Monday, December 19, 2016

Peter Godfrey-Smith

Peter Godfrey-Smith is currently Distinguished Professor of Philosophy at the Graduate Center, CUNY (City University of New York), and Professor of History and Philosophy of Science (half-time) at the University of Sydney.

His books include Theory and Reality, Philosophy of Biology, and the newly released Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness.

Recently I asked the author about what he was reading. Godfrey-Smith's reply:
Around the election I read political books – Vance's Hillbilly Elegy just before it, and Worth’s A Rage for Order just after. Worth's is a tremendously sad and very important book.

I am now finishing Mark Lilla’s The Shipwrecked Mind and also John Kaag’s American Philosophy: A Love Story.

After those, I will dive into The Encounter: Amazon Beaming. This is Petru Popescu’s write-up of the experiences of Loren McIntyre, an American photographer who spent time with the Mayoruna people in the Amazon, in 1969. I was led to the Amazon by Simon McBurney’s stunning one-man sonic adventure, The Encounter, a theatre piece based on Popescu’s book.
Visit Peter Godfrey-Smith's website.

The Page 99 Test: Philosophy of Biology.

--Marshal Zeringue