The Big Questions: Tackling the Problems of Philosophy with Ideas from Mathematics, Economics and Physics

By Steven E. Landsburg

What's wrong with stealing?

What's the best way to blood test a pot-bellied pig?

Should we tolerate intolerance?

In the wake of his enormously popular books, The Armchair Economistand More Sex is Safer Sex, Steven Landsburg uses concepts from maths, economics and physics to address the big questions in philosophy: Where does knowledge come from? What's the difference between right and wrong? Do our beliefs matter? Is it possible to know everything?

Provocative, utterly entertaining and always surprising, The Big Questions challenges readers to re-evaluate their most fundamental beliefs and reveals the relationship between the loftiest philosophical quests and our everyday lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK
• Release date: Sep 2, 2010
• ISBN: 9781847399298

Steven E. Landsburg

Steven E. Landsburg is a professor of economics at the University of Rochester. He is the author of More Sex Is Safer Sex and The Big Questions. He has written for Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and Slate. He lives in Rochester, New York.

Reviews for The Big Questions

[hayduke_1 · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

I found the title of this book to be a little misleading. This is more of a libertarian rant by economist Landsburg -- complete with the moral reasoning why restaurants should not be forced by the government to serve all clientele regardless of race -- than it is a philosophy book. I guess it could be considered to be Landsburg's personal philosophy. By the end of his polemic, Landsburg is even disdaining the reading of books, calling it a hobby like tennis. I guess the next time I choose to read a book by an economist I'll pull a book off the shelf by Paul Krugman.

[profmk · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Well written. Addresses old questions in a fresh manner. Loved his approach to how we make decisions and that we tend to be dishonest in our opinions.

[occamshammer · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Totally useless book. I don't mind not understanding complex math, but Landsburg does not even try to educate the reader on how he comes up with his solutions. The chapter with Hercules and the Hydra was the last straw for me. He does a good job explaining Hercules' problem with cutting off the multiplying heads of the Hydra. He tells the reader that there are two methods that Hercules can prevail. Then he states that the solution involves a number so huge that it is 144 times times the odds of a mouse surviving on the surface of the sun for a week (which happens to be 1 in 10 to the 137th power, but don't hold your breath waiting to find out how that number is determined). After all that he moves on to the next chapter without bothering to give the reader the benefit of an answer.