{"title":"Books by Rebecca Newberger Goldstein","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781782395591","title":"Plato at the Googleplex","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWhat would the ancient Greek philosopher make of the twenty-first-century Google headquarters?\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eA dazzling exploration of the role of ancient philosophy in modern life from the acclaimed writer and thinker.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eImagine that Plato came to life in the twenty-first century and embarked on a multi-city speaking tour. How would he mediate a debate between a Freudian psychoanalyst and a 'tiger mum' on how to raise the perfect child? How would he handle the host of a right-wing news program who denies there can be morality without religion? What would Plato make of Google, and of the idea that knowledge can be crowdsourced rather than reasoned out by experts? \u003ci\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePlato at the Googleplex \u003c\/i\u003eis acclaimed thinker Rebecca Newberger Goldstein's dazzling investigation of these conundra. With a philosopher's depth and erudition and a novelist's imagination and wit, Goldstein probes the deepest issues confronting us by allowing us to eavesdrop on Plato as he takes on the modern world; it is a stunningly original plunge into the drama of philosophy, revealing its hidden role in today's debates on religion, morality, politics and science.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56305026793845,"sku":"9781782395591","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781782395591_1cc85828-36d5-4ff6-8f81-f0675e0fe8cf.jpg?v=1786025635"},{"product_id":"9781324096856","title":"The Mattering Instinct","description":"\u003cp\u003eRebecca Newberger Goldstein argues that the need to matter is the source of our greatest progress and our deepest conflicts: the very crux of the human experience. Goldstein brings this profound idea to life through stories of people pursuing their unique mattering projects: the ragtime genius Scott Joplin, whose dedication to his ignored masterpiece, \u003cem\u003eTreemonisha\u003c\/em\u003e, ended in tragedy; an impoverished Chinese woman who rescued abandoned newborns; and a skinhead who as a young man dealt racial violence to feel he mattered but ultimately renounced that past. These portraits illuminate how our instinct for significance shapes identity, relationships, culture and conflict–and they point the way to a future where we might see there is enough mattering to go around. Deeply revealing and insightful, \u003cem\u003eThe Mattering Instinct\u003c\/em\u003e is for those curious about why we seek to matter to ourselves and others–and how this insatiable longing that drives us apart may be the key to understanding each other.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56368670769525,"sku":"9781324096856","price":23.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781324096856.jpg?v=1791212822"},{"product_id":"the-mattering-instinct","title":"The Mattering Instinct","description":"MacArthur Fellow and National Humanities Medalist Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, author of Plato at the Googleplex and The Mind-Body Problem, returns with a revelatory book about the primal drive that in our species alone has been transformed into one of our most persistent and universal motivations: the longing to matter.   Drawing on biology, psychology, and philosophy, Goldstein argues that this need to matter—and the various “mattering projects” it inspires—is the source of our greatest progress and our deepest conflicts: the very crux of the human experience.   Goldstein brings this profound idea to life through unforgettable stories of famous and not-so-famous people pursuing their unique mattering projects: the ragtime genius Scott Joplin, whose dedication to his ignored masterpiece, Treemonisha, ended in tragedy; the pioneering psychologist William James, who rose above the depression of his young adulthood to become perhaps the first great theorist of mattering; an impoverished Chinese woman who rescued abandoned newborns from the trash; and a neo-Nazi skinhead who as a young man dealt racial violence to feel he mattered but ultimately renounced that hateful past after realizing that mattering isn’t a zero-sum game. These portraits illuminate how our instinct for significance shapes identity, relationships, culture, and conflict—and they point the way to a future where we all might see that there is, fundamentally, enough mattering to go around.   Deeply revealing and insightful, and decades in the making, The Mattering Instinct is a must read for those curious about why we seek to matter to ourselves and others—and how this insatiable longing that drives us apart may be the key to finally understanding each other.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57573233000821,"sku":"9781324099833","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-rebecca-newberger-goldstein.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}