Ask a philosopher : answers to your most important and most unexpected questions

9781250756176

First edition

pages cm

Includes bibliographical references

Preface
Part I: Cosmic questions. What is philosophy? ; Why is there anything instead of nothing? ; Does God exist ; What is the meaning of life? ; Do we have free will? ; How do we know anything about the world outside of our own heads? ; If the world is melting, is it OK to have kids? ; How do brains give rise to conscious experience? ; Why should I care? ; What's the best form of government? ; Is color subjective? ; Is time travel possible? ; Are people innately good or bad? ; Which came first, thought or language? ; How well do we know what's good for us? ; Is there life after death? ; Are science and religion compatible? ; Is there objective truth? ; What is happiness? ; Is there an unconscious? ; How can we overcome dualism? ; Are space and time objectively real? ; Why?
Part II: Personal questions. What is love? ; When does it make sense for one person to love another? ; Are people born straight or gay? ; What makes a boy a boy? ; If someone buys me a drink at the bar, do I owe them anything? ; What can gentrifiers do not to ruin their own neighborhoods? ; Should I give money to homeless people? ; What's the point in getting upset about things we cannot change? ; How do you cope with the mortality of your own parents? ; How can you live with purpose in retirement? ; What makes someone mentally ill? ; When you buy something from a poor country, are you exploiting their workers? ; Is it OK to have a pet fish? ; When should we trust the experts? ; How can we raise children to be good people? ; What makes a word sexist? ; What can you do when nothing you do matters? ; Should we live in the present?
Part III: Questions you didn't know you needed answered. Is ketchup a smoothie? ; If humans colonize Mars, who should own the land? ; How do you know that 1+1=2? ; Is chicken parmesan authentic? ; Should you kill baby Hitler? ; Can plants think? ; Is Buddhism a religion or philosophy? ; How can something be so bad it's good? ; Do jelly beans taste the same to people who like them and to people who dislike them? ; If you try to make a sculpture of a dragonfly and it ends up looking like a bee, is it a sculpture of a dragonfly or a bee? ; What makes simpler theories better? ; If Superman gets his powers from the sun, why doesn't he have a tan? ; Is anything really random? ; What makes a work derivative? ; What's your favorite animal? ; Bonus question: What's the best way to teach myself philosophy and how do I start?

2020019308

3004937