Continuum Philosophy News

The Tehran Times - Interview with Charles Taliaferro

Charles Taliaferro, professor of philosophy at St. Olaf College, is part of a small delegation of American philosophers currently in Iran. They hope to meet with Islamic philosophers in Qom in March. This interview with Charles was published in Saturday's issue of The Tehran Times.

Among Charles' many publications are two recently published Continuum books.

The Image in Mind: Theism, Naturalism and the Imagination, co-written with Jil Evans:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"Taliaferro and Evans see the age old batte between theism and naturalism as a battle between contrasting images, of nature, of freedom, of the self, of good and evil, of beauty, and of reality itself. Drawing on a host of thinkers, ancient and modern, and with a wealth of illustrative detail, including some evocative images of their own, they track the course of the battle fairly and comprehensively right up to the present day."-- Anthony O'Hear, Director of the Royal Institute of Philosophy, UK

"The balance in these pages between poetry and philosophy, art and science, faith and reason is exemplary." -- Daniel N. Robinson, Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, Georgetown University, USA

A Dictionary of Philosophy of Religion, co-edited with Elsa J. Marty:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

"In conversation with some of the finest philosophical minds of our day, Taliaferro and Marty have crafted the quintessential philosophy of religion dictionary. [...] A truly outstanding accomplishment." -- Chad V. Meister, Professor of Philosophy, Bethel College, USA

"Informative, highly comprehensive, and a valuable research resource for students and scholars alike." -- Robert Audi, Professor of Philosophy, University of Notre Dame, USA, and General Editor of The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy

"Besides the accessible, succinct entries, the dictionary contains certain bonus features: excellent introductory material, a useful philosophical/historical timeline, and an extensive bibliography for further reading. A terrific resource." -- Paul Copan, Professor of Philosophy and Ethics, Palm Beach Atlantic University, USA.

Nina Power for The Guardian on The Sexual Politics of Meat

“The connections traced between rampant masculinity, misogyny, carnivorism, and militarism operate as powerfully today as when Carol Adams first diagnosed them twenty years ago," J. M. Coetzee, on The Sexual Politics of Meat

In the Comment is Free section of The Guardian's website today, Nina Power agrees with Coetzee that the book is still as relevant now as it was back then - particularly with the likes of Lady Gaga deciding to pose in a meat bikini!

Please read the article (and the hundreds of comments) here and you can preview the book if you're interested in seeing what the fuss is all about!

Carly

Philosophy in the City festival & competition to win £100 worth of books

An exciting new philosophy event is taking place during October in Liverpool (UK) and I'm happy to finally be able to tell everyone about it and link to the new website!  I have to warn readers not based in the UK that unless you can make a trip over here, you might want to look away!

Master-minded by the Philosophy Department at the University of Liverpool, with one of the driving forces being Continuum author Clare Carlisle, the Philosophy in the City festival runs between 9-24 October and will see a series of events that aim to 'de-mystify philosophy, raise awareness of what philosophers do and how philosophy happens, and provide local people with new opportunities to engage in philosophical reflection and debate.'

The full programme of events can be viewed at http://philosophyinthecity.info/festival/programme-of-events/ with highlights including a talk from The Philosopher's Magazine co-founder and editor Julian Baggini and 'Philosophy in Pubs' socials.

And if you do manage to attend any of the events, you might be pleased to hear that you can then enter a competition to win £100 worth of philosophy books, which we are co-sponsoring with another publisher.  To enter:

Write a report on one (or more) of the festival events, describing what the issues are and saying what you think. Entries should be no longer than 1000 words.

For further details on how to enter, please visit this webpage and scroll to the bottom of the page.

Carly

Pop philosophy piece in the Independent on Sunday

Get your brain in gear: Pop philosophy is taking over the bookshops

Featuring an interview with our very own David Avital and discussing a couple of our recent publications (How to Be an Existentialist and the upcoming How to Be a Philosopher), this interesting piece looked at the recent surge in publishing of popular philosophy books in general.  Worth a read!

Carly

Jacques Derrida

A rather deceptive gem of a book to tell you about as a way of starting off the week on Continuum Philosophy. In many ways, it should be obvious what a book called The Derrida Dictionary is all about - and, sure enough, if you pick up a copy of this book, you will indeed be getting a guide to the key terms, references and major works to be found in Jacques Derrida's extensive body of writings, arranged in an easy to access A to Z format, with terms fully cross-referenced throughout.

And yet, I think leaving it at that rather undersells a book that represents a collection of wonderfully written and suggestive mini-articles that succeeds in opening up new explorations of an incredibly diverse (and widely scattered) body of work. I can really see anyone who has already fallen under the spell of Derrida's writings and ideas having a great time getting lost in this book and finding new avenues into texts that are both familiar and unfamiliar.

I'm not the only one who has such a high opinion of the book either - we've had some incredible responses to advanced copies of the Dictionary, which was described as "a spectacular intellectual accomplishment" by J. Hillis Miller, Distinguished Research Professor of Comparative Literature at the University of California Irvine. Derek Attridge of the University of York also commented: "Doing full justice to all periods and areas of Derrida's work, [this book] succeeds in showing both his extraordinary range and the connections and continuities that link his various ventures in thought."

