All Reviews
Reviews are listed in reverse chronological order, with the most recent review appearing first in the list.
The Origin of Anxieties
‘We find it hard to focus on anything,’ writes Charles Merrett, approximately halfway through The Origin of Anxieties, ‘without deciding whether we like…
The Selfish Gene
As far as I can tell, most scholarly books devoted to a general readership are not read more than once or even talked about for a lengthy period of time,…
Thinking about Free Will
Peter van Inwagen in undeniably one of the leading authorities on the problem of free will in the last four decades. Thinking about Free Will…
Thomas S. Szasz
First from Google: Thomas Stephen Szasz was an American academic, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst. He served for most of his caree…
Unthought
In the book entitled Un-thought: The power of the cognitive non-conscious, written by Katherine N. Hayles, a serious attempt is made to put fort…
Altruism
Matthieu Ricard argues that altruism is possible and that it helps both the individual and the rest of society. He also recommends some ideas connected w…
Be Like the Fox
Anyone who teaches political philosophy knows the joy of reading and teaching The Prince by Machiavelli. Years ago, in just such a class I had t…
Beyond Schizophrenia
In 2006, E. Fuller Torrey, an American psychiatrist and schizophrenia researcher, argued that “when the social history of our era is written, the plight…
Brightening Our Inner Skies
According to author, yoga practitioner, and yoga teacher Norman Blair, Brightening Our Inner Skies: Yin and Yoga has been a book in the making f…
Dead Little Mean Girl
Emma tells the story of the terrible behavior of her step-sister Quinn. They are teens in the same year of high school, and they are forced…
Desire, Love, and Identity
“I cannot hope to seize the concept of it [love] except “by the tail”: by flashes, formulas, surprises of expression, scattered through the great stream…
Doing CBT
Since its introduction in the 1960’s by Aaron Beck in order to conceptualize depression in other ways than psychoanalysis, Cognitive-behavioral therapy (…
Legal Insanity
In Legal insanity: Explorations in psychiatry, law, and ethics, written by Gerben Meynen, the curious reader is showered with a detailed and eng…
Never Out of Season
It is not hard to believe that big agribusiness is short-sighted and sacrifices the long term safety of the planet for profits. Rob Dunn explains how thi…
Our Broken Pieces
[This review contains spoilers.] This teen romance is mostly standard fare. High school senior Everly Morgan discovers that her boyfriend is cheatin…
Panpsychism
“Panpsychism is as old as philosophy itself,” write editors Godehard Brüntrup and Ludwig Jaskolla in their introduction to the anthology Panpsyc…
The Drifter
Elizabeth lives a wealthy life with her husband and young daughter in Manhattan, but she is haunted by her college years in Florida. The narrative shifts…
The Chemist
Alex is a brainy inventive expert in biochemistry who has a range of creations that can cause extraordinary pain. Her skills made her extraordinarily goo…
The Fortunate Ones
In this novel that alternates between the Second World War and the present, Ellen Umansky explores the relationship between Rose and Lizzie, who meet aft…
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The Nietzschean Self
With The Nietzschean Self: Moral Psychology, Agency, and the Unconscious, Paul Katsafanas focuses attention on Friedrich Nietzsche’s remark that…
The Obesity Epidemic
Toomath’s point about the health problems caused by obesity is a simple one. Public education and focus on personal responsibility for weight control hav…
The Self-Compassion Skills Workbook
Self-compassion has been getting more attention in the field of psychology, and in the opening pages of this book, author Tim Desmond, a li…
The Vegetarian
Han Kang’s The Vegetarian was originally published in South Korea in 2007. It was published in English in 2015 and won the 2016 Man Booker Inter…
The Virtues of Freedom
In his new Book Virtues of Freedom, the renowned Kant scholar Paul Guyer presents a collection of previously unpublished and published essays on…
Understanding Kant’s Ethics
Every year sees the publication of at least a couple of new introductions to Kant’s moral philosophy. To some extent this is both understandable and unav…