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Imaginary Philosophical Dialogues
How would Plato have responded if his student Aristotle had ever challenged his idea that our senses perceive nothing more than the shadows cast upon a wall by a true world of perfect ideals? What would Charles Darwin have said to Karl Marx about his claim that dialectical materialism is a scientific theory of evolution? How would Jean-Paul Sartre have reacted to Simone de Beauvoir’s claim that the Marquis de Sade was a philosopher worthy of serious attention?
This light-hearted book proposes answers to such questions by imagining dialogues between thirty-three pairs of philosophical sages who were alive at the same time. Sometime famous sages get a much rougher handling than usual, as when Adam Smith beards Immanuel Kant in his Konigsberg den. Sometimes neglected or maligned sages get a chance to say what they really believed, as when Epicurus explains that he wasn’t epicurean. Sometimes the dialogues are about the origins of modern concepts, as when Blaise Pascal and Pierre de Fermat discuss their invention of probability, or when John Nash and John von Neumann discuss the creation of game theory. Even in these scientific cases, the intention is that the protagonists come across as fallible human beings like the rest of us, rather than the intellectual paragons of philosophical textbooks.
This light-hearted book proposes answers to such questions by imagining dialogues between thirty-three pairs of philosophical sages who were alive at the same time. Sometime famous sages get a much rougher handling than usual, as when Adam Smith beards Immanuel Kant in his Konigsberg den. Sometimes neglected or maligned sages get a chance to say what they really believed, as when Epicurus explains that he wasn’t epicurean. Sometimes the dialogues are about the origins of modern concepts, as when Blaise Pascal and Pierre de Fermat discuss their invention of probability, or when John Nash and John von Neumann discuss the creation of game theory. Even in these scientific cases, the intention is that the protagonists come across as fallible human beings like the rest of us, rather than the intellectual paragons of philosophical textbooks.
209 pages, Paperback
Published January 1, 2021
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About the author
Ken Binmore
43 books82 followersProfessor of Economics at UCL, after holding corresponding positions at LSE and the University of Pennsylvania and Michigan. Onetime Professor of Mathematics at LSE.
Author of 77 published papers and 11 books. Research in evolutionary game theory, bargaining theory, experimental economics, political philosophy, mathematics and statistics.
Grants from National Science Foundation (3), ESRC (1), STICERD (2) and others. Chairman of LSE Economics Theory Workshop (10 years), Director of Michigan Economic Laboratory (5 years). Fellow of the Econometric Society and British Academy. Extensive collaboration with 25 co-authors.
Awarded the CBE in the New Years Honours List 2001 largely for his role in designing the UK 3G Spectrum Auction.
Author of 77 published papers and 11 books. Research in evolutionary game theory, bargaining theory, experimental economics, political philosophy, mathematics and statistics.
Grants from National Science Foundation (3), ESRC (1), STICERD (2) and others. Chairman of LSE Economics Theory Workshop (10 years), Director of Michigan Economic Laboratory (5 years). Fellow of the Econometric Society and British Academy. Extensive collaboration with 25 co-authors.
Awarded the CBE in the New Years Honours List 2001 largely for his role in designing the UK 3G Spectrum Auction.
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