As you can imagine, such high praise from two such distinguished scholars, doesn't come along all that often. As ever, if you want to see for yourself what all the fuss is about, we have a free preview available and further information on the book here.

Incidentally, the author of the Dictionary is Simon Morgan Wortham, Professor of English at Kingston University, UK, who is Co-Director of the new London Graduate School at Kingston University, which we've discussed on this blog in recent months (and which will be incorporating the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy formerly based at the University of Middlesex). It promises to be a hugely exciting venture and if you haven't had a chance to check it out yet, I'd urge you to do so via this link.

Happy Reading,

David
Acting Senior Editor,
Continuum Philosophy

Philosophy and the UK Election

A rare second posting for the day, but I couldn't resist sharing some election-related commentary that's come my way.

First of all, there's a great posting by Julian Baggini (co-author of such Continuum titles as Great Thinkers A-Z) on Philosophers who are actually running for election today. Interesting to see just about all the main political colours represented. Let's hope the rigorous analysis that they've picked up from their Philosophy training stands them in good stead.

Secondly, Thom Brooks (co-editor of The Legacy of John Rawls) is actually nailing his colours to the mast and making a prediction about which way the election will go. We'll soon know if he's right!

David

James Garvey for The Guardian - ethics, economics and climate change

James Garvey, author of The Ethics of Climate Change, has written an arcticle for The Guardian today, with the provocative title: 'Copenhagen is an opportunity for ethics to trump economics: avoiding action on climate change because it might be too expensive is on a moral par with harming other people for money'

Read on here.

James invites everyone to add some (rational) comments to the discussion raging at the bottom of the arcticle!

Carly

More on Sartre and Existentialism

Remember my post last week about seeing Sartre's name popping up in some interesting places? Those of you who are following us on Twitter may have seen the link that Carly posted the other day to a review of Gary Cox's book How To Be An Existentialist on the leadership development website www.leader-values.com. The reviewer at one point even compares the ideas of Sartre and the Existentialists with those to be found in Daniel Goleman's popular psychology book Emotional Intelligence.

On the same theme, we've also just received our copy of the latest issue of Philosophy Now. And the theme of the new issue? You've guessed it: existentialism.

As essentially free beings, of course, you will be making your own decisions about whether to pick up copies of either How To Be An Existentialist or the latest issue of Philosophy Now. But I can definitely recommend both of them as being well worth reading.

Yours in good faith,

David,
Acting Senior Editor,
Continuum Philosophy

Philosophy in the THE

The THE [Times Higher Education] published an article in their 1-7 January 2009 edition that I read with interest, looking at philosophy graduates in the world of work. Hannah Fearn wrote that 'employers have discovered that a mind sharpened by the study of philosophy is ideal for today's workplace' and cited a number of professional reports, major employers and philosophy lecturers, all of whom attested to the fact that philosophy graduates, 'with the ability to analyse problems, to think creatively, self-critically and independently', are now considered to be very highly employable. Perhaps most interesting was the recent increase in philosophy graduates employed in the financial world and in those who go on to study for an MBA. The article also quoted James Garvey (Continuum author and secretary of the Royal Institute of Philosophy), who said that 'someone with a philosophy degree stands a better chance of thinking independently and clearly, and seeing through fallacious reasoning', but also warned that 'the discipline has always been misunderstood' and that there is still some hesitation among potential employers. But with student numbers increasing (up ten per cent in the last five years), it seems the future is bright for philosophy graduates and for the discipline as a whole.

World Philosophy Day

Today is the seventh annual UNESCO World Philosophy Day! Aiming to promote awareness of the important role philosophy plays in public life and to make philosophy accessible to all, this year's event also honours the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The host country this year is Italy, who will lead the international celebrations in Palermo today and tomorrow. Events have also been organised at UNESCO headquarters in Paris and at institutions around the world.

The BBC has marked the occasion by inviting David Bain (University of Glasgow) to write an article for its website exploring what the general public expect from philosophers and what it means to think philosophically 'about aspects of our lives that are at once ordinary and fundamental.' Read the full article here.

Happy philosophizing! 

Experimental Philosophy in The Chronicle of Higher Education

The Chronicle of Higher Education has published this interesting article about the  emergence of experimental philosophy, asking: is this really philosophy?

'"If anything can be pursued in an armchair, philosophy can," the esteemed Oxford philosopher Timothy Williamson told the Aristotelian Society, of London, a few years ago. That may sound like an innocuous truism: No one pictures Bertrand Russell doing his philosophical cogitation anywhere but in a club chair, or perhaps in bed, postcoitally (given his adventurousness in that arena). But, in fact, Williamson's remarks are fighting words these days, thanks to the rise of a cohort of philosophers who believe that the armchair arguments of philosophers need to be probed and tested through surveys of ordinary people and laboratory experiments using human subjects. If philosophers want to demonstrate that their arguments comport with how the mind really works, say the proponents of experimental philosophy, they need to get off their duffs ... Experimental philosophy has percolated on the edge of the discipline for several years, yet remains dogged by this question: Will it mature into a central, respected strand of philosophy or remain a semi-fringe endeavor, viewed from the mainstream as the kind of work that should be done (if at all) in psychology departments — with the results perhaps pondered later by "real" philosophers?' Read the full article