How the World Thinks

All cultures are different, and have different ways of thinking. In order to write his book How the World Thinks, popular philosopher Julian Baggini travelled the globe to provide a hugely wide-ranging map of human thought. In this illuminating lecture, Baggini asks questions such as: why is the West more individualistic than the East? What makes secularism a less powerful force in the Islamic world than in Europe? And how has China resisted pressures for greater political freedom? Offering deep insights into how different regions operate, and paying as much attention to commonalities as to differences, Baggini shows that by gaining greater knowledge of how others think we take the first step to a greater understanding of ourselves. In an increasingly globalised world, such global understanding is increasingly important.

Julian Baggini is philosopher and author, co-author or editor of over 20 books including How The World Thinks, The Virtues of the Table, The Ego Trick, Freedom Regained and The Edge of Reason. He was the founding editor of The Philosophers’ Magazine and has written for numerous newspapers and magazines (The Guardian; Financial Times). He is Academic Director of the Royal institute of Philosophy and an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Kent.