{"title":"Carus Books","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781637700129","title":"Jordan Peterson: Critical Responses","description":"\u003cb\u003eThe Canadian psychology professor Jordan Peterson burst into public awareness when he opposed the compulsory use of newfangled gender-pronouns.\u003c\/b\u003e He has since published two best-selling books, \u003ci\u003e12 Rules for Life: An Antidote to Chao\u003c\/i\u003es  (2018)  and \u003ci\u003eBeyond Order: 12 More Rules for Life  \u003c\/i\u003e(2021), and has become the leading public intellectual on social media.\u003cbr\u003e\n\nAlthough Peterson has an almost cult-like following, and arouses strong passions, both for and against, there has been very little focused, objective criticism of his provocative views on a wide variety of topics: the role of religion, the alleged need for more value and meaning in the modern world, the way young people should conduct their lives, the history of Marxism and postmodernism, male-female relations; the interpretation of Bible stories, the inevitability of hierarchy and inequality, and the application of Jungian archetypes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eJordan Peterson: Critical Responses\u003c\/i\u003e brings together new and searching criticisms of various specific aspects of Peterson’s ideas. Though on balance decidedly critical, the authors represent a range of different backgrounds and philosophical assumptions, and the criticisms are fair and temperate, eschewing the personal attacks which have marred many of the pronouncements of Peterson’s opponents.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56301787775349,"sku":"9781637700129","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781637700129_0442cab8-30cb-48f1-a918-3da97aaee9c1.jpg?v=1786024155"},{"product_id":"9781637700327","title":"Queen and Philosophy: Guaranteed to Blow Your Mind","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eQueen and Philosophy: Guaranteed to Blow Your Mind\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e is a collection of cutting-edge philosophical essays on the rock group Queen, founded in 1970 and originally featuring lead vocalist Freddie Mercury. \u003c\/b\u003e Queen’s reputation and fan following continue to grow in the twenty-first century.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThese insightful and provocative chapters include:\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e● uncover the origins of Queen’s unique style in prog rock, vulgarity, and lower versus higher Romanticism\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e● examine Queen’s view of love and friendship\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e● draw upon three timeless Queen songs, “We Will Rock You,” “We Are the Champions,” and “Don’t Stop Me Now” and Socrates’s behavior in the Apology, to understand the “rocking” nature of philosophy\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e● identify the connections between ancient matriarchal religion and Queen’s love for strong female imagery\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e● explore how Brian May’s astrophysics brings to bear the issues of absolute versus relative spacetime and how the philosophies of Newton, Mach, and Einstein contribute to Queen’s creative output\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e● analyze the structure of Queen’s sound to answer the inevitable question, How can four people make all that music?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e● expose what Queen’s songs tell us about the contemporary theory of mental illness and therapy\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e● scrutinize Roger Taylor’s stark impressions of ordinary life and death, and their alignment to the cynical musings of Diogenes of Sinope and Seneca’s blunt observations on the shortness of life\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e● look at the movie Highlander through the music of Queen and reveal how both song and cinema convey the philosophy of bushido, the soul of the samurai\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56301787873653,"sku":"9781637700327","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781637700327_7b28fe58-bed8-4e25-860c-d7a193ac5cca.jpg?v=1786024159"},{"product_id":"9781637700341","title":"Anyone Can Taste Wine","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eIf you love wine, this book will give you all the knowledge and self-confidence you need to become a world-class wine taster.\u003c\/b\u003e It reveals in methodical steps exactly how to acquire essential wine-tasting skills. Cees (it’s pronounced ‘Case’) van Casteren is a brilliant scientist, author, and international wine competition judge, as well as one of the global super-elite (less than 500 top experts worldwide) who have been able to earn the supreme title, Master of Wine.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAnyone Can Taste Wine first appeared in Dutch and instantly established itself in the Netherlands as far and away the most authoritative and popular book on the subject.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eFrom the book’s introductory chapter:\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e“Many people typically believe that the ability to taste comes from some kind of inborn, innate aptitude—as though ‘taste’ were a genetic hand-me-down—something that you either have, or you don’t have. But that’s not true.