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Philosophy Bites book cover
Philosophy Bites
2010
First Published
3.68
Average Rating
269
Number of Pages

Part of Series

What does Anthony Grayling think about atheism? Adrian Moore about infinity? For the last three years, some of the world's leading philosophers have held forth on their favorite topics on the immensely popular website philosophybites.com . The site now features more than one hundred short conversations, has had some 7 million downloads to date, and is listened to all over the globe. Philosophy Bites brings together the twenty-five best interviews from this hugely successful website. Leading philosophers—including Simon Blackburn, Alain de Botton, Will Kymlicka, Alexander Nehamas, and more than twenty others—discuss a wide range of philosophical issues in a surprisingly lively, informal, and personal way. For instance, Peter Singer, arguably the world's leading animal rights philosopher, states that for people living in the western world, vegetarianism is the only moral choice, but he allows that this would not be the case for an Inuit who lives by killing fish—causing an animal to suffer must be balanced against the necessity to survive. Julian Savulescu talks about the "yuk factor"—the natural revulsion that keeps us from practicing incest or cannibalism—attacking its use as an argument against gay rights and abortion. Anthony Appiah discusses cosmopolitanism, the idea that emphasizes that people around the world have much in common, and that we have to be able to live with people despite our differences. And Stephen Law shows why it is unreasonable to believe in an all-powerful, all-good deity. Time, infinity, evil, friendship, animals, wine, sport, tragedy—all of human life is here. And as these bite-sized interviews reveal, often the most brilliant philosophers are eager and able to convey their thoughts, simply and clearly, on the great ideas of philosophy.

Avg Rating
3.68
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Authors

Nigel Warburton
Nigel Warburton
Author · 12 books

Nigel Warburton is Senior Lecturer at the Open University and author of a number of popular books about philosophy. Warburton received a BA from the University of Bristol and a PhD from Darwin College, Cambridge and was a lecturer at the University of Nottingham before joining the Department of Philosophy at the Open University in 1994. He runs a popular philosophy weblog Virtual Philosopher and with David Edmonds regularly podcasts interviews with top philosophers on a range of subjects at Philosophy Bites. He also podcasts chapters from his book Philosophy: The Classics.

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