In this new collection A.C. Grayling adds to the variety of discussion and insight in his previous three essay collections. He returns to questions of personal ethics and the problems of the contemporary world, but also looks at the lives and ideas of great thinkers, the role of the arts in civilisation, and the need for reason everywhere. Anthony Grayling illustrates in his celebrated accessible prose what each area offers to thought. In a wide-ranging array of illuminating topics, THE HEART OF THINGS shows how far-reaching Grayling's masterly, and timely, commentary on the humanities is to general readers.

About the Author

Anthony Grayling teaches philosophy at Birkbeck College, London and is a Fellow of St Anne's, Oxford. He reviews frequently in the Financial Times and has a regular column in Prospect.

Prizes

AC GRAYLING has terrific track record in Phoenix and all of his books backlist extremely well. The Meaning of Things has sold over 60,000 and continues to sell around 800 copies a month three years after publication 'An elegance of style, a sense of humour, and the ability to juxtapose serious musings with wise and wacky facts... and you have an easily digestible form of philosophy' TLS 'He is a philosopher engaged in what he rightly praises, adding value to life... Here is a book worth talking to' Guardian 'There ought to be more general philosophy books like this. Short chapters that openly ponder questions without intending to resolve them. AC Grayling has perfected the art of a philosophical vignette' Herald

Reviews

"provocative... a stimulating handbook to the contemporary uses of philosophy" DAILY TELEGRAPH