Papers by Anthony Grayling
50 Voices of Disbelief
Book synopsis: 50 Voices of Disbelief: Why We Are Atheists presents a collection of original essa... more Book synopsis: 50 Voices of Disbelief: Why We Are Atheists presents a collection of original essays drawn from an international group of prominent voices in the fields of academia, science, literature, media and politics who offer carefully considered statements of why they are atheists.
New Scientist, 2009
The internet is a great learning tool, but we need ways of helping students filter the useful inf... more The internet is a great learning tool, but we need ways of helping students filter the useful information from the dross, says A. C. Grayling
Index on Censorship, 2008
Book synopsis: Following Conversations on Religion (Continuum 2008), here is a fascinating line u... more Book synopsis: Following Conversations on Religion (Continuum 2008), here is a fascinating line up of original interviews tackling one of today's most vexing issues - that of truth. These discussions explore the question of what truth is, and what role it has in private, public, political and scientific discourses. Some thinkers, see truth as something concrete and immutable, others believe that it is an essentially meaningless concept. And for many contributors it is the practical application of truth which engages them. Each fascinating chapter explores the subject from a new angle, including Nick Davies and Peter Wilby's view on truth in the media, Prof. Martin Kusch's reflections in relation to science and Mary Warnock's consideration of truth in the context of ethics and art. Other contributors include Mary Midgely, Noam Chomsky and A. C. Grayling. This is a book of quite exceptional interest and importance.
Araucaria, 2020
The EU's values of transnational peace, cooperation, secularism, rationality, and protection ... more The EU's values of transnational peace, cooperation, secularism, rationality, and protection of civil liberties and human rights are amongst the most valuable legacies of the Enlightenment. The European project has weathered several crises in the first third of the 21st century, including a change of political direction in the United Kingdom. Brexit is viewed as a consequence of the UK's flawed electoral system, exposed as susceptible to hijacking by militant and disruptive minorities. The future of European values must be protected from politically unreliable systems such as the UK's FPTP.
One thing we all agree is that meanings do not just fall out of the sky; they were and are at lea... more One thing we all agree is that meanings do not just fall out of the sky; they were and are at least in important part generated by what users of signs do with them. This suggests that the semantics of natural language is the product of the history of its pragmatics. It does not automatically follow, of course, that therefore the right way to go about giving a theory of meaning is in some sense to do it from the pragmatic end: but in the larger project I wish to suggest a reason for doing so, and I suggest that what increases the plausibility of this thought is evidence that certain problem cases in our understanding of language are amenable to an approach in which pragmatic considerations are given full emphasis. I do this in this paper by giving a brief sketch of part of a theory I call Perfect Speaker Theory (PST), which, despite its grand name, is a modest attempt to provide a methodological perspective from which to comment on some familiar debates in the philosophy of language and mind. For present purposes, it is the simple and natural way that PST deals with certain well-worn problems in these debates that prompts the suggestion that pragmatic considerations should be treated as irreducibly central to meaning. At this juncture I should state that by 'pragmatics' I mean what, over and above what is standardly assigned to theories of structure, reference, sense and satisfaction conditions, relates to the use of expressions of the language on given occasions, where what the speaker intends to convey, and the means the speaker employs in conveying it on the occasion, are especially in focus. I want to say that among pragmatic considerations questions of force and point (for my purposes especially point) are central. These facets of linguistic behaviour include, essentially, considerations about interaction between speakers and their audiences. CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk
New Scientist, 2008
MY FAMILY has developed a board game with spaces numbered 0 to 99. A player starts with his count... more MY FAMILY has developed a board game with spaces numbered 0 to 99. A player starts with his counter at 0, throws a die and moves forward the number of spaces shown. If he lands on a space labelled with a square number he jumps forward to the next higher square (for example, if he lands on 49 he jumps to 64). If he lands on a prime number he moves back to the preceding prime (for example, from 19 he returns to 17), except that from 2 he returns to 0.
Nature, 2011
T wo long-standing observations about human cognitive behaviour provide Michael Shermer with the ... more T wo long-standing observations about human cognitive behaviour provide Michael Shermer with the fundamentals of his account of how people form beliefs. One is the brain's readiness to perceive patterns even in random phenomena. The other is its readiness to nominate agency-intentional action-as the cause of natural events. Both explain belief-formation in general,
Knowledge, Language and Logic: Questions for Quine
Duty or Pleasure? This was the legendary choice which faced Hercules and which pre-eminent philos... more Duty or Pleasure? This was the legendary choice which faced Hercules and which pre-eminent philosopher AC Grayling uses as the starting point of this masterful book. He shows us how much more people can understand about themselves and their world by reflecting on today's moral challenges. Above all, he explores the idea that certain demands and certain pleasures are necessary, not just because of their intrinsic merits but because of what they do for each other. The Good Life or the good life? With exceptional clarity and unrivalled prose, Grayling addresses the everyday ethical choices which confront us all.
New Scientist, 2008
We'll never eradicate inconsistent views but we should at least acknowledge them, says A. C. ... more We'll never eradicate inconsistent views but we should at least acknowledge them, says A. C. Grayling
New Scientist
Skyrmion is a topologically stable spin texture and expected to be applied to the future computer... more Skyrmion is a topologically stable spin texture and expected to be applied to the future computer memory. On the semiconductors such as FeGe and MnSi, the skyrmion configuration is stable in the sense that it is not strongly affected by a small variation of external stimuli such as temperature, magnetic field etc. In recent experiments, it was reported that the skymion shape is deformed from isotropic (or circular shape) to anisotropic (or elliptic shape) by an external mechanical stress. This shape deformation is caused by the so-called "straininduced anisotropy (SIA)" of Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI). In this presentation, we study the reason why this SIA appears in the DMI coefficient on the basis of Finsler geometry modeling technique by introducing a microscopic strain field τ , which is caused by or interacts with the applied external mechanical force.
In discussions and meetings the aim of everyone is to persuade. Yet we know that really the best ... more In discussions and meetings the aim of everyone is to persuade. Yet we know that really the best result is obtained by the person who is most skilled in holding his position. "The Art of Always Being Right" catalogues the 38 subtle tricks businessmen, negotiators, politicians, ...
This book serves as an excellent guide to Grayling's main philosophical concerns and shows t... more This book serves as an excellent guide to Grayling's main philosophical concerns and shows the intellectual underpinning of much of his more popular work. This volume of selected essays includes his work in the philosophy of language and philosophical logic, with particular ...
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Papers by Anthony Grayling