Nicholas Fearn has arrayed before us in his latest book a procession of Western philosophers, dead and alive, hailing from the dawn of rational thought in the ancient world to the present day. In the manner of a polite and cultivated ringmaster he impartially introduces, compares and sums up, giving all his characters a say, and occasionally gently interjecting his own opinions.
Under the broad headings ‘Who Am I?’, and ‘What Do I Know?’ and ‘What Should I Do?’ the individual chapters include discussions of free will and fate, minds and machines, bodies and souls, knowledge, meaning, understanding, post-modernism and pragmatism and the latest ethical dilemmas.
As the chapters unfold Fearn often changes between dispassionate philosophical discussions and more journalistic personal descriptions, thus preventing the reader from sinking too far into the philosophical quagmire produced by some of these issues. For example, as the questions surrounding artificial intelligence in the chapter on minds and machines threaten to become intractable, we come slap-bang up against the ‘dense, compact form’ of ‘philosophical bruiser’ John Searle
who swaggered backwards and forwards across his office with hips thrust out, emphasising each point with a jab of his fist.
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