An exceptional introduction to the philosophical questions surrounding God and atheism.
Approachable, civilized discussions about the existence of God.
Gutting (Philosophy/Univ. of Notre Dame; What Philosophy Can Do, 2015, etc.) presents a collection of conversations with other philosophers, all of which originally appeared in The Stone, the philosophy blog of the New York Times. Interested in learning why most professional philosophers self-identify as atheist, as opposed to agnostic, the author interviewed a representative set of philosophers to learn their views about theism. The result is a fascinating, meaningful set of conversations that will intrigue believers and nonbelievers alike. After discussing theism and atheism broadly with Alvin Plantinga and Louise Antony, Gutting moves on to philosophical and academic topics as they apply to the subject of God: deconstruction (John Caputo), naturalism (Howard Wettstein), pragmatism (Philip Kitcher), cosmology/physics (Tim Maudlin), evolution (Michael Ruse), epistemology (Keith DeRose), and history (Daniel Garber). Gutting also realizes that the debate over God in the Western academy too often centers on the Judeo-Christian concept of divinity. Consequently, he also reached out to philosophers of other faith traditions in search of a balanced discussion: Islam (Sajjad Rizvi), Hinduism (Jonardon Ganeri), and Buddhism (Jay Garfield). Gutting and his collaborators present a welcome respite to the vitriolic works of the New Atheists—Hitchens, Dawkins et al.—offering reasoned, civil, and fair explorations of timeless issues. In each case, whether theist, agnostic, or atheist, the interlocutors discuss with respect for opposing views and with humility for what questions can and cannot be fully answered. Rather than seeing the argument as a contest to be won or lost, these philosophers honor the reality that larger issues of justice and morality are at play. As Kitcher puts it, “let’s be inspired by the world’s collection of religious metaphors insofar as they help us improve the human situation. Humanism first, atheism second.”
An exceptional introduction to the philosophical questions surrounding God and atheism.Pub Date: Nov. 22, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-393-35281-8
Page Count: 256
Publisher: Norton
Review Posted Online: July 18, 2016
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2016
BOOK REVIEW
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.
The authors have created a sort of anti-Book of Virtues in this encyclopedic compendium of the ways and means of power.
Everyone wants power and everyone is in a constant duplicitous game to gain more power at the expense of others, according to Greene, a screenwriter and former editor at Esquire (Elffers, a book packager, designed the volume, with its attractive marginalia). We live today as courtiers once did in royal courts: we must appear civil while attempting to crush all those around us. This power game can be played well or poorly, and in these 48 laws culled from the history and wisdom of the world’s greatest power players are the rules that must be followed to win. These laws boil down to being as ruthless, selfish, manipulative, and deceitful as possible. Each law, however, gets its own chapter: “Conceal Your Intentions,” “Always Say Less Than Necessary,” “Pose as a Friend, Work as a Spy,” and so on. Each chapter is conveniently broken down into sections on what happened to those who transgressed or observed the particular law, the key elements in this law, and ways to defensively reverse this law when it’s used against you. Quotations in the margins amplify the lesson being taught. While compelling in the way an auto accident might be, the book is simply nonsense. Rules often contradict each other. We are told, for instance, to “be conspicuous at all cost,” then told to “behave like others.” More seriously, Greene never really defines “power,” and he merely asserts, rather than offers evidence for, the Hobbesian world of all against all in which he insists we live. The world may be like this at times, but often it isn’t. To ask why this is so would be a far more useful project.
If the authors are serious, this is a silly, distasteful book. If they are not, it’s a brilliant satire.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1998
ISBN: 0-670-88146-5
Page Count: 430
Publisher: Viking
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1998
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK TO SCREEN
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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