A new and expansive collection of essays from one of the world's best-known popular philosophers
 
“A genial exercise in public philosophy by an admittedly tonsorially challenged practitioner. . . . Ever current, Critchley closes with a meditation on Covid-19 and the anxieties it induces. . . . Along his path, he pauses to wonder whether philosophy has progressed at all over the centuries; to appreciate David Bowie’s final album, Blackstar; . . . and to allow, with Pascal, that we’re weak and wretched beings but eminently improvable.”—Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

The moderator of the New York Times’ Stone column and the author of numerous books on everything from Greek tragedy to David Bowie, Simon Critchley has been a strong voice in popular philosophy for more than a decade. This volume brings together thirty‑five essays, originally published in the Times, on a wide range of topics, from the dimensions of Plato’s academy and the mysteries of Eleusis to Philip K. Dick, Mormonism, money, and the joy and pain of Liverpool Football Club fans. In an engaging and jargon‑free style, Critchley writes with honesty about the state of world as he offers philosophically informed and insightful considerations of happiness, violence, and faith.
 
Stripped of inaccessible academic armatures, these short pieces bring philosophy out of the ivory tower and demonstrate an exciting new way to think in public.

Simon Critchley is the Hans Jonas Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research and the moderator of the New York Times’ Stone column. He is a board member of the Onassis Foundation, and his most recent book is Tragedy, the Greeks, and Us. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.