Christopher Norris is Distinguished Research Professor in Philosophy at the University of Cardiff, Wales. He is the author of many widely-acclaimed books on various aspects of philosophy and critical theory, among them (most recently) Quantum Theory and the Flight from Realism and Minding the Gap: Epistemology and Philosophy of Science in the Two Traditions.

These engaging essays discuss topics ranging from anti-realism to the extended mind hypothesis and the ontology of political song. They use analytic as well as continental philosophers to provide a compelling demonstration, performative as well as logical, that the boundaries of academic specialization are an obstacle to creative philosophical thought.

• Introduction; 1. How Not to Defeat Scepticism: why anti-realism won’t do the trick; 2. Great Philosophy: discovery, invention and the uses of error; 3. Under Which King, Bezonian? experimental philosophy versus thought-experiment; 4. Outside the Box: on the 'xtended-mind' hypothesis; 5. Inaesthetics and Transitory Ontology: the case of political song; 6. Speculative Realism: an interim report; 7. Provoking Philosophy: Shakespeare, Johnson, Wittgenstein, Derrida; Index.