Gary Cox is een Britse filosoof en biograaf, bekend om zijn inzichtelijke werken over Jean-Paul Sartre, het existentialisme en bredere filosofische onderwerpen. Zijn schrijven duikt in fundamentele vragen over het menselijk bestaan, vrijheid en ethiek. Cox onderzoekt kritisch de uitdagingen bij het vinden van betekenis in het hedendaagse leven. Hij biedt een duidelijke en analytische benadering van complexe filosofische ideeën.
"What is God? Does He exist? Can we know? The God Confusion is a down-to-earth guide for anyone interested in these questions. It does not evangelize for God and religion, or for atheism, secularism and science. Instead, it explores in a witty yet balanced way the idea of God and the standard arguments for his existence. Cox shows why all these arguments are logically incapable of moving beyond speculation to any kind of proof. Why the only credible philosophical position is agnosticism."--Cover
The 10th anniversary edition of a witty classic about the philosophy of existentialism. It is also a genuine self-help book offering clear advice on how to live according to the principles of existentialism formulated by Nietzsche, Sartre, Camus, and the other great existentialist philosophers. An attack on contemporary excuse culture, the book urges us to face the hard existential truths of the human condition. By revealing that we are all inescapably free and responsible - 'condemned to be free,' as Sartre says - the book aims to empower the reader with a sharp sense that we are each the master of our own destiny. Cox makes fun of the reputation existentialism has for being gloomy and pessimistic, exposing it for what it really is - an honest, uplifting, and potentially life changing philosophy! This striking 10th anniversary edition with a substantial new preface includes more pointers on how to be a true existentialist, including how to be an existentialist at a time when environmental issues are becoming ever more pressing and our 'post-truth' world increasingly subjects us to the politically polarising power of simplistic social media.
Exploring the concept of goodness, this book delves into the nature of being a good person and the complexities of moral action. It raises critical questions about the right actions to take, whether they involve rationality, happiness, moderation, or respect for freedom. The author examines how these elements might combine and vary based on different situations, inviting readers to reflect on their own moral beliefs and practices.
Do life's big questions perplex you? This book, now available in paperback, will give you answers to some of them while revealing that others have no answer. A humorous but informed instruction manual to questions philosophers have been asking and attempting to answer for centuries, How to Be A Philosopher will help you: • Think, talk, argue and persuade like a philosopher. • Win every agument by tying people in philosophical knots. • Ask questions and raise doubts about things most people take for granted. • Realise that almost nothing is certain. • Get the absolute final word on that question about a falling tree. A practical guide to philosophising, the book explains philosophical ideas with examples drawn from such great works as Family Guy, Monty Python's Flying Circus, The Matrix and Red Dwarf. The book also argues that learning to philosophise will help you think more clearly and honestly about your own life. The book even gives practical advice on how to make a living from philosophy!
Gary Cox guides us through 42 of the most misunderstood, misquoted, provocative and significant quotes in the history of philosophy providing a witty and compelling commentary along the way. This entertaining and illuminating collection of quotes doesn't merely list who said what and when, it explores who each philosopher is and what he or she really meant when they said what they said. Viewing each quote as a philosophical thesis in itself, Cox probes the writings of everyone from Douglas Adams to A.J. Ayer and Thomas Aquinas to Karl Marx. This is a philosophical journey through history, culture and writing to bring us to a deeper understanding of why we think the way we do. As Douglas Adams points out, if there is no final answer to the question, 'What is the meaning of life?', '42' is as good or bad an answer as any other. Here Cox shows that 42 quotes might be even better!
Jean-Paul Sartre is an undisputed giant of twentieth-century philosophy. His intellectual writings popularising existentialism combined with his creative and artistic flair have made him a legend of French thought. His tumultuous personal life - so inextricably bound up with his philosophical thinking - is a fascinating tale of love and lust, drug abuse, high profile fallings-out and political and cultural rebellion. This substantial and meticulously researched biography is accessible, fast-paced, often amusing and at times deeply moving. Existentialism and Excess covers all the main events of Sartre's remarkable seventy-five-year life from his early years as a precocious brat devouring his grandfather's library, through his time as a brilliant student in Paris, his wilderness years as a provincial teacher-writer experimenting with mescaline, his World War II adventures as a POW and member of the resistance, his post-war politicisation, his immense amphetamine fueled feats of writing productivity, his harem of women, his many travels and his final decline into blindness and old age
"The Girls of the White Platypus Totem" tells the story of Tildey Starling and Carmella Blacksnake as they are swept up into a spiritual adventure in the super-remote Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia. The two climate activist friends are called upon by the Pope to investigate strange pictographs of a white platypus that begin popping up in Western Australia and the Northern Territories, sending Aborigines into an uproar and heralding a new cycle for planet earth. The novel was inspired by Peter Weir's 1977 Movie, The Last Wave. Following the first book in the series, "Glass Towers and Goats", Tildey and Carmella find themselves swept up into an investigation of mysterious unrest among traditional Aborigines in the remote Great Sandy Desert of Western Australia. Pursued by predatory academics in league with the army, the two flee across the ocean with the Pope's pilot in the papal jet. Then they travel by Land Rover and horseback to a remote convent, St. Mechtilde's of the Desert, to launch an investigation of strange spiritual happenings originating from the mysterious, cave infested, limestone plateau. Meanwhile, their pursuers have not given up.
"Beyond the Reach of Words" explores the teenage years and early adulthood of composer and musician Johann Sebastian Bach, told from the point of view of Bach's friend Edmund. Bach was renowned, especially in his youth, for his improvisational abilities on the organ. Like modern-day music fans, the boys follow an early 18th century music group on its way to Lübeck, Germany. There, they find the great musician Dietrich Buxtehude, who is searching for a successor for his position as chief organist at St. Mary's Cathedral.Buxtehude believes his successor must marry his own daughter, 34-year-old Anna Margareta. While Bach possesses the musical prowess and talent for the role, he is already engaged to his cousin Maria Barbara.Though much has been written about the famous musician, very little is known about his personal life. This book is an imaginative exploration into Bach's formative years, including his time at the Luneburg Latin School and his first posts in orchestras in Weimar and Arnstadt.
A demented genius, Tildey Starling, fifteen, expelled for unknown reasons from the exclusive, ultra modern, Compton Prodigy College in downtown Chicago, moves at the behest of her therapist, Dr. Hornbloom, to the tiny town of Moab Utah to try being a normal girl. Here she meets Carmella Blacksnake, a Navajo, also fifteen, who grew up in a hogan near Navajo Mountain without electricity or running water. They become unlikely friends, and with the discovery of a psychotic horse, begin a bold journey unto the unknown.
