ABSTRACT
The essays in this volume gather together Gellner's thinking on the connection between philosophy and life and they approach the topic from a number of directions: philosophy of morals, history of ideas, a discussion of individuals including R. G. Collingwood, Noam Chomsky, Piaget and Eysenck and discussions on the setting of philosophy in the general culture of England and America.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
part |65 pages
Philosophy in general
chapter |6 pages
The devil in modern philosophy
chapter |31 pages
The crisis in the humanities and the mainstream of philosophy
chapter |8 pages
Reflections on philosophy, especially in America
chapter |7 pages
On being wrong
chapter |12 pages
Is belief really necessary?
part |45 pages
On ethics
chapter |11 pages
Maxims
chapter |16 pages
Ethics and logic
chapter |10 pages
Knowing how and validity
chapter |7 pages
Morality and ‘je ne sais quoi’ concepts
part |38 pages
Some ancestors
chapter |37 pages
French eighteenth-century materialism
part |49 pages
Philosophy in particular
chapter |15 pages
Thought and time, or the reluctant relativist
chapter |6 pages
Poker player
chapter |13 pages
Ayer's epistle to the Russians 1
chapter |9 pages
Ayer on Moore and Russell
chapter |5 pages
The belief machine
part |33 pages
Psychologists and others