A. C. Grayling

A.C. Grayling tackles scepticism - a subject of particular resonance today, when belief (religious or otherwise) - can shape the world. He brings complex theories to life as he examines what we know, and how we know it.

Do we take our liberties for granted at the risk of losing them in the war on terror? Grayling (Descartes: The Life and Times of a Genius), a professor of philosophy at Birkbeck College, University of London, and a leading British public intellectual, believes so. This book is, in some respects, an old-fashioned, triumphalist history of the rise of Western liberty since the 16th century (with Martin Luther, John Locke and Elizabeth Cady Stanton playing leading roles), but nevertheless serves as a stirring call to arms to defend freedom from its enemies within and without. Grayling argues that the struggle for liberty has been one of sacrifice and hardship on the part of many heroic individuals. Despite the blood and the violence, it has been worth it. Today's ordinary Western citizen is, in sixteenth-century terms, a lord: a possessor of rights, entitlements, opportunities and resources that only an aristocrat of that earlier period could hope for. But, Grayling somberly writes, the process of losing our inheritance of liberty might have already begun.--From publisher's description.

Review: 'This new translation is designed as a replacement for the old but still widely used translation by Elizabeth Haldane and G. R. T. Ross ... Unlike the Haldane and Ross edition which was translated from a composite text based on both the French and Latin editions, the present translation is made from the Latin text alone, with significant changes in the French edition indicated in the footnotes. This is clearly much more satisfactory. The translation is generally accurate, and is neither excessively free nor excessively literal ... There is little doubt that this will become the standard translation of Descartes' philosophical writings, and it deserves a warm welcome.' French Studies Basics: Based on the new two volume Cambridge edition of the Philosophical Writings, this anthology of essential texts contains the most important and widely studied of the writings.

"A distinctive voice somewhere between Mark Twain and Michel Montaigne" is how Psychology Today described A.C. Grayling. In Life, Sex, and Ideas: The Good Life Without God, readers have the pleasure of hearing this distinctive voice address some of the most serious topics in philosophy---and in our daily lives---including reflections on guns, anger, conflict, war; monsters, madness, decay; liberty, utopia; suicide, loss, and remembrance. A civilized society, says Grayling, is one which never ceases having a discussion with itself about what human life should best be. In this book, Grayling adds to this discussion a series of short informal essays about ethics, ideas, and culture. A recurring theme is religion, of which he writes "there is no greater social evil." He argues, for instance, that liberal education is better than religion for inculcating moral values. "Education in literature, history, and appreciation of the arts," he says, "opens the possibility for us to live more reflectively and knowledgeably, especially about the nature and variety of human experience. That in turn increases our capacity for understanding others better, so that we can treat them with respect and sympathy, however different their outlook on life." Thought provoking rather than definitive, these essays don't tell readers what to think, but only note what has been thought about how it is best to live.

255 p. ; 22 cm