What is philosophy for?

Presentación editorial: "Why should anybody take an interest in philosophy? Is it just another detailed study like metallurgy? Or is it similar to history, literature and even religion: a study meant to do some personal good and influence our lives? Mary Midgley addresses these provocative questions in her most up-to-date statement on the various forms of our current intellectual anxieties and confusions and how we might deal with them. In doing so, she provides a robust, yet not uncritical, defence of philosophy and the life of the mind. This defence is expertly placed in the context of contemporary debates about science, religion, and philosophy. It asks whether, in light of rampant scientific and technological developments, we still need philosophy to help us think about the big questions of meaning, knowledge, and value."

Part one. The search for signposts. 1. Directions ; 2. Do ideas get out of date? ; 3. What is research? ; 4. Clashes of method ; 5. Signposting problems ; 6. What is matter? ; 7. Quantum queries ; 8. What is progress? ; 9. Perspectives and paradoxes: Rousseau and his intellectual explosives ; 10. Mill and the different kinds of freedom ; 11. Making sense of toleration -- Part two. Tempting visions of science. 12. The force of world-pictures ; 13. The past does not die ; 14. Scientism: The new sedative -- Part three. Mindlessness and machine-worship. 15. The power-struggle ; 16. Missing persons ; 17. Oracles -- Part Four. Singularities and the cosmos. 18. What kind of singularity? ; 19. Can intelligence be measured? ; 20. What is materialism? ; 21. The cult of impersonality ; 22. Matter and reality ; 23. The mystique of scientism ; 24. The strange world-picture.