Arguing for a Better World
‘Brings cooling clarity to the heat of today’s culture wars’ Priyamvada Gopal, author of Insurgent Empire
‘Allows us to not only interrogate our own views, but to persuade others using reason and optimism. A must read’ Aaron Bastani, author of Fully Automated Luxury Communism
Can white people be victims of racism?
Is it sexist to say ‘men are trash’?
Should we worry about ‘cancel culture’?
Tired of having the same old arguments? Kicking yourself for not being able to justify your views? Wondering whether individuals can bring about meaningful change?
Now imagine that instead of losing another hour of your life in a social media spat or knowing that the only way to make it through lunch was by biting your tongue, you could find a way to talk about injustice – and, just possibly, change someone’s mind.
Many of us know what we think about inequality, but flounder when asked for our reasoning, leading to a conversational stalemate – especially when faced with a political, generational, or cultural divide. But living in echo chambers blunts our thinking, and if we can’t persuade others, we have little hope of collectively bringing about change.
In Arguing for a Better World, philosopher Arianne Shahvisi draws on examples from everyday life to show us how to work through a set of thorny moral questions, equipping us to not only identify our positions but to carefully defend them.
‘Logical, readable, authoritative . . . An everyday manual on how oppression came about, how it works, why it persists, and how to defeat it’ Danny Dorling, author of Injustice: Why Social Inequality Still Persists and A Better Politics
‘Allows us to not only interrogate our own views, but to persuade others using reason and optimism. A must read’ Aaron Bastani, author of Fully Automated Luxury Communism
Can white people be victims of racism?
Is it sexist to say ‘men are trash’?
Should we worry about ‘cancel culture’?
Tired of having the same old arguments? Kicking yourself for not being able to justify your views? Wondering whether individuals can bring about meaningful change?
Now imagine that instead of losing another hour of your life in a social media spat or knowing that the only way to make it through lunch was by biting your tongue, you could find a way to talk about injustice – and, just possibly, change someone’s mind.
Many of us know what we think about inequality, but flounder when asked for our reasoning, leading to a conversational stalemate – especially when faced with a political, generational, or cultural divide. But living in echo chambers blunts our thinking, and if we can’t persuade others, we have little hope of collectively bringing about change.
In Arguing for a Better World, philosopher Arianne Shahvisi draws on examples from everyday life to show us how to work through a set of thorny moral questions, equipping us to not only identify our positions but to carefully defend them.
‘Logical, readable, authoritative . . . An everyday manual on how oppression came about, how it works, why it persists, and how to defeat it’ Danny Dorling, author of Injustice: Why Social Inequality Still Persists and A Better Politics
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Reviews
Often entertaining and funny; always concise, exacting, logical, readable, authoritative and un-put-downable. An everyday manual on how oppression came about, how it works, why it persists, and how to defeat it
We live in an age of information overload, and unfortunately, 'information' is often misinformation. We often don't know how to think about social problems, let alone what to think. Arianne Shahvisi's book cuts through the noise with an eminently sensible discussion of key contemporary 'culture war' issues. It shows us how philosophy, far from being irrelevant, is essential for navigating today's world of client journalism-manufactured, social media-manipulated outrage. It also provides much-needed reassurance that in the struggle to create a better world, being able to 'show our workings' is much more important than always being right
This brilliant and very enjoyable book brings cooling clarity and patient empathy to the noise and heat of today's so-called 'Culture Wars'. This is insightful explication at its best, essential reading for anyone engaged with many of today's most pressing public arguments
Gives progressives everything they need to defend their views in an increasingly polarized public sphere . . . Arguing for a Better World belongs on nightstands and in book clubs everywhere
Allows us to not only interrogate our own views, but to persuade others using reason and optimism. A must read
Shahvisi is a bold and necessary new literary voice whose work has the power to transform our world for the better
Refreshing . . . Arguing for a Better World challenges us to go beyond popular or popularising opinions and instead to learn to argue and defend well-reasoned positions