TBA Book Club: Plato at the Googleplex: Why Philosophy Won’t Go Away by Rebecca Goldstein

Wewill meet on Monday, March 16th, to discuss the novel, Plato at theGoogleplex: Why Philosophy Won’t Go Away, by Rebecca Goldstein. Itis 459 pages and was published in 20214. It is most likely available at yourlocal library, as Link+ says that 31 libraries have the book:  https://csul.iii.com/search?/XPlato+at+the+Googleplex%3A+Why+Philosophy+Won%27t+Go+Away&SORT=DZ/XPlato+at+the+Googleplex%3A+Why+Philosophy+Won%27t+Go+Away&SORT=DZ&extended=0&SUBKEY=Plato+at+the+Googleplex%3A+Why+Philosophy+Won%27t+Go+Away/1%2C2%2C2%2CB/frameset&FF=XPlato+at+the+Googleplex%3A+Why+Philosophy+Won%27t+Go+Away&SORT=DZ&2%2C2%2C

From Amazon:

Isphilosophy obsolete? Are the ancient questions still relevant in the age ofcosmology and neuroscience, not to mention crowd-sourcing and cable news? Theacclaimed philosopher and novelist Rebecca Newberger Goldstein provides adazzlingly original plunge into the drama of philosophy, revealing its hiddenrole in today’s debates on religion, morality, politics, andscience.  
At the origin of Western philosophy stands Plato, who got about as much wrongas one would expect from a thinker who lived 2,400 years ago. But Plato’s rolein shaping philosophy was pivotal. On her way to considering the place ofphilosophy in our ongoing intellectual life, Goldstein tells a new story of itsorigin, re-envisioning the extraordinary culture that produced the man whoproduced philosophy.
But it is primarily the fate of philosophy that concerns her. Is the disciplineno more than a way of biding our time until the scientists arrive on the scene?Have they already arrived? Does philosophy itself ever make progress? And if itdoes, why is so ancient a figure as Plato of any continuing relevance? Plato at the Googleplex is Goldstein’sstartling investigation of these conundra. She interweaves her narrative withPlato’s own choice for bringing ideas to life—the dialogue.
Imagine that Plato came to life in the twenty-first century and embarked on amulticity speaking tour. How would he handle the host of a cable news programwho denies there can be morality without religion?  How would he mediate adebate between a Freudian psychoanalyst and a tiger mom on how to raise theperfect child? How would he answer a neuroscientist who, about to scan Plato’sbrain, argues that science has definitively answered the questions of free willand moral agency? What would Plato make of Google, and of the idea thatknowledge can be crowd-sourced rather than reasoned out by experts? With a philosopher’sdepth and a novelist’s imagination and wit, Goldstein probes the deepest issuesconfronting us by allowing us to eavesdrop on Plato as he takes on the modernworld.

HappyHanukkah and Happy New Year!

Warmregards,

JudyGlick