The Challenge of Things: Thinking Through Troubled Times

by A. C. Grayling

Overview

A. C. Grayling's lucid and stimulating books, based on the idea that philosophy should engage with the world and make itself useful, invariably cause discussion.

The Challenge of Things joins earlier collections such as The Reason of Things and Thinking of Answers, collecting Grayling's recent writings on the world in a time of war and conflict. In describing and exposing the dark side of things, he also explores ways out of the habits and prejudices of mind that would otherwise trap us forever in the deadly impasses of conflicts of all kinds.

Whether he is writing about the First World War and its legacy, free speech, the advantages of an atheist prime minister or the role of science in the arts, his essays are always enlightening, enlivening, and hopeful.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781632862471
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	12/08/2015
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	320
File size:	352 KB

About the Author

A. C. Grayling is Professor of Philosophy at and Master of the New College of the Humanities, London. He has been a regular contributor to the Times, Financial Times, Economist, New Statesman, and Prospect. His books include Among the Dead Cities: The History and Moral Legacy of the WWII Bombing of Civilians in Germany and Japan, Toward the Light of Liberty: The Struggles for Freedom and Rights That Made the Modern Western World, Liberty in the Age of Terror, The Good Book: A Secular Bible, and The God Argument.
A. C. Grayling is Master of the New College of the Humanities, UK. He has written and edited numerous works of philosophy and is the author of biographies of Descartes and William Hazlitt. He believes that philosophy should take an active, useful role in society. He has been a regular contributor to The Times, Financial Times, Observer, Independent on Sunday, Economist, Literary Review, New Statesman and Prospect, and is a frequent and popular contributor to radio and television programmes, including Newsnight, Today, In Our Time, Start the Week and CNN news. He is a Fellow of the World Economic Forum at Davos, and advises on many committees ranging from Drug Testing at Work to human rights groups.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Destructions and Deconstructions

The First World War 7

The Ethics of Drones 10

Irredentism and Associated Evils 13

Guns 16

The Berlin-Baghdad Railway 20

The Killing of Osama Bin Laden 27

The Future of the World 29

When China Rules the World 33

China and Human Rights 42

China's Games 45

Opium 47

A Christian Nation? 50

Unjust Justice 55

What We Owe the Dead 57

Black Poison 59

Death and Taxes 62

Religion and Education 65

'Many Faiths, One Truth' 69

Religion and Public Service 70

The Power of the Press and the Press of a Button 72

Irrationality, Immaturity, Braggadocio, Putin 75

Spain and Rome 77

Superstition 80

The Advantages of Atheist Political Leaders 82

Hard-Wired for God? 86

The Prophetess 89

The New Puritanism 97

The Global Financial Crisis 102

Climate Change 107

The Force of Nature 109

Constructions and Creations

The Public Intellectual 115

Wisdom, Mind and Brain 117

Neurophilosophy 124

The Brain and History 127

The Triumph of Science 131

Science and Democracy 149

Making Mistakes and Apologising 151

Does Government Know Best? 158

Beyond Subsistence 163

A Hard Choice 165

Archiepiscopal Ethics 169

Free Speech 171

The Care and Maintenance of Friends 174

The Book of the Dead 180

Darwin in Scotland 182

Tocqueville on America 185

Quantum Dirac 190

Thucydides 196

Montaigne 200

Socrates 209

Edmund Burke 215

The Unity of the Good 222

H. G. Wells and Mr Lewisham 235

Fishing with a Golden Hook 241

Speeches 245

Sleep 246

Success 248

Retirement 251

Happiness 252

Teachers 257

Education and Rationality 261

What is the Point of the Arts? 263

Darkness 269

The Hinges of History 272

The Whole Life: The Point of the Humanities 274

Optimism 280

Making the World a Better Place 284

Index 289

Editorial Reviews

05/18/2015
Every contentious issue you can think of—nationalism, religion, abortion, drugs, wave-particle duality—gets an interesting, bite-size rehash in this collection of essays. British philosophy prof Grayling (The God Argument) amasses short opinion pieces and book reviews he wrote for magazines and newspapers, and the result is a grab-bag of topical articles, historical ruminations, and ideological obsessions. His general perspective is mildly left-wing on economics and government, libertarian on social issues such as drugs and prostitution, cantankerously atheistic (“without brainwashing of the young religion would wither and die of its own absurdity”), and dyed-in-the-wool green (“the world is so utterly drunk that it has become insane—lusting for the ghastly poison”). Grayling’s opinions on current affairs are energetic and colorfully phrased, but, as when he denounces short-selling in the market and voices his worries about China’s rise, not always convincing. More substantial are philosophical ruminations that consider the promise and pitfalls of brain imaging in the study of the mind; the link between science and artistic creativity; the bizarre concepts of quantum mechanics; and the tectonic shifts in civic outlook charted in ancient Greek drama. Grayling is an elegant and erudite writer, and though these pieces are too quickly tossed off to convert everyone, they make for an engaging browse. Agent: Felicity Bryan, Felicity Bryan Agency. (Dec.)

