Philosophy’s value and power are greatly diminished when it operates within a too closely confined professional space. Extreme Philosophy: Bold Ideas and a Spirit of Progress serves as an antidote to the increasing narrowness of the field. It offers readers–including students and general readers–twenty internationally acclaimed philosophers who highlight and defend odd, extreme, or ‘mad’ ideas. The resulting conjectures are often provocative and bold, but always clear and accessible.Ideas discussed in the book, include:propaganda need not be irrationalscience need not be rationalextremism need not be badtax evasion need not be immoralanarchy need not be uninvitingdemocracy need not remain as it generally ishumans might have immaterial soulshuman minds might have all-but-unlimited powersknowing might be nothing beyond being correctspace and time might not be ‘out there’ in realityvalue might be the foundational part of realityvalue might differ in an infinitely repeating realityreality is Onereality is vagueIn brief, the volume pursues adventures in philosophy. This spirit of philosophical risk-taking and openness to new, ‘large’ ideas were vital to philosophy’s ancient origins, and they may also be fertile ground today for philosophical progress.