\u003cbr\u003e“Wine tasting is a skill. Anyone can taste wine, as long as they have normally functioning senses of smell and taste. Anyone (that is) who is motivated to learn and practice—a lot—can become a good wine taster. Genes or no genes.\u003cbr\u003e“Much of this skill will involve awareness of how to train your senses. While there are genetic differences between humans in terms of smelling and tasting, these innate differences do not make one taster better than another. Research by taste professor Linda Bartoshuk, previously at the University of Yale, has shown that a wine taster’s ability to taste is mainly due to the amount of training that the taster has experienced. Specifically, exercises dedicated to recognizing wine scents and developing an attendant wine language are the main contributing factors in developing wine tasting abilities. The difficulty that most besets inexperienced tasters is a lack of suitable vocabulary that would enable them to name and describe the flavors and scents that they taste and smell. This vital skill, being able to describe flavors and aromas in words, remains a common problem, even for the most experienced of wine tasters. According to Professor Tim Jacob of Cardiff University, a method that will enable you to associate smells and flavors with a suitable repertoire of words will contribute greatly to the enhancement of tasting skills . . . that is . . . you just need a method. The more user-friendly, the easier it will be to learn and remember.\u003cbr\u003eAnd that’s exactly what I realized at the start of my Master of Wine studies. The method had to be user-friendly in order to help me to remember all relevant aspects for tasting, describing, and analyzing the wine. In search of these aspects, I started with . . . the wine itself. With this fascinating blend of water (colorless, odorless, tasteless), alcohol (colorless, odorless, slightly sweet), acids, sugars, pigments, aromas, and tannins which together give wine its color, smell, and taste.\u003cbr\u003e“And I was quite quick to learn that this very curious and complex combination of color, aromas, alcohol, acids, sugars and tannins actually were the ‘relevant aspects’ I was looking for, and therefore the targets of my attention while developing a method. The answer to my quest was indeed in the wine itself!”\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56302508867957,"sku":"9781637700341","price":28.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781637700341_c54855c7-58bc-4c09-9196-c8aeb95f2690.jpg?v=1786024159"},{"product_id":"9781637700372","title":"The Godfather and Philosophy","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Godfather and Philosophy\u003c\/i\u003e is comprised of twenty-eight chapters by philosophers, who reflect upon the ethical and metaphysical issues raised in \u003ci\u003eThe Godfather\u003c\/i\u003e novels and movies, beginning with the 1969 novel by Mario Puzo and the 1972 movie by Francis Ford Coppola.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003eThe Godfather\u003c\/i\u003e saga has had a profound impact on American cinema, storytelling, thinking about crime, and popular culture. Aimed at thoughtful fans of \u003ci\u003eThe Godfather \u003c\/i\u003efranchise, among the questions tackled in these provocative philosophical chapters are the immigrant experience in America, the relation between ethics and the law, the nature of moral corruption, private justice and vigilantism, organized crime and the American Dream, betrayal and forgiveness, religion and family values, the difficulties of breaking out of a dysfunctional way of life, and the uncertain consequences of vice laws.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eJoshua Heter\u003c\/b\u003e teaches philosophy at Jefferson College, Missouri. He co-edited \u003ci\u003ePunk Rock and Philosophy \u003c\/i\u003e(2022).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eRichard Greene\u003c\/b\u003e teaches philosophy at Weber State University, Utah. He wrote the definitive and highly acclaimed book, \u003ci\u003eSpoiler Alert! (It’s a Book about the Philosophy of Spoilers)\u003c\/i\u003e (2019).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56302531019125,"sku":"9781637700372","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781637700372_a07d45a4-03e4-446d-9c75-04c0bf7e8342.jpg?v=1786024160"},{"product_id":"9781637700082","title":"As Deep As It Gets","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eAs Deep as It Gets: Movies and Metaphysics\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e is a witty and light-hearted introduction to philosophy through a deep study of some well-known movies and TV shows: \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003ePulp Fiction, South Park, The Princess Bride, The Wizard of Oz, Super 8, The Twilight Zone, House of Cards, Inception, Monty Python’s Life of Brian, His Dark Materials,\u003c\/i\u003e Sergio Leone’s westerns, and Alfred Hitchcock's \u003ci\u003eLifeboat.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAll the major branches of philosophy are covered, including aesthetics, political philosophy, metaphysics, and the theory of knowledge. The author’s approach is “Continental,” with some American idealism and process philosophy in support. The emphasis is on the primacy of time as a key to interpreting human experience. In that regard, existentialism, phenomenology, and process philosophy are better guides to thinking about time than the more popular approaches that depend on language analysis.