James Franklin
CORRUPTING THE YOUTH
A history of philosophy in Australia
Philosophers deal with hard and basic questions — the meaning of life, whether the mind is more than the brain, whether people have more rights than animals. Their answers affect how they and their students conduct their lives, make legal decisions, think about politics.
Corrupting the Youth follows a large cast of Australian thinkers, from admirable geniuses to dangerous fanatics, as they struggle with fundamental questions, argue, write and plot. Aboriginal philosophy, nineteenth century idealism, John Anderson's Sydney realism, Sixties hedonism, feminist and environmental philosophy and the ethics of Peter Singer and his opponents pass in review as philosophers, judges, Communists, priests, teachers, doctors and students promote their visions of the way the world is and how life should be lived.
"James Franklin -- himself a shining example of what is fine in the Australian intellectual tradition -- has produced a splendid book. The coverage is huge, the research encyclopedic, and the footnotes are almost exhausting in their multitude ... The illustrations are often charming, all the anecdotes are there, and the lightness of touch and fluency of style are accompanied by many penetrating comments and insights. Franklin, a mathematician by profession at the University of New South Wales, is also a published philosopher, and the author of a highly regarded book on the history of probability theory. One feels he could write on any subject he liked with intelligence, sympathy and erudition. Australian philosophy should be grateful that he has turned his hand to such a monumental subject." David Oderberg, Times Literary Supplement, 11 June 2004
"Franklin's survey of Australian philosophy is more than a brilliant history of its subject: it is a sharp, scintillating work of moral recuperation, part cleaning of the Augean stables, part battle with the Hydra of relativism: a bravura performance that manages to be scholarly, entertaining, and admonitory all at once." Roger Kimball, The New Criterion, New York
Publication information
Publication date: December 1, 2003
Recommended retail price: $59.95 (inc.GST)
Hard cover, dust jacket, 240 x 155 mm, 465 pages, footnotes, bibliography, index
ISBN 1 876492 08 2
Publisher:
Macleay Press, PO Box 477, Paddington NSW 2021
Telephone 02 9360 2534 Fax 02 9331 7368
email: sales@macleaypress.com
