About this Event
Join Dr Arianne Shahvisi, Senior Lecturer in Ethics at Brighton and Sussex Medical School (BSMS), for the launch of her new book, Arguing for a Better World. Arianne will be joined in conversation by Professor Bobbie Farsides, Professor of Clinical and Biomedical Ethics at BSMS, for readings from the book and a discussion on some of the topics.
About the book
Is it sexist to say that “men are trash”? Can white people be victims of racism? Do we bear any individual responsibility for climate change?
We’ve all wrestled with questions like these, whether we’re shouting at a relative across the dinner table, quarreling with old classmates on social media, or chatting late into the night with friends. Many people give kneejerk answers that roughly align with their broader belief system, but flounder when asked for their reasoning, leading to a conversational stalemate—especially when faced with a political, generational, or cultural divide.
The truth is that our answers to these questions almost always rely on unexamined assumptions. In Arguing for a Better World, philosopher Arianne Shahvisi shows us how to work through thorny moral questions by examining their parts in broad daylight, equipping us to not only identify our own positions but to defend them as well. This book demonstrates the relevance of philosophy to our everyday lives, and offers some clear-eyed tools to those who want to learn how to better fight for justice and liberation for all.
Advance praise:
Often entertaining and funny; always concise, exacting, logical, readable, authoritative and un-put-downable. An everyday manual on how oppression came about, how it works, why it persists, and how to defeat it -- Danny Dorling, author of Injustice: Why Social Inequality Still Persists and A Better Politics
Arianne Shahvisi's book cuts through the noise with an eminently sensible discussion of key contemporary 'culture war' issues. -- ALISON PHIPPS, author of Me, Not You: The Trouble with Mainstream Feminism
This brilliant and very enjoyable book brings cooling clarity and patient empathy to the noise and heat of today's so-called 'Culture Wars'. This is insightful explication at its best, essential reading for anyone engaged with many of today's most pressing public arguments -- Priyamvada Gopal, Author of INSURGENT EMPIRE
Gives progressives everything they need to defend their views in an increasingly polarized public sphere . . . Arguing for a Better World belongs on nightstands and in book clubs everywhere -- Carol Hay, author of Think Like a Feminist: The Philosophy Behind the Revolution
Allows us to not only interrogate our own views, but to persuade others using reason and optimism. A must read -- Aaron Bastani, author of Fully Automated Luxury Communism: A Manifesto
Shahvisi is a bold and necessary new literary voice whose work has the power to transform our world for the better -- Chanda Prescod-Weinstein, author The Disordered Cosmos: A Journey into Dark Matter, Spacetime, and Dreams Deferred
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