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eProfessor\u003cb\u003e Randall E. Auxier \u003c\/b\u003esays: “Philosophizing involves telling stories about life that are art, and making up stories that aren’t life but provide a contrast to it. I want readers to add to what I see, and to take up interpretations contrary to mine. A healthy discussion is good for everybody.”\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56302755840373,"sku":"9781637700082","price":14.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781637700082_e98d7ec9-ea03-42a1-abde-d46ecd95c3c2.jpg?v=1786024153"},{"product_id":"9781637700242","title":"Sam Harris: Critical Responses","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSam Harris, a previously unknown neuroscientist, single-handedly generated the New Atheism with his best-selling book \u003ci\u003eThe End of Faith\u003c\/i\u003e, which quickly became a huge best-seller following its release in 2004.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHarris went on to write several more best-sellers on a range of topics and has become one of the world’s most followed podcasters. He is well-known for his controversial positions in many areas, including the unique danger of Islam, the advocacy of atheist spirituality through meditation, the beneficial use of psychedelics, denial of the existence of free will, his belief that science can tell us what’s right and wrong, and his extreme alarmism with regard to the future of artificial intelligence.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eSam Harris: Critical Responses\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cb\u003e is a collection of essays criticizing different aspects of Harris’s thinking from a range of diverse perspectives—left and right, Christian and atheist, philosophical, psychological, and political. \u003c\/b\u003eThese twenty serious criticisms of Sam Harris, written by experts from diverse political and ideological backgrounds, are often severe while maintaining an approach that is reasonable and respectful. As one noted author commented on \u003cb\u003eSandra Woien’s\u003c\/b\u003e previous collection, \u003ci\u003eJordan Peterson: Critical Responses\u003c\/i\u003e, “Both fans and foes will appreciate this volume.”\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eForward by Stephen R. C. Hicks. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eStephen R.C. Hicks\u003c\/b\u003e is a professor of Philosophy at Rockford University. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eExplaining Postmodernism \u003c\/i\u003e(2004) and \u003ci\u003eNietzsche and the Nazis \u003c\/i\u003e(2010).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56302755938677,"sku":"9781637700242","price":16.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781637700242.jpg?v=1786024158"},{"product_id":"9781637700280","title":"Warren Zevon and Philosophy","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eWarren Zevon and Philosophy\u003c\/i\u003e is a collection of chapters on Zevon’s life and music, authored by philosophers who are also Zevon fans, providing new and exciting insights into Zevon’s thinking, his cynical lyrics, and the cruel ironies of his roller-coaster life and career.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSince his death in 2003 at the age of fifty-six, Warren Zevon’s following has grown, and seven books on Zevon have appeared in the last few years, with more in the works. The Zevon legend continues to attract attention both because of the outstanding quality of his best songs and because of the poignant trajectory of his life. According to the novelist Carl Hiaasen, Zevon “left behind a wildly intelligent and captivating body of music.” Warren Zevon was an American rock’n’roll singer-songwriter, born in Chicago, though associated with the music scene in Los Angeles. His early albums, \u003ci\u003eWarren Zevon\u003c\/i\u003e (1976) and \u003ci\u003eExcitable Boy\u003c\/i\u003e (1978) attracted a loyal fan following and ecstatic praise from critics. As a special talent to watch, the teenage Zevon was introduced to several notable people, including even Igor Stravinsky.\u003cbr\u003eZevon’s descent into alcoholism and other addictions, along with his debauchery and erratic behavior, took its toll and his performances suffered, an aspect disturbingly captured in the memoir by his ex-wife Crystal Zevon, \u003ci\u003eI’ll Sleep When I’m Dead: The Dirty Life and Times of Warren Zevon\u003c\/i\u003e (2008).\u003cbr\u003eIn the last few years of his life, Zevon rehabilitated somewhat, and his work returned to an impressive level of quality. His remarkable final albums, \u003ci\u003eLife’ll Kill Ya\u003c\/i\u003e (2000), \u003ci\u003eMy Ride’s Here\u003c\/i\u003e (2002), and \u003ci\u003eThe Wind\u003c\/i\u003e (2003) have made a lasting impact. The last of these was given the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album, while the song “Disorder in the House,” performed by Zevon with Bruce Springsteen, won Best Rock Vocal Performance.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eJohn MacKinnon\u003c\/b\u003e teaches philosophy at Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia. He has published scholarly articles on aesthetics and philosophy of literature.