Tag: philosophy

The Winds from Further West by Alexander McCall Smith (Literary Fiction)

In this new, standalone novel, McCall Smith takes on the ethics and responsibilities of those caught up in cancel culture — including the perspectives and calculations of those willing to play along (on either side) for personal gain. We follow Neil, a University of Edinburgh public health lecturer and researcher, as he is accused of making an “insensitive” comment and is asked by an unscrupulous dean to apologize regardless of guilt. I’ll hasten to say that McCall Smith does not allow the book to slide into a Kafkaesque nightmare from which our hero cannot emerge unscathed (I almost stopped reading when I thought it was going in that direction). Instead, he focuses on how people react to “life experiences” such as these and how they can be used to further self (and world-at-large) awareness and growth. I found it insightful and inspiring.

I love that McCall Smith always brings the ethics of big social trends into how they play out in individuals. The book is full of pithy commentary as to the state of the world (or one’s university!) and one’s role within it. His characters are always interesting — one is caught reading a book called “A Brief History of the Smile.” Others contemplate and discuss such random (but IMO engaging) topics such as a recent theory about Neanderthals, people vs. microbes, the use of shaming in society, and as always, a lovely collection of quotations from (mostly Scottish) poets (my favorite is Auden’s line: “If equally affection cannot be, let the more loving one be me.” It made me cry. I also loved the discussion (minor argument?) about the democratization of science — while Neil’s girlfriend feels teachers should be less didactic, Neil points out that Bernoullis equation is not an opinion.

Honestly, I have loved almost all of McCall Smith’s books and really can’t believe he hasn’t run out of philosophical musings and expositions after all this time. Every book seems to cleanly dissect complex problems into clear and concise points to help you thread through them.

Some of my favorite quotes:
“One had to become indifferent to the things you could not do anything about, unless you were prepared to let them hurt you indefinitely.”

“He, and people like him, might do a little to change the basic rules of engagement between human beings and microbes, but here and there, in small corners of the battlefield, they achieve their largely unsung victories. And in the background, their research, sometimes painfully slow and seemingly entirely theoretical, built up the human armory against microbial defeat.”

“People say that the thing about poetry is its power to haunt.“

“The world’s in a sorry mess. People put so much energy into finding fault with others, with attacking them, with calculating personal advantage, with … with all of those things. We’ve broken the bonds that exist between us, with the result that we are all potential enemies of one another, locked in mutual suspicion and distrust. And do you know what? I’ve had enough of it, I can’t bear to be part of that any longer.”

Thank you to Pantheon and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this audio book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on July 29th, 2025.

The Conditions of Unconditional Love by Alexander McCall Smith (Literary Fiction)

I’m a long time fan of McCall Smith, but the Isabel Dalhousie series (this is #15) is the only one I’m still reading. Isabel is a philosopher with an independent income, two small children, and is the editor (and owner) of the Philosophical Review. She lives in Edinburgh and has a habit of “fixing things” both large and small, sometimes fully aware that the problem is none of her business.

I love this series because there is never a shortage of interesting things for Isabel to muse about, and I love the way McCall Smith gets to the essence of every topic. Whether she is talking to herself, to a casual acquaintance, or to her husband, these are the kind of conversations I like to have, and I’m perfectly happy to have them with an intellectual, though fictional, sparring partner!

The “problems” she solves in this book are every day irritations that I can completely relate to and that — while not actually important in the larger scheme of things — is very trying and important in our every day lives. A book group that has become downright antagonistic towards each other; a couple who doesn’t know the truth about each other and really should; a conference organizer potentially defrauding a funding organization; an uncomfortable situation with a long-term (but not well known) house guest.
I like that McCall Smith takes on issues of the day and introduces (often new to me) ethical conundrums. He refers to the Circle of Moral Recognition — the boundary drawn around those entities in the world deemed worthy of moral consideration. What is our own personal moral responsibility in specific situations in the current moral climate? He introduces “defensible pride” vs “hubristic pride” and why one attracts us while we find the other quite off putting. Another concept I hadn’t heard of — but love — is the Hawking index which is the percentage of a book read before the average reader gives up. Named after Hawking’s best selling A brief History of Time which received a whopping 6.6% on the index and still wasn’t the smallest index (that honor goes to Capital in the Twenty-First century by Thomas Piketty). Who knew? Lastly I had to laugh out loud when she suggested the need for “emotional continence” when others went on and on about TMI topics ad nauseam.

I don’t agree with all of Isabel’s thoughts and opinions, but I like the way they are laid out cleanly with a clear understanding of the basic principles and thought process used to come to her conclusions. Wouldn’t it be nice if we could all engage on “hot topics” in this way?

Thank you to Pantheon and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on July 16th, 2024.

