Böcker av Damon Young

There is an old Buddhist adage: the teachings are like a finger pointing to the moon. To achieve enlightenment, you are not supposed to look at the finger. You are supposed to look to the celestial light. I am asking you to look at the finger. The finger is also the moon. A tilted head. A finger to the lips. A wave that could mean emphasis or dismissal. A raised palm of piety and fellowship. Our gestures do not simply point to our thoughts, they are our thoughts made flesh. They can be instinctive, intuitive, or calculated - or all three. They exist in the briefest moment and through history, in a gently turned wrist and across whole nations. Our gestures drag stories with them, whether they mean to or not. They are invitations to think about how our worlds are larger than they seem - how we are much larger than we seem. Join award-winning philosopher Damon Young - author of The Art of Reading and Philosophy in the Garden - as he sheds light on thirteen curious gestures. Drawing equally from classical poetry and science fiction, heavy metal and ballet, Young illuminates our varied humanity from prehistory to today.

From the much-adored author of The Art of Reading and Philosophy in the Garden comes another philosophical foray, this time into human sexuality.Like Sartre or Seneca, this book is short, smart and very, very sexy.

Why did Marcel Proust have bonsai beside his bed? What was Jane Austen doing, coveting an apricot? How was Friedrich Nietzsche inspired by his 'thought tree'?In Philosophy in the Garden, Damon Young explores one of literature's most intimate relationships: authors and their gardens. For some, the garden provided a retreat from workaday labour; for others, solitude's quiet counsel. For all, it played a philosophical role: giving their ideas a new life. Philosophy in the Garden reveals the profound thoughts discovered in parks, backyards, and pot-plants. It does not provide tips for mowing overgrown couch grass, or mulching a dry Japanese maple. It is a philosophical companion to the garden's labours and joys.

"This warm and witty book does something wonderful: it brings the great ideas of philosophy into our lives. Young is a bright new voice."John Armstrong, author of Love, Life, Goethe: How to be Happy in an Imperfect World