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56302760264053,"sku":"9781637700280","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781637700280_fbdbd28d-48fb-4555-a506-7300a3cd6ac1.jpg?v=1786024156"},{"product_id":"9781637700303","title":"Asimov's Foundation and Philosophy","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eIsaac Asimov’s Foundation is the most influential\nscience-fiction epic of all time.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePublished as a series of books and short stories from the 1940s to the 1980s,\nthe series has impacted most subsequent science fiction, and influenced\nsciences like sociology, statistics, and psychology. The story has now been\nmade into a highly acclaimed TV serial (\u003ci\u003eFoundation\u003c\/i\u003e), on Apple TV, the\nsecond season now shooting in Prague.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eThe story begins 45,000 years in the\nfuture, and spans centuries in which a vast and successful interstellar human\nempire is unknowingly headed for total collapse. Using an advanced mathematical\ntechnique called psycho-history, a brilliant scientist, Hari Seldon, predicts\nthe collapse and establishes a “foundation” to bring about the resurrection of\nhuman civilization many generations in the future.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eAsimov’s Foundation and Philosophy\u003c\/i\u003e is a collection of twenty-four chapter by philosophers exploring the philosophical issues and puzzles raised by this epic story. Topics include whether one individual can make a big difference in history, the ethics of manipulating large populations of people to bring about a desirable future result, the Dao of non-action, the impact of education on future generations, whether human affairs are governed by predictable cycles, whether attempts to plan for the future must be thwarted by free will, the futility of empire-building, the ethics of cloning human beings, and the use of logic in analyzing human behavior.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJoshua Heter\u003c\/b\u003e teaches philosophy at Jefferson College, Missouri, and is co-editor of \u003ci\u003eBetter Call Saul and Philosophy: I Think Therefore I Scam\u003c\/i\u003e (2022).\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eJosef Thomas Simpson\u003c\/b\u003e is an academic coach and part-time lecturer. He contributed chapters to \u003ci\u003eWestworld and Philosophy: Mind Equals Blown\u003c\/i\u003e (2019) and \u003ci\u003eOrphan Black and Philosophy: Grand Theft DNA \u003c\/i\u003e(2016)\u003ci\u003e.\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56304561062261,"sku":"9781637700303","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781637700303.jpg?v=1786024160"},{"product_id":"9781637700556","title":"The Hype Cycle","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eThe media and the politicians are always screaming at us\nabout horrifying, end-of-the-world threats, and also about miraculous new\ntechnologies that will save us and transform our lives.  These are the two types of Hype—Fear Hype and\nHope Hype.  They work together to\nbefuddle our minds and keep us on edge.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBoth forms of Hype, according to Dr. Arnold Schelsky, are overblown, exaggerated to the nth degree, and scientifically\nworthless. Climate change does not threaten us with extinction, machines can\nnever conspire against their human creators—and on the other hand, “global\ngovernance” cannot solve any of our serious problems, while most of the\nmiraculous expectations for quantum physics are scientific nonsense.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAI is a focus of both types of Hype, with provably\nfalse predictions that machines will be able to think and create, provably\nfalse predictions that machines will replace employees causing mass\nunemployment, and provably false predictions that machines can conceive\npurposes or intentions hostile to humans.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eFear Hype\njustifies the move toward a permanent state of emergency while Hope Hype\ntitillates us with wild dreams which can never be realized.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe political result is a system Schelsky calls “neo-feudalism.”  The\npsychological result is a rapid oscillation between extreme, unwarranted Fear\nand extreme, unwarranted expectations of salvation and bliss.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn the\nlife of any animal, overactivity is short-lived and restricted to emergency\nsituations. No living being can sustain overactivity for longer periods without\nself-harm.  Hype is a form of toxic\noveractivity of entire societies.  Today\nthe West is in an accelerated Hype Cycle, hyping ourselves from one peak of\nexcitement to the next.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eValues\nconducive to the Hype Cycle have been developing in the West since the\n1920s.  Schelsky favors renewed\nemphasis on pre-1920s values.