Product description

How do you know that you exist? What does it mean to have a future? Are you the same thing as your brain? What does it mean to be free? How can you know what knowledge is? A woman was advising her anguished friend, 'Be philosophical - then you won't need to think about it.' Well, being philosophical is sometimes taken to mean that you should adopt a resigned attitude to the world - a quiet-ism - but the study that is western philosophy, starting with the ancient Greeks and continuing today in universities, bars and cafes - even bedrooms - is far from quiet. Philosophers think - but not just that, for they think about thinking and they think about how we think about the world, about how we conceive of ourselves, about how we possess a sense of right and wrong, about how we find meaning in life (if we do). How to Think Like a Bat might not help you to think like a bat, but it will certainly help you to think like a philosopher. Smart, witty and engaging, this is a superb introduction to the subject by one of Britain's most engaging philosophical writers.

Author information

Peter Cave teaches philosophy at the Open University and City University in London, UK. His articles appear regularly in philosophy magazines and scholarly journals, and he is also a frequent broadcaster, having scripted the Paradoxical Fair series for BBC Radio 4. His previous publications include the best-selling Can a Robot be Human? and What's Wrong with Eating People?. He lives in London.

Table of contents

Introduction. How to know that you exist. How to awake as a gigantic insect. How to fire the neurons in your head. How to be free. How to outwit Aristotle. How to know what knowledge is. How to stop worrying about the evil genius. How to be a ghost in the machine. How not to have feelings or beliefs. How to tell the future. How to be a philosophical scientist. How to turn noise into meaning. How to know what we are talking about. How to live on slippery slopes. How to judge whom to save. How not to eat people. How not to be harmed by your death. How to be God. How to sympathize with the devil. How to be a monkey endlessly typing. How to be seduced by logic. How to be an object of desire. How not to be nasty, brutish and short. How to tolerate the intolerable. How not to be a three-legged frog. How not to be squeezed by time. How to outdo artificial intelligence. How to deceive yourself. How to love what does not exist. How not to be left looking after the clothes. How to hear the Sirens' song in safety. How to think like a bat. How to see beauty. How to know when to stop. How to bring meaning to life. Glossary. Index.