Questioning: A New History of Western Philosophy - by Gideon Baker (Paperback)

About the Book

Gideon Baker provides a gripping genealogy of Western philosophy as a history of questioning. From Socrates to Judith Butler, he reveals the ancient in the modern and reflects on newer questions, like: is human being uniquely defined by questioning? And does the negativity of questioning lead to nihilistic despair?

Book Synopsis

Gideon Baker provides a gripping genealogy of Western philosophy as a history of questioning. From Socrates to Judith Butler, he reveals the ancient in the modern and reflects on newer questions, like: is human being uniquely defined by questioning? And does the negativity of questioning lead to nihilistic despair? Staying faithful to his theme, Baker calls Western philosophy itself into question, asking why questioning should be seen as central to the true life. Is this not the same prejudice that led Socrates, at the beginning of Western philosophy, to ask whether the unexamined life is worth living? Far from being timeless, the questioning that lies at the heart of Western philosophy has a strange and unsettling history that concerns us all.

From the Back Cover

Weaving together studies of eighteen ancient, medieval and modern philosophers from Socrates to Judith Butler, Gideon Baker provides a gripping genealogy of Western philosophy as a history of questioning. As well as revealing the ancient in the modern, Baker reflects on newer questions in Western philosophy, including: is human being uniquely defined by questioning? And does the negativity of questioning lead to nihilistic despair? Staying faithful to his theme, Baker calls Western philosophy itself into question, asking why questioning should be seen as central to the true life. Is this not the same prejudice that led Socrates, at the beginning of Western philosophy, to ask whether the unexamined life is worth living? Far from being timeless, the questioning that lies at the heart of Western philosophy is revealed to have a strange and unsettling history that yet concerns us all. Gideon Baker is Associate Professor in the School of Government and International Relations at Griffith University.

Review Quotes

The very idea of a history of philosophy is questionable; if such a history is to be done at all, it should confront its own questionability. This is exactly what Gideon Baker has accomplished in this sharp, accessible and illuminating study, reopening key questions concerning self, politics, technology and being.

--Justin Clemens, University of Melbourne

This book is a remarkable contribution to Western philosophical thought, both in its design and presentation. Casting aside received modes of capture, it releases entirely new horizons to reinvigorate the original enterprise of philosophizing. Baker seems to know what is truly important.

--Mustapha Kamal Pasha, Aberystwyth University

About the Author

Gideon Baker is Associate Professor in the School of Government and International Relations at Griffith University. With a background in political philosophy, for many years his research has returned repeatedly to the question of nihilism, taking up the themes of political theology, messianism, the ancient Cynics and Nietzsche along the way. His most recent book is Nihilism and Philosophy: Nothingness, Truth and World (Bloomsbury, 2018).