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Books

Driving to California

Bob Sharpe reviews an unconventional book of essays by Colin Radford.

Professor Colin Radford’s forte has always been to show the virtues of a philosophical position which appeals to the man on the Bristol omnibus, by reminding us of something obvious which philosophers overlook. He is the common man’s philosopher. In one essay in this book, he asks if it is irrational to be moved by the fate of Tolstoy’s character Anna Karenina. He thinks that it is indeed irrational, and that we instinctively know this. That this is so is suggested by the involvement of the readers of tabloid newspapers with the characters in TV soap operas; the tabloids deliberately blur the line between documentary and fiction.

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