Ask a Philosopher
Answers to Your Most Important and Most Unexpected Questions
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3.5 • 2 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A collection of answers to the philosophical questions on people's minds—from the big to the personal to the ones you didn't know you needed answered.
Based on real-life questions from his Ask a Philosopher series, Ian Olasov offers his answers to questions such as:
- Are people innately good or bad?
- Is it okay to have a pet fish?
- Is it okay to have kids?
- Is color subjective?
- If humans colonize Mars, who will own the land?
- Is ketchup a smoothie?
- Is there life after death?
- Should I give money to homeless people?
Ask a Philosopher shows that there's a way of making philosophy work for each of us, and that philosophy can be both perfectly continuous with everyday life, and also utterly transporting. From questions that we all wrestle with in private to questions that you never thought to ask, Ask a Philosopher will get you thinking.
Customer Reviews
Big Questions, Deep Introspection
First, I want to commend Ian Olasov for stepping out of the Ivory Tower and bringing Philosophy as a discipline to the public forum. The disconnect between academia and the general public is alarming. Too many high minded but well meaning academics are missing out on the important feedback loop of openly engaging the everyman.
That said, this book is not a Philosophy 101 primer but a reflection on the practice of getting to the root of our deepest held questions. Often that means asking another question about our question and repeating that until we get to that deepest core of why. It’s Socratic in many ways and poetically fitting that Olasov demonstrate this reflexive rhetoric in a public setting.
I went into this book expecting deep and indisputable proofs on any manner of topics. What I got was a reminder that our biggest questions are often answered with a deeper question. Each question helps us navigate an introspective maze to a closer relationship to truth and the final cause of our big questions. A fun and explorative read.