Waterstones How the World Thinks
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Price: £10.99
Brand: Waterstones
Description: Our Non-Fiction Book of the Month for November 2019. 'There to fill the Sapiens-size hole in your life' - The Observer. 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 flowered 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 of distinctive cultures in different parts of the world. What we call 'philosophy' in the West is not even half the story. Julian Baggini sets out to expand our horizons in How the World Thinks, exploring the philosophies of Japan, India, China and the Muslim world, as well as the lesser-known oral traditions of Africa and Australia's first peoples. Interviewing thinkers from around the globe, Baggini asks questions such as: why is the West is more individualistic than the East? What makes secularism a less powerful force in the Islamic world than in Europe? And how has China resisted pressures for greater political freedom? Offering deep insights into how different regions operate, and paying as much attention to commonalities as to differences, Baggini shows that by gaining greater knowledge of how others think we take the first step to a greater understanding of ourselves.
Category: Books
Merchant: Waterstones
Product ID: 9781783782307
Delivery cost: 2.99
ISBN: 9781783782307
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Author: M. Dowden
Rating: 5
Review: Although not perfect this book by Julian Baggini does make for a very interesting read and will hopefully make readers of this start to think more clearly for themselves. Although the title incorporates the word world it has to be admitted that this does become more of an East meets West book, mainly because this is about the differences in Western philosophy to those in Islam, India, China and Japan. At times there are mentions of other areas, such as Africa and the Antipodes but there is no mention of Judaism and not much on earlier Christian thinking. This does thus leave a gap that is noticeable, and of course at the end of this book Baggini does apologize for his missing out of Russia, giving an explanation and directing us to a book written by someone who is more knowledgeable on that particular area. After an introduction so we are taken into four main parts, How The World Knows, How The World Is, Who In The World Are We? and, How The World Lives. There is a fifth part which is the conclusion to the whole text. Obviously we are all different in our thoughts and aims but generally speaking people from a certain area and culture will think more alike than someone from elsewhere. Even as an atheist I know how much sayings and thinking is to a certain extent reliant on Christianity in this country and throughout Europe, which can produce different thinking with Christians in other areas, and obviously with different religions. As we see here although we as Europeans tend to think of only one type of philosophy, that originated in Ancient Greece and being the basis of thought ever since, other places have their own, and whereas ours has drifted away from religion and theology in other countries the two still stand side by side, being incorporated within each other. This book then shows us the similarities between all cultures as well as their differences, giving us a much richer understanding of others and their priorities in life. Will philosophy as we know it change? Although asked here only time will really tell, but with the world becoming more and more intertwined there are already those looking at such an issue. Although as I have already mentioned this is far from perfect and obviously something like this has to be condensed to a great degree this will hopefully make you understand and appreciate why different countries have reacted in different ways to the current COVID-19 pandemic. This also reminds us that there is no perfect system but that we can all learn from each other, not only enriching our own lives but also strengthening our independent cultures. After all, with the rise of nationalist populism countries such as ours are going to tear themselves apart somewhat as people start to realise that our actual culture is made up quite a bit by those things that others have brought into it from outside. There are notes here, an index and so on as well as a list of recommended books if you wish to find out and read more on certain areas covered briefly in this book.
Author: Polly
Rating: 2
Review: Not an easy read. Hard work. Commit
