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Letters from Exile

Observations on a Culture in Decline

Mediocracy is a new book

 

which takes a satirical look at modern culture – by Fabian

                new book by Dr. Celia Green

 

 

 

Wikipedia, the online encyclopaedia, describes Celia Green as ‘a British intellectual and author, notable for her advocacy of comprehensive philosophical skepticism, her critique of 20th-century thought, and her psychological theories.’ All of these attributes are well in evidence in her latest book, which contains trenchant analyses of education, collectivised medicine, and modern ethics. The latter section introduces a provocative and original distinction between tribal and territorial morality.

 

 ‘It is actually a principle of modern paternalism that if you want something you should be stopped from having it … Most foods are harmful to some people if taken in excess, and I expect the only reason that carrots are still available without a prescription is that no one has got very excited about them, or claimed that they might cure cancer.’

 

‘It is easier to make people appear equally stupid than to make them equally clever, so teaching methods are adopted which make it practically impossible for anyone to learn anything.’

 

‘I spent a couple of years between eleven and thirteen analysing the social evaluations that were taken for granted, also acquiring a thorough scepticism about processes regarded as causal, and the consistency of the physical world, as well as the reliability of my own mental processes.  By the time I was thirteen I was running out of things to think about, so starting on a run of exam-taking seemed all the more appropriate, as I was finding it difficult to make use of spare time.’

 

‘It is when the commercial factor enters into the situation that the possibility of genuine individual liberty arises.’

 

Celia Green has been at various times Senior Open Scholar at Somerville College, Oxford, holder of a Perrott Warrick Studentship from Trinity College, Cambridge, and Honorary Research Fellow at the Department of Philosophy, Liverpool University.  She was awarded her doctorate by Oxford University for work on causation and the mind-body problem. She is the author of eight other books, among them The Human Evasion, The Decline and Fall of Science, and Advice to Clever Children.

 

www.celiagreen.com

 

 

 

Some comments on the book:

'Packed with ideas, and completely original.' - Dr Charles McCreery

'Celia Green dazzles with her usual lucidity on an enormous range of topics.  A trenchant, amusing and thought-provoking collection.' - Dr Fabian Tassano, author of Mediocracy

 

 

 

UK £12.95

Published by Oxford Forum       

ISBN 978 09536772 38

 

Letters from Exile is available from Blackwells Bookshop, Oxford (tel. 01865 792792) and Amazon UK.

 

It can also be ordered direct from the distributors by sending a cheque for £12.95 plus £3 p&p to:

Book Systems Plus · BSP House · Station Road · Linton · CB1 6NW · UK

Telephone: +44 (0)1223 894870 · Fax:+44 (0)1223 894871

Email: bsp2b@aol.com

 

 

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