How we fool ourselves
The philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein said “The world is all that is the case”. He should have actually said: “The world is just a big con”. Our lying, cheating hearts make living a giant exercise in evading deception, lies and half-truths. Are reason’s headlights powerful enough to navigate this fog? We have to try and figure out this trick. American philosopher Michael Philips’s The Undercover Philosopher helps us do just that.
(This story appears in the 14 August, 2009 issue of Forbes India. To visit our Archives, click here.)