PHILOSOPHICAL ENQUIRIES AND PRETENTIOUS POSTULATIONS

Charlotte Hathaway

160x120mm, 160pp, £5.99, hb, ISBN 978-1-906051-10-5, 24 September 2007

CHAPTERS
Introduction, The Unfailing Wisdom of Email, Forwards, Essential Questions of Being, Puzzling -isms: Top Twenty, Handy Quotes To Make You, Sound Clever, A Freudian Analysis of a Lightswitch, Western vs Eastern Philosophy: The Final Showdown, How to become a Philosopher, Case Study: Vestiariumism, The Great Philosophical Jokes of Our Time

'Happiness belongs to those who are contented'
Aristotle

Philosophy, from Ancient Greek, philosophia, meaning 'love of wisdom'...

Can you ever be in the wrong place at the right time? If 299,792,458 m/s is the speed of light, what is the speed of dark? Do you get lost in thought because it is such unfamiliar territory? How do you tell when you're out of invisible ink? How much deeper would the ocean be without sponges? What happens if you get scared half to death twice?

As Bertrand Russell said, 'the point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as to seem not worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it'.

The world is full of philosophy; everywhere you look people are trying to unravel the deep meaning of life, even if they don't realise it. Yet, although nearly everyone does it, there is a great image of pretentiousness surrounding the sport, as if philosophy is something that is extremely difficult to do. It isn't, as this book shows. Even if you think you know nothing about philosophy, was it not Socrates who advocated that the only true wisdom is in knowing that you know nothing?

Remember: if you can argue it, it's philosophy!