What Don't You Know? Philosophical Provocations by Michael C. LaBossiere

by Michael C. LaBossiere

"LaBossiere brilliantly tackles many of the toughest ethical dilemmas of our times, from gender selection, cloning and sexual inequality to violence in the media and the conduct of warfare. In an age of snap judgments and stereotypes, he approaches his topics in a refreshingly open-minded fashion. His quick wit and firm knowledge of contemporary culture bring philosophy full-force into the 21st century." --Paul Halpern, Professor Of Physics, University Of The Sciences in Philadelphia and author of What's Science Ever Done for Us? From the author's Philosophy, as I see it, is not about believing certain tenets or accepting certain dogmas. Philosophy is about asking questions, seeking answers and entertaining doubt. Critical to that endeavor is a willingness to be rationally provoked by different ideas and to see where they might lead--assuming they turn out to be worth following. If you find that you disagree with me, so much the better. The search for truth and wisdom benefits most from dissent. It is uncritical agreement that derails this search and leaves people stuck in the dark. Of course, if you do agree with me on some points, that is cool, too.In this stimulating book, Michael C. LaBossiere takes a provocative look at issues in contemporary politics, culture and society through the lens of philosophy. Collected from LaBossiere's regular column in The Philosopher's Magazine, this fascinating set of philosophical provocations assumes no background in philosophy and focuses on matters that are of popular interest to the general public, yet are also philosophically significant. Topics range across a whole host of controversial issues that are of genuine interest to the reader, including same sex marriage, video games, gene therapy, true love, chance, torture, gender, god, the media, and freedom.

Genres: Philosophy

Paperback

First published May 6, 2008

About the author

Michael LaBossiere is a guy from Maine who went to school in Ohio and ended up a philosophy professor in Florida.

While acquiring his doctorate in philosophy at Ohio State University, he earned his ramen noodle money by writing for GDW, TSR, R. Talsorian Games, and Chaosium. After graduate school, he became a philosophy professor at Florida A&M University. His first philosophy book, What Don't You Know?, was published in 2008. He continues to write philosophy and gaming material. He is also a blogger, but these days who isn't?

When not writing, he enjoys running, gaming and the martial arts. Thanks to a quadriceps tendon tear in 2009, he was out of running for a while, but returned to the trails and wrote a book about it, Of Tendon & Trail.

Reviews

[Steven · Rating 2 out of 5]

Even with the understanding that What Don't You Know is a compilation of columns from a magazine feature and that the arguments were presented to provoke rather than answer, the whole effect was unsatisfying regardless of which side I happened to fall on each provocation. The quick pace and conversational tone rightly intended to make the material approachable, but instead resulted in far too many straw men and other examples of simplistic reasoning. I can see the value of many of the sections, if taken individually in their source publication, but they lose any edge they might have anthologized together like this.