About Me

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Australian philosopher, literary critic, legal scholar, and professional writer. Based in Newcastle, NSW. My latest books are THE TYRANNY OF OPINION: CONFORMITY AND THE FUTURE OF LIBERALISM (2019); AT THE DAWN OF A GREAT TRANSITION: THE QUESTION OF RADICAL ENHANCEMENT (2021); and HOW WE BECAME POST-LIBERAL: THE RISE AND FALL OF TOLERATION (2024).

Monday, March 28, 2011

Currently reading - Philosophers Without Gods, ed. Louise M. Antony

As I said in a comment yesterday, this book would make a nice companion volume to 50 Voices of Disbelief. When Udo and I started work on the latter, Philosophers Without Gods had been published very recently and was, I believe, only available in hardback. I, at least, have only just got to it, with the publication of a paperback edition last year.

It contains twenty pieces, to our fifty, so they are longer on average. All of them are by professional philosophers. But most of these essays would have fitted quite nicely into our book, and some of the essays in our book would have fitted well over there (the ones by professional philosophers, naturally enough).

I do like the fact that the book doesn't have a party line. Some of the authors are even regretful at not being able to accept a theistic picture of the world - though that's certainly not the case with the majority of them. Some individual essays are very good, indeed, and maybe there will be time to come back to one or two of them. But whether I manage that or not, it's nice to catch up with this book.

2 comments:

RoBe said...

I actually just bought this, it seems, at a flick through, quite an interesting book indeed! I also have 50 voices of disbelief on my wishlist to buy.

T. A. Lewis said...

My favorite essay in that book is Elizabeth Anderson's. It is a standout among standouts.