The Science Factory
London Book Fair 2020
RECENTLY PUBLISHED
STOP BEING REASONABLE True Stories about How We Change Our Minds When It Matters Most ELEANOR GORDON-SMITH I knew how piercingly smart Eleanor Gordon-Smith is, and what a curious and resolute interviewer. But I was unprepared for how entertainingly she writes! I read this with pleasure – Ira Glass Relevant and accessible… a witty book – GUARDIAN
What if you aren’t who you think you are? What if you don’t really know the people closest to you? And what if your most deeply held beliefs turn out to be… wrong? In STOP BEING REASONABLE, the philosopher and journalist Eleanor Gordon-Smith tells six lucid, gripping stories that show the limits of human reason. From the woman who realized her husband harboured a terrible secret, to the man who left the cult he had been raised in since birth, and the British reality TV contestant who, having impersonated someone else for a month, discovered he could no longer return to his former identity, all of the people interviewed radically altered their beliefs about the things that matter most. What made them change course? How should their reversals affect how we think about our own beliefs? And in an increasingly divided world, what do they teach us about how we might change the minds of others? Inspiring, perceptive and often moving, STOP BEING REASONABLE explores the place where philosophy and real life meet. Ultimately, it argues that when it comes to finding out what’s true or convincing others about what we know, being rational might involve our hearts as well as our minds. ELEANOR GORDON-SMITH is a writer and radio broadcaster working at the intersection of academic ethics and the chaos of human life. Currently at Princeton University, she has produced ‘The Philosopher’s Zone’ on Australia’s Radio National, appeared as the ‘Clinical Ethicist’ on 702 Sydney radio and lectured on ethics, from political contract theory to the philosophy of sex, at the University of Sydney. Her work has appeared on National Public Radio’s ‘This American Life’ and in the Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian and Meanjin. She came to fame through her ‘This American Life’ piece on responding to cat-callers: https://www.thisamericanlife.org/603/once-morewith-feeling. Agent: Jeff Shreve Publisher: NewSouth Publishing/UNSW Press (Australia & New Zealand)/Scribe (UK)/Public Affairs (US) Publication: 1 May 2019 (Australia & New Zealand)/11 July 2019 (UK)/22 October 2019 (US) Length: 240 pages All rights available excluding UK & Commonwealth (Scribe), US & Canada (PublicAffairs), Australia & New Zealand (NewSouth Publishing/UNSW Press), China (Beijing Xinchang Cultural Media), Netherlands (Ten Have)
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