beauty Subjective? -- Proving A Negitive -- Body And Soul -- Knowledge Of Harm -- Justice As Inspiration -- Apology And History -- Social Evils -- Fear Of Illness And Death -- Celebrity -- Health And Appearance -- Abstinence And Fasting -- Adornment -- Drugs And Laws -- Laughter -- Praise -- God -- Mortification -- Remorse -- Ethics In Business -- Profit -- Science And Religion -- Democracy -- History -- Love -- Stendhal On Love -- Science And Rationality -- Education And The Internet -- Knowing That And Knowing How -- Robots -- Gender And Sex -- Gender And Research -- Scientific Literacy -- Personal Identity -- Brain And Mind -- Climate Change -- Ape And Man -- Synecology -- Longevity -- Water -- Stem Cells -- Cities Unconscious Knowledge -- Political Rhetoric -- Hope -- Renaissance Portraits -- Shock Art -- The Byzantine Idea -- Free Speech And Political Correctness -- Altruism -- Plastic Surgery -- Appearance -- Education -- Intelligence Pills -- Genius -- Symbols -- Employment -- Confucius -- The Moral Worth Of Truth -- Relativism -- Doing Ill To The Bad -- Smoking -- Hypocrisy -- Parental Rights -- Money -- Shakespeare The Thinker -- Shakespeare's Humanism -- Haste And Speed -- Protest -- Philosophy In Education -- Goodness -- Human Beings -- Travelling -- Civil Liberties -- A Good World -- A New Ten Commandments -- Taking Action -- Waste -- Change -- Happiness -- Sport -- Philosophy -- Enlightenment -- Evil -- Prudery -- Inarticulacy -- The Case Of Ashley X -- Contrarianism -- Authority -- Eccentricity -- Religion -- Existence -- Self-deception -- The Meaning Of Life. A.c. Grayling. Includes Index. The dramatic story of the real-life murder that inspired the birth of modern detective fiction. In June of 1860 three-year-old Saville Kent was found at the bottom of an outdoor privy with his throat slit. The crime horrified all England and led to a national obsession with detection, ironically destroying, in the process, the career of perhaps the greatest detective in the land. At the time, the detective was a relatively new invention; there were only eight detectives in all of England and rarely were they called out of London, but this crime was so shocking, as Kate Summerscale relates in her scintillating new book, that Scotland Yard sent its best man to investigate, Inspector Jonathan Whicher. Whicher quickly believed the unbelievablethat someone within the family was responsible for the murder of young Saville Kent. Without sufficient evidence or a confession, though, his case was circumstantial and he returned to London a broken man. Though he would be vindicated five years later, the real legacy of Jonathan Whicher lives on in fiction: the tough, quirky, knowing, and all-seeing detective that we know and love todayfrom the cryptic Sgt. Cuff in Wilkie Collinss The Moonstone to Dashiell Hammetts Sam Spade. The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher is a provocative work of nonfiction that reads like a Victorian thriller, and in it Kate Summerscale has fashioned a brilliant, multilayered narrative that is as cleverly constructed as it is beautifully written. Thought-provoking short essays by Britain's leading public philosopher that show us how to discover our own answers to life's challenges. The essays in this book, drawn mainly from A. C. Grayling's columns in Prospect, the Dubliner and The Times, are in fact responses to questions set by editors and readers. If beauty existed only in the eye of the beholder, would that make it an unimportant quality? Are human rights political? Can ethics be derived from evolution by natural selection? If both sides in a conflict can passionately believe that theirs is the just cause, does this mean that the idea of justice is empty? Does being happy make us good? And does being good make us happy? Are human beings especially prone to self-deception? As in his previous books of popular philosophy, including the best-selling The Reason of Things and The Meaning of Things, rather than presenting a set of categorical answers Grayling offers instead suggestions for how to think about every aspect... Thinking of Answers In June of 1860 three-year-old Saville Kent was found at the bottom of an outdoor privy with his throat slit. The crime horrified all England and led to a national obsession with detection, ironically destroying, in the process, the career of perhaps the greatest detective in the land, Jonathan Whicher of Scotland Yard. Whicher quickly believed the unbelievable--that someone within the family was responsible for the murder of young Saville Kent. Without sufficient evidence or a confession, though, his case was circumstantial and he returned to London a broken man. Though he would be vindicated five years later, the real legacy of Jonathan Whicher lives on in fiction: the tough, quirky, knowing, and all-seeing detective that we know and love today ... from the cryptic Sgt. Cuff in Wilkie Collins's The Moonstone to Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade.--From publisher description. A.C. Grayling is a thinker who believes that philosophy is a natural part of everyday life. Here, in his most stimulating and enjoyable collection of essays to date, he tackles many of the most fundamental problems facing anyone who wishes to lead a considered life Traces the 1860 murder of a young child whose death launched a national obsession with detection throughout England, nearly destroyed the career of a top Scotland Yard investigator, and inspired the birth of modern detective fiction. Features short essays that show us how to discover our own answers to life's challenges.