Julian Baggini (; born 1968) is a philosopher, journalist and the author of over 20 books about philosophy written for a general audience. He is co-founder of ''
The Philosophers' Magazine'' and has written for numerous international newspapers and magazines. In addition to writing on the subject of philosophy he has also written books on atheism, secularism and the nature of national identity. He is a patron of
Humanists UK
Humanists UK, known from 1967 until May 2017 as the British Humanist Association (BHA), is a charitable organisation which promotes secular humanism and aims to represent "people who seek to live good lives without religious or superstitious b ...
.
Education
Baggini was born in 1968 in
Folkestone
Folkestone ( ) is a port town on the English Channel, in Kent, south-east England. The town lies on the southern edge of the North Downs at a valley between two cliffs. It was an important harbour and shipping port for most of the 19th and 20t ...
, the child of an Italian immigrant father and English mother.
He grew up in Kent and was educated at the
Harvey Grammar School
The Harvey Grammar School is located in Folkestone, Kent, England. It is a grammar school with academy status founded by the family of William Harvey in 1674.
Admissions
A selective school for boys only, the school has around 900 on its ro ...
, Folkestone, from 1980 until 1987.
He later attended
Reading University
The University of Reading is a public university in Reading, Berkshire, England. It was founded in 1892 as University College, Reading, a University of Oxford extension college. The institution received the power to grant its own degrees in 192 ...
and gained a bachelor's degree in philosophy in 1990.
In 1996 he was awarded a PhD from
University College London
, mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £143 million (2020)
, budget = Â ...
for a thesis on the philosophy of
personal identity
Personal identity is the unique numerical identity of a person over time. Discussions regarding personal identity typically aim to determine the necessary and sufficient conditions under which a person at one time and a person at another time ca ...
.
Baggini is an honorary graduate and honorary research fellow of the
University of Kent
, motto_lang =
, mottoeng = Literal translation: 'Whom to serve is to reign'(Book of Common Prayer translation: 'whose service is perfect freedom')Graham Martin, ''From Vision to Reality: the Making of the University of Kent at Canterbury'' ...
's department of philosophy.
Career
In 1997 Baggini co-founded ''The Philosophers' Magazine'' with
Jeremy Stangroom.
In 1999 he was a founder of the Humanist Philosophers' Group, then part of the British Humanists Association. He is also a patron of
Humanists UK
Humanists UK, known from 1967 until May 2017 as the British Humanist Association (BHA), is a charitable organisation which promotes secular humanism and aims to represent "people who seek to live good lives without religious or superstitious b ...
.
In 2009 Baggini was philosopher-in-residence at
Wellington College, a
public school in Berkshire. In 2012 he was also commissioned by the
National Trust
The National Trust, formally the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, is a charity and membership organisation for heritage conservation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. In Scotland, there is a separate and ...
to be the philosopher-in-residence for the
White Cliffs of Dover
The White Cliffs of Dover is the region of English coastline facing the Strait of Dover and France. The cliff face, which reaches a height of , owes its striking appearance to its composition of chalk accented by streaks of black flint, deposi ...
where he was required to reflect on the chalk cliffs and their significance to the national identity.
Baggini is a regular columnist for ''
The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper
A newspaper is a periodical publication containing written information about current events and is often typed in black ink with a white or gray background.
Newspapers can cover a wide ...
'' newspaper, ''
Prospect
Prospect may refer to:
General
* Prospect (marketing), a marketing term describing a potential customer
* Prospect (sports), any player whose rights are owned by a professional team, but who has yet to play a game for the team
* Prospect (mining ...
'' magazine, ''Financial Times'' and a columnist and book reviewer for ''The Wall Street Journal''.
He has also written for ''
New Humanist
''New Humanist'' is a quarterly magazine, published by the Rationalist Association in the UK, that focuses on culture, news, philosophy, and science from a sceptical perspective.
History
The ''New Humanist'' has been in print for more than ...
'' magazine, ''
The Week
''The Week'' is a weekly news magazine with editions in the United Kingdom and United States. The British publication was founded in 1995 and the American edition in 2001. An Australian edition was published from 2008 to 2012. A children's edi ...
'', ''
New Statesman
The ''New Statesman'' is a British political and cultural magazine published in London. Founded as a weekly review of politics and literature on 12 April 1913, it was at first connected with Sidney and Beatrice Webb and other leading members o ...
'', ''
New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' and ''
Literary Review
''Literary Review'' is a British literary magazine founded in 1979 by Anne Smith, then head of the Department of English at the University of Edinburgh. Its offices are on Lexington Street in Soho. The magazine was edited for fourteen years by v ...
''.
In addition to writing many books about the history and common themes of philosophy, he has also written more generally about the philosophy of food
and the nature of 'Englishness'.
He speaks regularly at conferences and schools and has frequently spoken out about living without religion, against the teaching in schools of
creationism
Creationism is the religious belief that nature, and aspects such as the universe, Earth, life, and humans, originated with supernatural acts of divine creation. Gunn 2004, p. 9, "The ''Concise Oxford Dictionary'' says that creationism ...
