Bald: 35 Philosophical Short Cuts

by Simon Critchley

Overview

"A genial exercise in public philosophy" (Kirkus, starred review) from one of the world's best-known popular philosophers

"Simon Critchley is an international treasure—that rare and real philosopher who embraces Rousseau’s ‘feeling of existence,’ David Bowie’s vision of love, and Philip K. Dick’s genius with genuine wrestling and a soulful smile!’’—Cornel West, Harvard University

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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780300255966
Publisher:	Yale University Press
Publication date:	04/27/2021
Pages:	264
Sales rank:	1,036,033
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

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.

Table of Contents

Preface ix

Happiness?

1 Happy Like God 3

2 Beyond the Sea 7

3 How to Make It in the Afterlife 12

4 The Gospel According to Me 15

5 Abandon (Nearly) All Hope 20

I Believe

6 Why I Love Mormonism 29

7 The Freedom of Faith-A Christmas Sermon 39

8 The Rigor of Love 49

9 Coin of Praise 56

10 Soccer Fandom as a Model for Living 60

What Are Philosophers For?

11 What Is a Philosopher? 69

12 When Socrates Met Phaedrus: Eros in Philosophy 74

13 Cynicism We Can Believe In 83

14 To Weld, Perchance to Dream 86

15 Brexistentialism 90

The Tragedy of Violence

16 Euro Blind 97

17 Let Be-An Answer to Hamlets Question 101

18 The Cycle of Revenge 108

19 Theater of Violence 112

Athens in Pieces

20 The Art of Memory 123

21 The Stench of the Academy 127

22 In Aristotle's Garden 134

23 The Tragedy of Democracy 140

24 What Really Happened at Eleusis? 146

25 We Know Socrates's Fate. What's Ours? 154

26 The Happiest Man I Ever Met 161

27 An Offering to the Soccer Gods 170

Others

28 There Is No Theory of Everything 179

29 The Dangers of Certainty: A Lesson from Auschwitz 189

30 Nothing Remains: David Bowie's Vision of Love 195

31 PBS 199

Garage Philosopher Philip K. Dick

32 Meditations on a Radiant Fish 207

33 Future Gnostic 212

34 Adventures in the Dream Factory 218

Covid Coda

35 Our Fear, Our Trembling, Our Strength 225

Index 231

Editorial Reviews

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, which he encourages his readers to grapple with rather than self-medicate away. Along his path, he pauses to wonder whether philosophy has progressed at all over the centuries; to appreciate David Bowie’s final album, Blackstar, which ‘he reportedly planned as a message to his fans from beyond the grave’; and to allow, with Pascal, that we’re weak and wretched beings but eminently improvable.”—Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Simon Critchley is an international treasure—that rare and real philosopher who embraces Rousseau’s ‘feeling of existence,’ David Bowie’s vision of love, and Philip K. Dick’s genius with genuine wrestling and a soulful smile! He enacts the truth in skepticism and the power of compassion without paralysis or illusion.’’—Cornel West, Harvard University

“What is philosophy? An endless succession of puzzles and parables? An attempt to understand ourselves, our language, the world around us? Simon Critchley shows us that the answer is all of the above. Indeed, we might think of philosophy as the inexorable study of unanswerable questions. Bald offers an incredibly enjoyable and endlessly fascinating excursion. It’s turtles all the way down.”—Errol Morris

“Wise and funny; Critchley covers a remarkable range of topics from Plato to football, Hamlet to religion, Dostoevsky to God. A book to immerse yourself in, or dip in and savour.”—David Edmonds, author of The Murder of Professor Schlick

“Mixing profundity with irony and sometimes hilarity, these essays are invariably well written and intelligently observed; bald and bold.”—Richard Kearney, Boston College
 

From the Publisher

★ 2021-04-13
A genial exercise in public philosophy by an admittedly tonsorially challenged practitioner.

To engage in philosophy in public, writes Critchley, is akin to sticking your head out the window and engaging passersby. But, he adds, “If you stick your head out the window, something foul-smelling is likely to land on it.” People are argumentative and contrarian, especially in the digital realm, and they forget a key Socratic tenet of the discipline: The unexamined life isn’t worth living. Happiness is a central issue here, and one of its hallmarks is quiet time for contemplation, easily ruined by the impinging demands of daily life: “The cell phone rings, the email beeps and one is sucked back into the world’s relentless hum and the accompanying anxiety. Not that tucking yourself away from the world is a guarantee for happiness or even decency. As Critchley notes, Rousseau, that most eminent of philosophers, was a deeply unpleasant man, “self-obsessed and totally paranoid,” who stuck all five of his children in an orphanage. Happiness can be a subset of the Greek concept of glory, which boils down to how you’ll be remembered after you’re dead. It can be accomplished by a certain amount of old-fashioned cynicism of the Diogenes variety, which we need more of “in a world like ours, which is slowly trying to rouse itself from the dogmatic slumbers of boundless self-interest, corruption, lazy cronyism and greed.” Ever current, Critchley closes with a meditation on Covid-19 and the anxieties it induces, which he encourages his readers to grapple with rather than self-medicate away. Along his path, he pauses to wonder whether philosophy has progressed at all over the centuries; to appreciate David Bowie’s final album, Blackstar, which “he reportedly planned as a message to his fans from beyond the grave”; and to allow, with Pascal, that we’re weak and wretched beings but eminently improvable.

There’s much good food for thought—and for better thinking—in Critchley’s rambles.

Kirkus Reviews