Publishers Weekly

"Provocative . . . Each essay is a jewel, giving new relevance to a familiar issue; taken together, they are a spirited defense of the importance of philosophy and the humanities in general while calling us to rethink some of our most fundamental assumptions." —Shelf Awareness

“Mr. Grayling is precise and incisive. He rattles through the standard arguments against the existence of God and does a capable job of demolishing those put forward in the hope of proving a deity's existence . . . The second half of the book, in which Mr. Grayling sets out his take on the ethical system known as humanism, is more likely to win converts . . . Mr. Grayling is a talented apologist. His brand of humanism comes across as sensible, reasonable, and characterized by a generosity of spirit that is often absent from religious structures.” —The Economist on THE GOD ARGUMENT

“A marvel, a 'distillation' of over a thousand authoritative texts, edited, redacted, and assembled in the manner of the (Holy) Bible, though by one man rather than many; written in a crisp, beautiful English; printed and bound like the precious object it clearly wishes to become. This is high praise, which Grayling, a philosopher at the University of London and the author of histories, biographies, and books demonstrating the everyday applicability of Humanist philosophy, amply deserves.” —The New Yorker on THE GOOD BOOK

“Maybe agnostics and atheists will embrace [The Good Book]; maybe Christians will embrace it too as a valuable collection of insights. It might begin as a curiosity and then flourish or remain a cult favorite or just a curiosity. I suppose some might be offended by The Good Book but they needn't be. You don't have to be a nonbeliever to find solace and wisdom in the distilled ideas presented here.” —The Huffington Post on THE GOOD BOOK

“Debunks the teleological, ontological and cosmological arguments employed throughout Christendom for the literal existence of God . . . Those looking for a succinct analysis of these centuries old debates will appreciate Grayling's insights.” —Washington Post "On Faith" on THE GOD ARGUMENT

From the Publisher

08/01/2015
Grayling (philosophy & master of the college, New Coll. of the Humanities, London; Toward the Light of Liberty) has collected a number of short essays that range widely over philosophy, politics, European and Asian history, the history of science, and literature. Grayling unifies the pieces around a strong defense of liberal values, meaning by these not so much a particular political program but rather a commitment to freedom and reason. The author sees such ideals as threatened by religion, of which he is a determined opponent. Another enemy is postmodernism; he sees it is an obscurantist denial of rationality. Having dispatched his rivals in the book's first part, Grayling turns in the second to praise of views that are in accord with his own. His luminous writings on Ronald Dworkin and H.G. Wells are especially well done. VERDICT Not everyone will find Grayling's humanist views palatable, but he writes with great clarity and vigor. He is a genuine "public intellectual" of the sort about whom he writes. The book will be of interest to any educated general reader and compares favorably with Christopher Hitchens, arguably.—David Gordon, Bowling Green State Univ., OH

Library Journal

2015-09-08
A new collection of essays from Grayling (Philosophy/New Coll. of the Humanities, London; The God Argument: The Case Against Religion and for Humanism, 2014, etc.), whose distinguished record of accomplishments in the humanities and public service is recognized internationally. The author organizes this thought-provoking collection of essays—most of them a concise three to four pages—into two sections. The first, "Destructions and Deconstructions," deals with the problems of the contemporary world, including guns, religion, education, climate change, human rights issues, and global financial crisis. The second, "Constructions and Creations," which is more philosophically programmatic in its orientation, takes up such themes as the public intellectual, the relationship between science and democracy ("the growth of science and the growth of liberal democracy were not merely contemporaneous, but causally connected"), and "Making the World a Better Place." Grayling will no doubt offend conservative American readers with "The Prophetess," a discussion of the "tough and tyrannical" Ayn Rand. "The microcosm of the Randian cult," he writes, "was a reprise of every historical example of actual or would-be revolutions that have devoured their own." Grayling will also provoke religious fundamentalists with "The Advantages of Atheist Political Leaders," in which he writes, "atheist leaders are not going to think they are getting messages from Beyond telling them to go to war. They will not cloak themselves in supernaturalistic justifications, as Prime Minister Tony Blair and President George W. Bush came perilously close to doing when later talking about the decision to invade Iraq in 2002." However, he'll likely find plenty of support for his examinations of Chinese and Russian irredentism. Grayling takes a philosophical and ethical approach to human action, which can be at odds with the importance Americans accord to ideological beliefs. Nonetheless, the contrasts he draws between religious and scientific worldviews and practices, as well as his discussions of the role of the public intellectual, are undoubtedly stimulating. A spirited collection of provocative pathways.

Kirkus Reviews