cross-posted from: https://sh.itjust.works/post/42740833
I remember reading a book about philosophy a few years ago, but I don't remember what it's called, despite remembering several things about it. However searching the web or asking LLMs with what I remember has proved to not find it.
Can any of you help?
What I remember
- It's ordered into chapters by topic
- It's lighthearted in tone, despite being mostly nonfiction, reminiscent of the style of What If or We Have No Idea
- They like telling stories to illustrate their points
- One topic was about identity and there was a story about two people's brains getting swapped
- There was a mention of the simulation hypothesis with aliens that put a boy inside a video game for his birthday gift because they saw he liked the game - brain in a vat
- Various time travel paradoxes and how they could be solved - diverging universes, multiple universes, closed timelike curves
- The cover was fun and bold, and it mentioned on it things that it contained inside
- One chapter was about the ethics of eating animals and there was a story about giants eating people (because people eat animals)
- There was a chapter about God
- I didn't finish it, I want to read the rest of it
Please help me find it
5 Comments
sanguinepar@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y
Do you remember the colour of the cover at all? I did an image search for fun philosophy book, and found a load of brightly coloured possiblities, but if we could narrow it down that might help us find it :-)
TheLeadenSea@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 1y
Not properly, it might have had a dark background and multiple colors, but I don't remember correctly. I do remember it listed all the topics it had inside on the cover.
sanguinepar@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 1y
Fair enough. Sounds like a tricky search - good luck though :-)
pairwise@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 1 pts · 360d
"Does Santa Exist?: A Philosophical Investigation" by Eric Kaplan.
https://archive.org/details/doessantaexistph0000kapl
The cover isn't vibrant but it has brain swaps, giants, and is the described format.
TheLeadenSea@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 360d
Thanks for sharing! I'm not sure it's the one (I don't think it has the thing about time travel), but I appreciate the suggestion.