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56312696635765,"sku":"9781637700556","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781637700556_28e0c554-a421-41bc-9696-2a916107e04e.jpg?v=1786024162"},{"product_id":"9781637700655","title":"The LNT Report","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003e#1 New Release in Nuclear Engineering\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\"Mike Conley’s “LNT Report” is an essential read in today’s world of political tug-of-war between paranoid over-regulation and oblivious profiteering. He tells the story of Ed Calbrese’s research into the underhanded lionization of Herbert Muller with a Nobel prize, no less, based on the discredited Linear, No Threshold model of radiation damage — which has been used ever since as the fundamental principle behind regulation of doses and the As Low As Reasonably Achievable policy for reactors, which in turn has rendered them too expensive and difficult to build for their advantages ever to be realized. If you believe that no amount of radiation is safe, you DESPERATELY need to read this book!\"\u003c\/p\u003eThe LNT Report: How the linear no-threshold model of radiation safety made the world afraid of nuclear power. This book is a fascinating detective story, uncovering the bad faith, muddled thinking, and ideological prejudice that led to a false and injurious conclusion: nuclear radiation is risky in any dosage, no matter how low. The truth, finally made clear by many years of careful scientific criticism, is that low doses of radiation are harmless, and even beneficial to health, because of the human body’s natural ability to repair cells damaged by radiation. It follows that fears of the risks of nuclear power have been wildly exaggerated and then irresponsibly hyped. Nuclear energy is not only clean and inexhaustible, its risks are far smaller than the hazards of any alternative—including not just fossil fuels but also ‘renewables’, solar and wind, which turn out to be far more dangerous than people have been led to believe. While radiation can indeed be dangerous at high levels, the issue has been blown out of proportion by an unsupported—and now known to be provably wrong—model of nuclear risk assessment called Linear No-Threshold or LNT. LNT was first presented to the world by Hermann Muller in 1946, when nuclear technology was in its infancy. LNT holds that “There is no safe dose of radiation, and all doses are cumulative. Both assertions are now known to be false. Beginning with Muller’s careless assumptions. \u003ci\u003eThe LNT Report\u003c\/i\u003e traces the twists and turns of LNT’s reception and dissemination by politicians, media, and the public. The propagation of LNT was boosted by some people’s horror at the prospect of nuclear war, leading them to say anything to discredit nuclear energy, and also by fossil fuel interests, which had their own anti-nuclear bias.\u003ci\u003e The LNT Report\u003c\/i\u003e has been exhaustively vetted and approved by numerous scientific experts, whose names and credentials are listed in the book. This is solid science at its best, explained to the non-scientist reader by a brilliant professional writer. It’s a companion book to \u003ci\u003eEarth Is a Nuclear Planet\u003c\/i\u003e (2024) by the same author.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56368099098997,"sku":"9781637700655","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781637700655_29532ba9-bf36-478f-b1eb-252fe5cccfaa.jpg?v=1786024163"},{"product_id":"9781637700716","title":"The General Theory of Liberty","description":"\u003cb\u003eLiberty, or freedom, is the absence of some sort of constraint on something.\u003c\/b\u003e Most people think their own liberty is important.  Classical liberals and libertarians love interpersonal or political liberty and almost worship it, but most of them, sadly, can’t explain what it is.  Other people, even socialists, often declare that they like liberty a lot, but usually they too can’t tell us what it is. \u003cp\u003eInterpersonal liberty is not about the freedom to jump over buildings or levitate. That people are constrained by natural laws is not the issue.  At first glance, interpersonal liberty looks to be about the absence of interpersonal or social constraints: people not interfering with (or constraining) each other in certain ways.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSometimes people, including classical liberals, explicitly adapt the notion of liberty that Thomas Hobbes appealed to. They say that someone is free when other people don’t or can’t stop him from doing or having what he wants. The big problem with this is that it’s zero-sum. If I have the liberty to murder or rob you, then you don’t have the liberty not to be murdered or robbed (and vice versa). We can only choose which liberties we prefer by using some other, apparently higher, principle than liberty; such as utility, happiness, or prudential choice.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHobbes’s liberty is a common-sense intuition, but John Locke had a better one. Roughly, we have liberty when people don’t interfere with or constrain us in our person or property. In this sense, not being murdered or robbed is part of liberty but murdering or robbing is not: murder and robbery are impositions or licenses. Such liberty can be decreased or increased. This is what most people, including classical liberals, intend to advocate. We see how it promotes human welfare as the satisfaction of wants or preferences: people don’t want to be imposed on and do want the products of free markets.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eBut we still have a big problem. Liberty, property, and welfare (well-being) have been conflated. What is the abstract theory of liberty that is being presupposed, independently of property and human well-being? How does that theory relate to property and well-being or prosperity? Can want-satisfaction be an adequate theory of welfare?