, a loss of reason, which he asserts is "an enemy of mystery and ambiguity,"
and the benefits of
secular education
Secular education is a system of public education in countries with a secular government or separation between religion and state.
An example of a secular educational system would be the French public educational system, where conspicuous relig ...
.
His 2018 book, ''How The World Thinks: A Global History Of Philosophy'' received a warm critical reception, with ''The Scotsman'' describing it as "ingenious and open-hearted" and the ''
Financial Times
The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nikke ...
'' a "bold, fascinating book".
In 2019 Baggini was named academic director of the
Royal Institute of Philosophy.
He is a member of the British trade union the
Society of Authors
The Society of Authors (SoA) is a United Kingdom trade union for professional writers, illustrators and literary translators, founded in 1884 to protect the rights and further the interests of authors. , it represents over 12,000 members and as ...
and also appears in two novels by
Alexander McCall Smith
Alexander "Sandy" McCall Smith, Order of the British Empire, CBE, Royal Society of Edinburgh, FRSE (born 24 August 1948), is a British writer. He was raised in Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and formerly Professor of Medical Law at the Univers ...
in ''
The Sunday Philosophy Club Series''.
Works
*''How The World Thinks: A Global History Of Philosophy'' - Granta, 2018
*''A Short History of Truth'' -
Quercus
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ' ...
, 2017
*''The Edge of Reason: A Rational Skeptic in an Irrational World'' -
Yale University Press
Yale University Press is the university press of Yale University. It was founded in 1908 by George Parmly Day, and became an official department of Yale University in 1961, but it remains financially and operationally autonomous.
, Yale Univer ...
, 2016
*''Freedom Regained: The Possibility of Free Will'' -
Granta Books
''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and ma ...
, 2015
*''Without God, is Everything Permitted? The 20 Big Questions in Ethics'' -
Quercus
An oak is a tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' (; Latin "oak tree") of the beech family, Fagaceae. There are approximately 500 extant species of oaks. The common name "oak" also appears in the names of species in related genera, notably ' ...
,2014
*''The Ego Trick: What Does It Mean To Be You?'' -
Granta Books
''Granta'' is a literary magazine and publisher in the United Kingdom whose mission centres on its "belief in the power and urgency of the story, both in fiction and non-fiction, and the story’s supreme ability to describe, illuminate and ma ...
, 2011
*''Really Really Big Questions about Faith'' -
Kingfisher
Kingfishers are a family, the Alcedinidae, of small to medium-sized, brightly colored birds in the order Coraciiformes. They have a cosmopolitan distribution, with most species found in the tropical regions of Africa, Asia, and Oceania ...
(children's book), 2011
*''Should You Judge This Book by Its Cover?'' - Granta, 2009
*''The Duck That Won the Lottery: And 99 Other Bad Arguments'' (published in paperback in UK as ''Do They Think You're Stupid?'') - Granta, 2008
*''Complaint: From Minor Moans to Principled Protests'' -
Profile Books
Profile Books is a British independent book publishing firm founded in 1996. It publishes non-fiction subjects including history, biography, memoir, politics, current affairs, travel and popular science.
Profile Books is distributed in the UK by ...
, 2008.
*''Welcome to Everytown: a journey into the English mind'' - Granta, 2007.
*''The Ethics Toolkit: A Compendium of Ethical Concepts and Methods'', Blackwell, 2007 (co-written with
Peter S. Fosl
Peter Stanley Fosl (born Peter Stanley Wasel on March 15, 1963) is Professor of Philosophy at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, and the winner of a 2006 Acorn Award for outstanding professor in Kentucky.
Education and professional ...
)
*''Do You Think What You Think You Think?'' - Granta, 2006 (co-written with
Stangroom, J.)
*''The Pig that Wants to be Eaten and 99 other thought experiments'' - Granta, 2005.
*''What’s It All about? Philosophy and the meaning of life'' - Granta, 2004.
*''Making Sense: Philosophy Behind the Headlines'' - Oxford University Press, 2002.
*''Atheism: A Very Short Introduction'' - Oxford University Press, 2003.
*''Philosophy: Key Themes'' - Palgrave Macmillan, 2002.
*''The Philosopher's Toolkit: A Compendium of Philosophical Concepts and Methods'' - Blackwell, 2002 (co-written with
Peter S. Fosl
Peter Stanley Fosl (born Peter Stanley Wasel on March 15, 1963) is Professor of Philosophy at Transylvania University in Lexington, Kentucky, and the winner of a 2006 Acorn Award for outstanding professor in Kentucky.
Education and professional ...
)
*''Great Thinkers A-Z'' - Continuum, 2004 (co-written with Stangroom, J. (eds.))
*''What Philosophers Think'' - Continuum, 2003 (co-written with Stangroom, J. (eds.))
*''New British Philosophy: The interviews'' - Routledge, 2002 (co-written with L.Alpeart (eds.)).
References
External links
*
Baggini on the BBC History Extra podcast*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Baggini, Julian
1968 births
Living people
Atheist philosophers
English atheists
British republicans
21st-century English philosophers
Alumni of University College London
English social commentators
British humanists
British secularists
Alumni of the University of Reading
Critics of creationism