Julian Baggini

In this groundbreaking global overview of philosophy, Julian Baggini travels the world to provide a wide-ranging map of human thought. One of the great unexplained wonders of human history is that written philosophy flourished entirely separately in China, India, and Ancient Greece at more or less the same time. These early philosophies have had a profound impact on the development...

How we live is shaped by how we eat. You can see this in the vastly different approaches to growing, preparing, and eating food around the world—from the hunter-gatherer Hadza in Tanzania, whose traditionally sustainable lifestyle is being squeezed by a crowded planet, and the subsistence rice farmers of Bhutan who toil without machinery to feed themselves from their smallholdings,...

As politics slides toward impulsivity, and outrage bests rationality, how can philosophy help us critically engage with the world? How to Think Like a Philosopher is a revelatory exploration of the methods, tenets and attitudes of thought that guide philosophy, and how they can be applied to our own lives. Drawing on decades of enquiry and a huge range of...

In The Godless Gospel, Julian Baggini challenges our assumptions about Jesus—and the Christian values he promotes—by focusing on his teachings in the Gospels. Stripping away the religious elements, Baggini asks how we should understand Jesus's attitude to the renunciation of the self, to politics, or to sexuality, as expressed in Jesus's often-elusive words. An atheist from a Catholic background, Baggini...

Baggini offers us a tempting smorgasbord of some of the most baffling, weird and occasionally downright creepy scenarios ever envisaged... enjoy these mind-boggling tales from the outer limit of thought - Guardian Is it right to eat a pig that wants to be eaten? Are you really reading this book cover, or are you in a simulation? If God is...

A therapeutic guide of how to live, using the teachings from philosophers throughout history on the problems that affect us every day. How should I live? What is my purpose? Can I find happiness? Ever felt as though life would be simpler if it came with an instruction manual? There are no easy answers to the big questions. And life...

How did we find ourselves in a "post-truth" world of "alternative facts"? And can we get out of it? A Short History of Truth sets out to answer these questions by looking at the complex history of truth and falsehood. It identifies ten types of supposed truth and explains how easily each can become the midwife of falsehood. There is...

A new edition of the bestselling guide to the study of philosophy: the ideal intellectual ‘toolkit’ for sharpening analytical skills and building philosophical acuity. Whether used as a guide to basic principles or a resource for key concepts and methods, The Philosopher's Toolkit equips readers with all the intellectual ‘tools’ necessary for engaging closely with philosophical argument and developing fluency...

'What is so appealing about the ideas in this book is that we could pivot coffee from being the driving force behind excessive hours and a poor work-life balance into being a drink that lets us contemplate meaning and purpose in a different way.' James Hoffmann, author of the Sunday Times bestseller, How to Make the Best Coffee at Home....

A new edition of the bestselling guide which equips readers with the skills necessary for engaging in ethical reflection The Ethics Toolkit offers an engaging and approachable introduction to the core concepts, principles, and methods of contemporary ethics. It explains to students and general readers how to think critically about ethics and actually use philosophical concepts. This innovative volume provides...

How we eat, farm and shop for food is not only a matter of taste. Our choices regarding what we eat involve every essential aspect of our human nature: the animal, the sensuous, the social, the cultural, the creative, the emotional, and the intellectual. Thinking seriously about food requires us to consider our relationship to nature, to our fellow animals,...

Invaluable wisdom on living a good life from one of the Enlightenment's greatest philosophers David Hume (1711-1776) is perhaps best known for his ideas about cause and effect and his criticisms of religion, but he is rarely thought of as a philosopher with practical wisdom to offer. Yet Hume's philosophy is grounded in an honest assessment of nature—human nature in...

Invaluable wisdom on living a good life from one of the Enlightenment's greatest philosophers David Hume (1711-1776) is perhaps best known for his ideas about cause and effect and his criticisms of religion, but he is rarely thought of as a philosopher with practical wisdom to offer. Yet Hume's philosophy is grounded in an honest assessment of nature—human nature in...