\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eJ.C. Lester’s new book starts by explaining and defending the abstract theory of liberty and then applying it until libertarian property is eventually derived. The bulk of the book defends many aspects of the overall theory from criticisms. It concludes with some important and controversial applications.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56368099393909,"sku":"9781637700716","price":21.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781637700716_de071d82-f18b-4b58-a4fe-9982e5ec5ee7.jpg?v=1787039888"},{"product_id":"9781637700464","title":"Steven Pinker: Critical Responses","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSteven Pinker is a controversial scholar in many fields and a popular voice on social media.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHis books and talks are followed by millions of thoughtful readers, not confined to academics.  He has written and spoken about violence, rationality, sex differences, human nature, language as a biological instinct, and other topics.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003ePinker’s many best-selling books include Rationality (2021), Enlightenment Now (2018), The Better Angels of Our Nature (2011), The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature (2002), and How the Mind Works (1997).\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn Steven Pinker: Critical Responses, a number of distinguished writers from various backgrounds give us searching criticisms of Pinker’s theory and world-view, reflecting a diversity of political and scientific perspectives. In different ways they call into question many of Pinker’s methods, assumptions, and conclusions.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eSteven Pinker: Critical Responses is the fourth volume in the Critical Responses series, which brings together criticisms of famous public intellectuals with a major following on social media, treated seriously but without academic pretensions or trappings.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eRay Scott Percival\u003c\/b\u003e is a philosopher who has taught at Lancaster University and the United Arab Emirates University.  He founded the Karl Popper Web and the Enlightenment Defended page on Facebook. He is the author of The Myth of the Closed Mind: Understanding Why and How People Are Rational (2012).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56369065230709,"sku":"9781637700464","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781637700464_9e9265b2-4493-4c8b-9957-0281197be516.jpg?v=1791213808"},{"product_id":"9781637700815","title":"From Dirt to Medicine","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eWhat if I told you that over half of the world’s topsoil has already been lost, and with it, our food’s nutrient value?\u003c\/b\u003e Worse, we’re facing a future where the very soil that sustains us may no longer be able to provide the essentials for our survival.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThe crisis isn’t just in the environment—it’s in our bodies too. Chronic diseases linked to nutrient-depleted food are skyrocketing, and the very system that feeds us is failing.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis isn’t just an environmental issue. It’s a health emergency.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eFrom Dirt to Medicine: The Groundwork For a Healthier Humanity\u003c\/i\u003e is a collaboration of internationally recognized experts in regenerative agriculture, nutritional science, and functional, naturopathic, and holistic medicine that have joined forces to empower readers with transformative insights into the profound connection between soil and human health.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56369065558389,"sku":"9781637700815","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781637700815_301ec056-5f48-4b7e-97bb-f866af10185b.jpg?v=1791213812"},{"product_id":"9781637700488","title":"Mattias Desmet: Critical Responses","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eIn 2022 the Belgian clinical psychologist Mattias Desmet went viral when he identified official government policies on the Covid Pandemic as a kind of collective insanity he calls Mass Formation. \u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDesmet points out that official policies were not modified to conform with scientific findings, instead the findings were ignored and seriously harmful policies were fanatically promoted regardless of the evidence. Many thousands have died because of the lockdowns and the adverse effects of the vaccines. Meanwhile critics and dissenters were demonized and persecuted by methods normally associated with the Salem witch trials or Stalin’s purges.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDesmet’s bold new theory was greeted by Covid skeptics like Robert Malone, Bret Weinstein, and Tucker Carlson with enthusiastic agreement.  Desmet’s numerous social media videos racked up millions of viewers, even before his book, The Psychology of Totalitarianism, became an instant best-seller in all major world languages.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eDesmet’s theory of mass formation (sometimes called mass formation psychosis, a label he disavows) explains the official ideology of the lockdowns and vaccines along the same lines as historical pogroms and totalitarian regimes, drawing upon the insights of thinkers such as Gustave Le Bon, Hannah Arendt, and Michel Foucault.