Simon Blackburn

<h3>Review</h3><p>`Review from previous edition Simon Blackburn's short book takes the big moral questions head on and does so brilliantly. . . a witty, vivid writer with an enviable popular touch . . . this is a wonderfully enlightening book.' Ben Rogers, Sunday Telegraph, </p><p>`full of good sense' Sunday Times </p><p>`But for anyone wondering how big questions have bothered us over the years, this witty, rigorous book fills in the gaps.' PLAY, The Times </p><p>`always lively and never simplistic' Waterstone's Quarterly January 2002 </p><p>`Good clearheaded stuff' Ted Honderich, The Times </p><p>`enjoyable and extremely readable . . . Blackburn . . . is breezy, helpful, reassuring' The Philosopher's Magazine </p><p>`sparklingly clear' Guardian </p><p>`a first rate and accessible guide which tackles the huge, perpetual questions' Nottingham Evaning Post </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>Our self-image as moral, well-behaved creatures is dogged by scepticism, relativism, hypocrisy, and nihilism, by the fear that in a Godless world science has unmasked us as creatures fated by our genes to be selfish and tribalistic, or competitive and aggressive. In this clear introduction to ethics Simon Blackburn tackles the major moral questions surrounding birth, death, happiness, desire and freedom, showing us how we should think about the meaning of life, and how we should mistrust the soundbite-sized absolutes that often dominate moral debates. </p>

Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring Our self-image as moral, well-behaved creatures is dogged by scepticism, relativism, hypocrisy, and nihilism, and by the fear that in a Godless world science has unmasked us as creatures fated by our genes to be selfish and tribalistic, or competitive and aggressive. Here, Simon Blackburn tackles the major moral questions surrounding birth, death, happiness, desire, and freedom, showing us how we should think about the meaning of life, and why we should mistrust the soundbite-sized absolutes that often dominate moral debates. This second edition of the Very Short Introduction on Ethics has revised and updated aspects of the original to reflect changing times and mores. It highlights the importance of an understanding of approaches to ethics and its foundations, confronted as we are with a fluid and uncertain world of eroding trust, swirling conspiracy theories, and a dismaying loss of respect in public discourse. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.

<p>Plato is perhaps the most significant philosopher who has ever lived and The Republic, composed in Athens in about 375BC, is widely regarded as his most famous dialogue. Its discussion of the perfect city - and the perfect mind - laid the foundations for Western culture and, for over two thousand years, has been the cornerstone of Western philosophy. In this book, Simon Blackburn explains the judicial, moral and political ideas in the Republic and examines its influence on the modern world. He shows why, from St Augustine to twentieth-century philosophers such as Whitehead and Bergson, Western thought is still conditioned by this most important of books.</p> Plato is perhaps the most significant philosopher who has ever lived and The Republic, composed in Athens in about 375BC, is widely regarded as his most famous dialogue. Its discussion of the perfect city - and the perfect mind - laid the foundations for Western culture and, for over two thousand years, has been the cornerstone of Western philosophy. In this book, Simon Blackburn explains the judicial, moral and political ideas in the Republic and examines its influence on the modern world. He shows why, from St Augustine to twentieth-century philosophers such as Whitehead and Bergson, Western thought is still conditioned by this most important of books.

Simon Blackburn puts forward a compelling original philosophy of human motivation and morality. He maintains that we cannot get clear about ethics until we get clear about human nature. So these are the sorts of questions he addresses: Why do we behave as we do? Can we improve? Is our ethicsat war with our passions, or is it an upshot of those passions? Blackburn seeks the answers in an exploration of guilt, shame, disgust, and other moral emotions; he draws also on game theory and cognitive science in his account of the structures of human motivation. Many philosophers have wanted a naturalistic ethics a theory that integrates our understanding of human morality with the rest of our understanding of the world we live in. What is special about Blackburn's naturalistic ethics is that it does not debunk the ethical by reducing it to thenon-ethical. At the same time he banishes the spectres of scepticism and relativism that have haunted recent moral philosophy. Ruling Passions sets ethics in the context of human nature: it offers a solution to the puzzle of how ethics can maintain its authority even though it is rooted in the veryemotions and motivations that it exists to control.

Bestselling author Simon Blackburn tackles the key questions in philosophy--and provides easy-to-understand and enlightening answers. In Big Questions: Philosophy, bestselling author Simon Blackburn addresses the 20 essential questions:What is the meaning of life? Am I free? Why is there something and not nothing? What do we really know? Is there such a thing as society? Can machines think? What is time? How can I deceive myself? Why be good? What fills up space? Can we truly understand each other? Why do things keep on keeping on? Are we rational? What am I? What are my rights? Is truth relative? Do we need God? What is human nature? What is beauty? Is death to be feared?

