Unreal

This book takes a critical but easy to read look at key subjects in the humanities, including our human limitations and the weaknesses in philosophy itself. It examines major areas such as religion, where thinkers go beyond science in an attempt to find the ultimate realities; it turns a sceptical eye on moral codes of social behaviour, artistic beliefs and values, and radically appraises just what we can come to know about our history. A final chapter probes behind the often fond and fanciful notions of that which we find meaningful in culture and our lives more generally. In short, an engaging, disturbing and thought-provoking modern world view is on offer here along the paths for tracking truth. A common theme that links the wide-ranging subjects in the book is to question the coherence of their character, in some cases their worth and desirability, and even their own reality. It poses a radical challenge to conventional ways of looking at matters across the humanities by combining the text with insights from contemporary continental thinkers. In Unreal there is largely a 'chopping down', yet the intention is not to be negative for the sake of it, but to ensure that people are not duped by the manifold cases of intellectual charlatanism in the wider world. That some of this erroneous thinking is extensive enough to encompass whole subjects is perhaps no surprise... yet it is both a scandalous and dangerous reflection on human thought.