©Nina Sologubenko
Books by David Edmonds
David Edmonds is an award-winning radio feature maker at the BBC World Service. He studied at Oxford University, has a PhD in philosophy from the Open University, and has held fellowships at the universities of Chicago and Michigan. He is also a senior research associate at the Oxford Uehiro Centre for Practical Ethics. Edmonds is the author of several books, and with Nigel Warburton he produces the popular podcast series Philosophy Bites
“What David Edmonds does so well is to show you that even though Derek Parfit was the great modern philosopher of selflessness—which has been foundational to the effective altruism movement and other modern philosophies—his philosophy was so closely associated with his personality. Edmonds is very good at explaining Parfit’s ideas, and doing so in a way that is not oversimplified, but which is also not the headache of reading Parfit’s original work. But the real achievement of the book is to show you how Parfit’s personality changed very significantly, and that embrace this question of, as he became more reclusive and obsessed with his work, did he—as some people say—become a cruel and selfish person who was willing to upset the people who loved him.” Read more...
The Best Intellectual Biographies
Henry Oliver, Biographer
Women of Ideas: Interviews from Philosophy Bites
edited by Suki Finn
Women of Ideas is a collection of interviews with philosophers from the Philosophy Bites podcast. The interviews were selected and put together by Suki Finn, Lecturer in Philosophy at Royal Holloway, part of the University of London. It's a really fascinating collection, opening with an interview with Amia Srinivasan, Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory at All Souls College, Oxford, on "What is a Woman?"
Undercover Robot: My First Year As Human
by Bertie Fraser & David Edmonds
Undercover Robot is a very funny introduction to the ethics of artificial intelligence and of being a human being. Dave Edmonds, who recommended the best books on ethical problems for Five Books, and Bertie Fraser, founder of Storynory.com, do a brilliant job of bringing to life Dotty, who is trying her best to fit in as normal 12-year old girl, but can't help being weird. A children's book, yes, but quite fun to read as an adult too.
The Murder of Professor Schlick: The Rise and Fall of the Vienna Circle
by David Edmonds
***🏆 A Five Books Book of the Year ***
“What David has managed to do is combine the biographical and historical with the philosophical, without getting too technical. A lot of the philosophy of the Vienna Circle was quite hard core, but he doesn’t get bogged down in the details. This is a book that’s accessible to a general reader. He’s very good about making clear what the importance of the debates they were having was, what their limitations were, why they were or were not influential, as well as telling these stories which connect very strongly with the rise of Nazism, including the murder of the title of the book.” Read more...
The Best Philosophy Books of 2020
Nigel Warburton, Philosopher
Interviews with David Edmonds
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1
Language, Truth and Logic
by AJ Ayer -
2
The World of Yesterday
by Stefan Zweig & Anthea Bell (translator) -
3
The Vienna Circle
by Friedrich Stadler -
4
Frank Ramsey: A Sheer Excess of Powers
by Cheryl Misak -
5
Exact Thinking in Demented Times: The Vienna Circle and the Epic Quest for the Foundations of Science
by Karl Sigmund
The best books on The Vienna Circle, recommended by David Edmonds
The best books on The Vienna Circle, recommended by David Edmonds
Members of ‘the Vienna Circle’ had strong views on what can and cannot be meaningfully said. They’ve had an enormous impact on modern philosophy, partly because the arrival of fascist rule in Austria scattered them around the world. Here, philosopher David Edmonds, author of The Murder of Professor Schlick, introduces us to their ideas, their milieu and the poignant background to their lives and thinking.
The best books on Ethical Problems, recommended by David Edmonds
Given the choice between allowing five people to die, and killing one person, what would you do? What is the utilitarian argument for vegetarianism? Should we be able to sell our kidneys? The philosopher suggests some answers and picks the best books on ‘ethical problems.’
Interviews where books by David Edmonds were recommended
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1
The Philosopher Queens: The lives and legacies of philosophy's unsung women
by Lisa Whiting & Rebecca Buxton -
2
The Meaning of Travel: Philosophers Abroad
by Emily Thomas -
3
Frank Ramsey: A Sheer Excess of Powers
by Cheryl Misak -
4
The Murder of Professor Schlick: The Rise and Fall of the Vienna Circle
by David Edmonds -
5
Metazoa: Animal Life and the Birth of the Mind
by Peter Godfrey-Smith
The Best Philosophy Books of 2020, recommended by Nigel Warburton
The Best Philosophy Books of 2020, recommended by Nigel Warburton
2020 has been a great year for popular philosophy with many excellent books published. Here, Nigel Warburton, our philosophy editor and co-host of the Philosophy Bites podcast, picks his favourites and explains what he likes about them.
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1
John Stuart Mill: A Biography
by Nicholas Capaldi -
2
The Marriage Question: George Eliot's Double Life
by Clare Carlisle -
3
Froude's Life of Carlyle
by James Anthony Froude, abridged by John Clubbe -
4
The Autobiography of Malcolm X
by Malcolm X and assisted by Alex Haley, Laurence Fishburne (narrator) -
5
Parfit: A Philosopher and His Mission to Save Morality
by David Edmonds
The Best Intellectual Biographies, recommended by Henry Oliver
The Best Intellectual Biographies, recommended by Henry Oliver
The interplay of real life and the generation or dissemination of ideas serves as the fascinating focus of the intellectual biography. Here, Henry Oliver—author of Second Act, a compelling new book about late-blooming intellectuals, artists, and thinkers—selects five of the best intellectual biographies, including studies of the lives of the novelist George Eliot and the philosopher Derek Parfit.
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1
Humanly Possible: Seven Hundred Years of Humanist Freethinking, Inquiry, and Hope
by Sarah Bakewell -
2
The Dangerous Life and Ideas of Diogenes the Cynic
by Jean-Manuel Roubineau, Malcolm DeBevoise & Phillip Mitsis -
3
Parfit: A Philosopher and His Mission to Save Morality
by David Edmonds -
4
The Experience Machine: How Our Minds Predict and Shape Reality
by Andy Clark -
5
For F*ck's Sake: Why Swearing is Shocking, Rude, and Fun
by Rebecca Roache
The Best Philosophy Books of 2023, recommended by Nigel Warburton
The Best Philosophy Books of 2023, recommended by Nigel Warburton
The genre of philosophical biography is flourishing, as we pay attention not only to what philosophers said and wrote but also to how they lived and the intellectual context in which they developed their ideas. Nigel Warburton, our philosophy editor, picks out some of the best philosophy books of the year, from the man who lived in a storage jar in 5th century Athens to the latest contributions of cognitive science to our understanding of how we experience the world. Read more philosophy book recommendations on Five Books