The Gambler's Fallacy, the Dirty Hands Argument, Pascal's Wager--philosophical terms can be both intriguing and baffling. Now, eminent philosopher Simon Blackburn offers the most authoritative and up-to-date dictionary of philosophy available in a single volume. Ranging from Aristotle to Zen, the two thousand plus entries cover the entire span of philosophy, from the Vedas (written over three thousand years ago) to the most recent technical terminology, with ample coverage of important themes from Chinese, Indian, Islamic, and Jewish philosophy. Here are all the terms one would expect to find in a comprehensive dictionary of philosophy--idealism and empiricism, ethics and aesthetics, Epicureanism and Stoicism, existentialism and logical positivism, and much more. Blackburn also defines many concepts not normally found in such reference works, including entries for apathy, laughter, and the meaning of life, and he includes relevant terms from disciplines such as mathematics, physics, biology, artificial intelligence, and linguistics. In addition, there are capsule biographies of nearly five hundred individuals, from the pre-Socratics to such contemporary figures as Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Richard Rorty, and Simone de Beauvoir. ** ### From School Library Journal Grade 9 Up–Thanks to clever typography, this revision of the 1994 edition eliminates virtually nothing, adding hundreds of new entries in the same 400 pages with no loss of legibility. Most additions are biographical; under A and B alone, for instance, there are more than 40 such, including Mary Astell, Ghose Aurobindo, Charles Babbage, Abraham Bar Hayya, and Jorge Luis Borgès. More Chinese ( *ch'eng* , *yi* , *zhi* , *feng shui* ) and Sanscrit ( *samadhi* , *ahamkara* ) join Latin and German terms, and occasionally a new word (education, wisdom, toxin puzzle, ecofeminism) appears. The time line is also new. This edition will double as a world-religions reference, but its original material is, reassuringly, little changed. *–Patricia D. Lothrop, St. George's School, Newport, RI* Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. ### From Library Journal Almost 3000 entries-many extensively cross-referenced-cover Eastern and Western philosophy (with emphasis on the latter), all the main subdivisions of philosophy, terminology from other disciplines that is significant in philosophical discussion, and major historical figures. Occasionally, information in a definition coupled with its cross references make the term's meaning unnecessarily murky (e.g., compare the "validity"-"follow"-"entailment" sequence to the definition of "validity" in a standard elementary logic text). Some definitions are idiosyncratic (e.g., that of "straw man"), and some omit something necessary for correctness (e.g., the common knowledge condition in defining D. Lewis's "convention"). On the whole, however, the definitions are clear, correct, and useful, and the subjects of biographical entries are generally chosen sensibly. Blackburn covers more than A.R. Lacey in A Dictionary of Philosophy (Routledge, 1990) and a bit more than Antony Flew in A Dictionary of Philosophy (St. Martin's, 1984. 2d ed.), though Flew is somewhat clearer. Since these three dictionaries have different emphases, they complement one another nicely. Recommended for academic libraries. *Robert Hoffman, York Coll., CUNY* Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

This bestselling dictionary is written by one of the leading philosophers of our time, and it is widely recognized as the best dictionary of its kind. Comprehensive and authoritative, it covers every aspect of philosophy from **Aristotle** to **Zen**. With clear and concise definitions, it provides lively and accessible coverage of not only Western philosophical traditions, but also themes from Chinese, Indian, Islamic, and Jewish philosophy. Entries include over 400 biographies of famous and influential philosophers, in-depth analysis of philosophical terms and concepts, and a chronology of philosophical events stretching from 10,000 BC to the present day. New entries on philosophy of economics, social theory, neuroscience, philosophy of the mind, and moral conceptions bring the third edition of this dictionary fully up to date. Fully cross-referenced and containing over 3,300 alphabetical entries, it is the ideal introduction to philosophy for anyone with an interest in the subject, and it is an indispensable work of reference for students and teachers.

<h3>Review</h3><p>`Blackburn has produced the one book every smart person should read to understand, and even enjoy, the key questions of philosophy, ranging from those about free will and morality to what we can really know about the world around us.' Walter Isaacson, Time Magazine </p><h3>Product Description</h3><p>This is a book about the big questions in life: knowledge, consciousness, fate, God, truth, goodness, justice. It is for anyone who believes there are big questions out there, but does not know how to approach them. Think sets out to explain what they are and why they are important. Simon Blackburn begins by putting forward a convincing case for the study of philosophy and goes on to give the reader a sense of how the great historical figures such as Descartes, Hume, Kant, and Wittgenstein have approached its central themes. Each chapter explains a major issue, and gives the reader a self-contained guide through the problems that philosophers have studied. The large scope of topics covered range from scepticism, the self, mind and body, and freedom to ethics and the arguments surrounding the existence of God. Lively and approachable, this book is ideal for all those who want to learn how the basic techniques of thinking shape our existence. </p>

This important book is about truth, and the enemies of truth, and the wars that are fought between them. As Simon Blackburn says in his introduction, "the ground is complicated, strewn with abandoned fortresses and trenches, fought over by shifting alliances". Truth is an essential sure-footed guide through the territory, from classical to modern times. It looks at relativism and absolutism, toleration and belief, objectivity and knowledge, science and pseudo-science, and the moral and political implications, as well as the nuances, of all these.

Truth has always been a thorny topic. How does it work? Who decides what it is? And why is it seen as so important? In this lucid introduction to the topic, leading scholar Simon Blackburn describes the main approaches to the notion of truth and considers how these relate to different perspectives on belief, interpretation, facts, knowledge and action. He then looks at how these ideas can be applied to:- aesthetics, taste and the judgement of art; - ethics and how people decide how they should (or should not) live; - reason and rational truth and whether these may be found or learnt in conversation, agreement and disagreement;- religious belief and the ultimate cause of the cosmos. Understanding what constitutes truth has practical value in every aspect of life, and whether you are voting in an election or finding an excuse for being late, Professor Blackburn's clear and incisive account will illuminate your choice, and stimulate, inform and entertain you along the way.