The Pig that Wants to Be Eaten: And 99+ Other Thought Experiments

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Description

'Baggini offers us a tempting smorgasbord of some of the most baffling, weird and occasionally downright creepy scenarios ever envisaged... enjoy these mind-boggling tales from the outer limit of thought' - Guardian

Is it right to eat a pig that wants to be eaten
Are you really reading this book cover, or are you in a simulation
If God is all-powerful, could he create a square circle


Here are 100 of the most intriguing thought experiments from the history of philosophy and ideas - questions to leave you inspired, informed and scratching your head, dumbfounded.


'This book is like the Sudoku of moral philosophy: apply your mind to any of its "thought experiments" while stuck on the Tube, and quickly be transported out of rush-hour hell' - New Statesman

Reviews

Baggini offers us a tempting smorgasbord of some of the most baffling, weird and occasionally downright creepy scenarios ever envisaged... enjoy these mind-boggling tales from the outer limit of thought * Guardian *
This book is like the Sudoku of moral philosophy: apply your mind to any of its "thought experiments" while stuck on the Tube, and quickly be transported out of rush-hour hell * New Statesman *
Thinking again is what this taut, incisive, bullet-hard book is dedicated to promoting * Sunday Times *
An eloquent and engaging introduction to the major philosophical quandaries * Scotland on Sunday *
An engaging read ... It's one to which I'll keep returning - whenever I feel like an argument and have nobody to argue with * Sunday Herald *
An eloquent and engaging introduction to the major philosophical quandaries about identity, knowledge, morality and rationality.It is the best kind of popularising work: amusing enough to provide an easy way into difficult questions, but uncompromising in terms of the meanings deduced from the fables * Scotland on Sunday *
Baggini frames various philosophical conundrums so that we focus on the nub of the matter without the extraneous considerations that complicate them in real life... helpfully cross- referenced and ideal for reading aloud * Metro (London) *

Author Bio

Julian Baggini's books include Welcome to Everytown: A Journey into the English Mind, What's It All About: Philosophy and the Meaning of Life, the bestselling The Pig that Wants to be Eaten, Do They Think You're Stupid, The Ego Trick, The Virtues of the Table: How to Eat and Think, Freedom Regained, and the bestselling How The World Thinks, all published by Granta Books. He has written for various newspapers, magazines, academic journals and think tanks. His website is microphilosophy.net.