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn 1951, Hannah Arendt predicted that the totalitarianism of Stalin and Hitler would be succeeded by the totalitarianism of faceless bureaucratic ‘experts’. This prediction, Desmet claims, is now fulfilled by the fear-mongering and deliberate encouragement of popular ignorance and mass hysteria associated with the Covid lockdowns and vaccines.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eUltimately, argues Desmet, we are vulnerable to the craziness of mass formation because we place too much reliance on a mechanistic view of the world and the cosmos and too much trust in the judgment of politically appointed authorities.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eIn Mattias Desmet: Critical Responses, an interdisciplinary group of distinguished writers give us searching criticisms of Desmet’s theory and world-view, from a variety of political and scientific perspectives. In different ways they call into question many of Desmet’s methods, assumptions, and conclusions.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eSandra Woien\u003c\/b\u003e is Senior Lecturer in the School of Historical, Philosophical, and Religious Studies at Arizona State University. She edited the highly-acclaimed anthologies, Jordan Peterson: Critical Responses (2022) and Sam Harris: Critical Responses (2023).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56369065820533,"sku":"9781637700488","price":17.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781637700488_431df54e-54b1-4d1b-9266-ee1f92b6e872.jpg?v=1786034534"},{"product_id":"roots-of-the-transcendental-right","title":"Roots of the Transcendental Right","description":null,"brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57504754434421,"sku":"9781637700846","price":22.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781637700846.jpg?v=1786953671"},{"product_id":"the-myth-of-machine-intelligence","title":"The Myth of Machine Intelligence","description":"This book explains, in terms that non-experts can easily understand, why the fashionable hopes and fears often vested in AI are illusory. Machines, including computers, will never be able to think, much less plot to take over the world and dispose of the humans who created them. Machines cannot understand anything, and they cannot have emotions or desires.   The authors demonstrate that an artificial intelligence that could equal or exceed human intelligence-sometimes called artificial general intelligence (AGI)-is for reasons of mathematics and physics, forever impossible. The fundamental reason is that mathematics and physics are only applicable to a small sliver of the universe: they cannot cope with what are called ‘complex systems’.   Many influential philosophers and online influencers promote the story that we are approaching a Singularity (a term borrowed from the astrophysics of the Big Bang), where artificial intelligences will become able to think for themselves, and will then design new superintelligences even cleverer than they are, capable of indefinitely improving on their own level of intelligence, and harboring an ominous threat to human existence.   Landgrebe and Smith show that this story is at odds with reality. AI products, while they can be very useful and demonstrate the impressive ingenuity and creativity of their human designers, are not truly intelligent at all, and cannot match the intelligence of a chimpanzee, much less a human.   In supporting their claim, the authors marshal evidence from mathematics, physics, computer science, philosophy, linguistics, and biology, setting up their argument around three central questions: What are the essential marks of human intelligence? What is it that researchers try to do when they attempt to achieve “artificial intelligence”? And why, after sixty years of work on AI, are our most common interactions with AI, for example with our bank’s computers, still so frustrating? All the essentials of these multiple disciplines are spelled out with tremendous clarity and wit.   Landgrebe and Smith show how widespread fear about AI’s potential to bring about radical changes in the nature of human beings and in the human social order is founded on provable error. There is still much that so-called ‘AI’ can achieve which will benefit humankind. But these benefits will be accomplished without the aid of entities that are intellectually more powerful than humans.   Jobst Landgrebe and Barry Smith made a huge impact with their scholarly study, Why Machines Will Never Rule the World: Artificial Intelligence without Fear (2022), which rapidly went into a second edition and became an indispensable standard work. Having decided that a more popular explanation was needed, aimed at a broader readership, they decided to write The Myth of Machine Intelligence. Under an assumed name (Arnold Schelsky), Landgrebe also wrote the exciting and controversial book, The Hype Cycle: Uppers and Downers in Our Bipolar Culture (2025).","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57504755122549,"sku":"9781637700983","price":19.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}]}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/publisher-carus-books.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}