Books by Jonathan Birch
“Jonathan Birch is a philosopher with a research team at the London School of Economics. He’s particularly interested in the idea that we ought to base our ethical interactions with animals on scientific studies of what animals are actually like. So he works with zoologists, ethologists, people who look very closely at animal behaviour…Take lobsters. They are killed in quite gruesome ways for culinary purposes. He’s been involved in research that suggests that lobsters have quite sophisticated neural networks and seem to exhibit pain-like behaviour in certain situations…Birch is a superbly clear writer, and he’s very careful to adjust his belief according to the evidence.” Read more...
The Best Philosophy Books of 2024
Nigel Warburton, Philosopher
Interviews where books by Jonathan Birch were recommended
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1
Why Plato Matters Now
by Angie Hobbs -
2
Death in a Shallow Pond: A Philosopher, a Drowning Child, and Strangers in Need
by David Edmonds -
3
Arthur Schopenhauer: The Life and Thought of Philosophy’s Greatest Pessimist
by David Bather Woods -
4
The Penguin Book of Existentialist Philosophy
ed. Jonathan Webber -
5
Open Socrates: The Case for a Philosophical Life
by Agnes Callard -
6
Third Millennium Thinking: Creating Sense in a World of Nonsense
Saul Perlmutter, Robert MacCoun and John Campbell
New Philosophy Books
New Philosophy Books
Philosophy books, at their best, open the door to thinking about how to live our lives and interact with the world around us. Fortunately, the past decade has seen many popular philosophy books published that are highly readable. Some (e.g., books on Stoicism) verge on self-help, others on how to help others. Some introduce the thought of a particular philosopher, others on the skills philosophy teaches, like critical thinking.
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1
Herald of a Restless World: How Henri Bergson Brought Philosophy to the People
by Emily Herring -
2
Facing Down the Furies: Suicide, the Ancient Greeks, and Me
by Edith Hall -
3
Marx
by Brian Leiter & Jaime Edwards -
4
The Edge of Sentience: Risk and Precaution in Humans, Other Animals, and AI
by Jonathan Birch -
5
We Are Free to Change the World: Hannah Arendt’s Lessons in Love and Disobedience
by Lyndsey Stonebridge
The Best Philosophy Books of 2024, recommended by Nigel Warburton
The Best Philosophy Books of 2024, recommended by Nigel Warburton
We ask our philosophy editor Nigel Warburton to recommend five of the most notable new books in his specialist area at the end of every year. In 2024, his nominations for the best philosophy books of 2024 include an introduction to the work of Karl Marx, a study of sentience in animals, and an examination of suicide through the work of the Greek tragedians.