How to Know a Person by David Brooks (Non-fiction)

David Brooks dives into a study of how to really “know” another person in this part academic, part how-to, deeply reflective book. Some parts really appeal to me — I like the funny, tongue-in-cheek, self deprecating style and the curating and restating of academic studies supporting his points. He has several ideas that I resonate with (I, too, was not born with copious social skills and had to work hard to learn the few I developed!), but many that I did not. Honestly, it reads as a journey of self-discovery with an implied (and sometimes boldly stated) assumption that his issues / goals / discoveries are relevant for everyone as in “everyone wants x” and “everyone needs y.” I don’t actually believe anything is true of everyone (except the fact that I assume we all have human DNA). Also, for my taste, he goes a little far in the (IMHO simplistic and kind of old news) “everyone just wants to be heard, valued, and understood,” and I think human interaction is a lot more complicated than that.

In any case, it is an interesting read, with plenty of tools to help each of us understand a little more about how we work and how we interact with others, so I think it is worth reading! Includes an exceptional referenced bibliography featuring philosophers, psychologists, novelists, and poets across the ages.

Thank you to Random House and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on October 24th, 2023.

Piranesi by Susanna Clarke (speculative fiction)

Characters: 5/5 Writing: 4.5/5 Plot: 4/5
Piranesi is a simple being who lives in a massive world called The House, populated by vast quantities of Statues, one friend (The Other) and the bones of 13 others whom Piranesi has named and cares for as one would their dead. Piranesi is a rationalist and has set himself the task of documenting as much as he can about his world — the Statues, the various Halls, the incoming tides, etc, carefully logging everything in his journals with a special cross reference index. Whenever he is troubled, he remembers that he is a Beloved Child of the House. Until one day, something triggers him to look into some of the older journals…

This book is a kind of Robinson Crusoe of the mind, full of philosophy, madness, and surprising resolution. It is a fascinating possible answer to the question “What happens to old ideas as they leave the world?” The start was a bit slow for me but I finally got into the rhythm of the book and finished it in almost a single sitting. (To be fair, it is a relatively short book at 245 pages, and I am home, sick). The ending was thought provoking and a little bittersweet. Definitely worth a read.

The Geometry of Holding Hands by Alexander McCall Smith (Literary Fiction)

An Isabel Dalhousie book. For those unfamiliar with McCall Smith’s less well-known protagonist (Mma Ramotswe of Number One Ladies Detective Agency is far more popular), Isabel is a philosopher of independent means. She serves as the publisher and editor of the Review of Applied Ethics. What an unusual character on which to base a series! These books center around questions of morality, and amidst the light plots that loosely guide each episode, we are treated to a constant stream of philosophical musings and epiphanies. I love the fact that rather than read the (probably) dry research papers that populate Isabel’s Review, we instead get to hear the intriguing summaries.

In this installment, Isabel is asked to serve as executor of a dying man’s trust while simultaneously coming to terms with her niece’s engagement to an (to Isabel) unsuitable man. These situations give rise to musings about the accidents of love, moral obligations, moral strangers, the sphere of moral proximity, and what it means to act graciously. Populated by the educational elite of Edinburgh, this series also gives rise to discussions on a wide variety of topics — this time including Himalayan languages and Scottish Country dancing.

I have a very good vocabulary and have read most of McCall Smith’s books and yet he *still* surprises me with new words. This time: Gluckschmerz and commensality. Gluckschmerz is feeling pain in the face of another’s success — the opposite of Schadenfreude. Commensality refers to the positive social interactions that are associated with people eating together.

My favorite phrase in the book: “the suppurating corruption of greed.”

Thank you to Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group and NetGalley for providing an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. The book will be published on July 28th, 2020.

The Strange Fascinations of Noah Hypnotik by David Arnold

Writing: 3 Plot: 3.5 Characters: 4

A bizarre ride through a coming-of-age story laced with philosophical conundrums on the nature of reality and our place in the world. Noah Oakman is a high school senior equally focused on typical high school matters such as girls and where to go to college and more atypical matters such as the nature of reality and his place in the universe. He is somewhat obsessed with David Bowie and his Pathological Authenticity. Spinning on Bowie’s biography — “Strange Fascination” — Noah has his own four Strange Fascinations. These play an important role when he wakes up after a drunken party to find that the world has changed subtly: his mother has a scar she never had before; his best friend Alan is now a Marvel Comic fan, rather than a DC Comic fan; and his Shar-pei “Fluffenberger the FreakingUseless” is now a highly energetic alternate animal and thus renamed “Mark Wahlberg.”

I found the novel deeply interesting, though a little long winded. To be fair, I read an advanced copy so perhaps it has been tightened up a bit. Thought provoking and appealing characters, plenty of juicy (to me) reflective commentary on the universe, and streaks of sci-fi spread throughout. Great lessons on friendship, family, doing the right thing, honesty, forgiveness, and (my favorite) the understanding that you can love flawed things.