Foreword to the Routledge Classics Edition Stephen Cave
Preface
Introduction: Are We Losing Ourselves?1. Changing Relations to the Cosmos
2. Sciencephobia and its Sources
3. Transcendent Numbers: Pythagoras and Plato
4. What Explanation Is
5. Why the Idea of Purpose Won't Go Away
6. Is Sexual Selection Natural?
7. The Search for Senselessness
8. The Beasts That Perish
9. Free Will, Not Just Free Won't
10. How Divided Selves Live
11. Hemispheres and Holism
12. The Supernatural Aspects of Physics
Conclusion: On Being Still Here.
Index
Biography
Mary Midgley (1919–2018) was one of the leading moral philosophers of her generation and has been described by The Guardian as 'the foremost scourge of scientific pretension in this country'. Many of her books are available in Routledge Classics, including Beast and Man, Wickedness and The Myths We Live By.
'Midgley manages in just 150 pages to say more than most scholars manage in a lifetime.' – Financial Times
'A fiercely combative philosopher… our foremost scourge of scientific pretension.' – The Guardian
'She has, perhaps, the sharpest perception of any living thinker of the dangerous extremism that lurks behind so much contemporary scientistic discourse... Merely as anthologies of contemporary folly, Midgley's books are essential reading.' – The Sunday Times
