[PHILOS-L] Call for book reviewers
David Sackris
Greetings,
My name is David Sackris and I am the book reviews editor for the journal Teaching Philosophy. I am looking for individuals interested in reviewing the following works (see below). The aim would be to complete the review by 12/20, 2026. If you believe you would be well-suited to review one of the books on this list, please contact me and let me know. If you have any questions about performing a book review for Teaching Philosophy, please feel free to contact me on that front as well. I am also open to suggestions of new books that might deserve to be reviewed in the journal, given its aims.
Thank you,
Dave
Book Review Editor, Teaching Philosophy
1) Too Weird to Believe, Too Plausible to Deny: Mind-Blowing Philosophical Ideas edited by Cliff Sosis—Routledge
This book contains 29 short original essays by contemporary philosophers — including Graham Priest, Keith Frankish, David Benatar, Massimo Pigliucci, Carrie Jenkins, Jason Brennan, and Louise Antony — each defending a counterintuitive but carefully argued conclusion in areas of philosophy including metaphysics, philosophy of mind, ethics, and epistemology. The essays assume no prior philosophical background, are structured to invite objection and debate, and each closes with suggested readings.
2) Thinking Critically About What Matters: A Punk Rock Guide by Kevin Klipfel and Lyndsay Klipfel--ALA Editions
Thinking Critically About What Matters lays out an original perspective on critical thinking, defined as the values-based decision-making process of (i) making up our own minds about what matters in life and (ii) making choices in the real world based on our own authentically chosen values. The authors deftly synthesize the critical thinking mindset of thinking for yourself with the DIY punk rock ethos of doing things for yourself, presenting an actionable approach to critical thinking that will give you the philosophical tools you need to creatively embody these rebellious philosophical perspectives in your own life and work
3) Consciousness: An Interdisciplinary Guide by David Svolba and Abe Witonsky--Broadview
What is consciousness? What is the right way to study it? How can we determine when someone or something is conscious? Drawing on historical and contemporary work across many disciplines, including philosophy, neuroscience, cognitive science, and psychology, David Svolba and Abe Witonsky tackle these questions and many more in this exciting and expansive guidebook. Written for those who are new to the subject, this book helps readers understand why consciousness has been called the “last great mystery.”
4) The Genealogy of genealogy: Nietzsche, Foucault, and the Coils of Critical History by Jason Ananda and Josephson Storm--University of Chicago Press
The genealogical method—a mode of historical analysis that shows that what looks timeless is in fact contingent, bound to shifting relations of meaning, knowledge, and power—has become the dominant paradigm of humanistic inquiry. In The Genealogy of Genealogy, Jason Ānanda Josephson Storm turns this influential practice back on itself, tracing its unlikely rise through Nietzsche and Foucault and uncovering its suppressed ties to eugenics and racism. He rethinks the very stakes of critical history and proposes new tools for thinking about historical continuity, change, and difference. Provocative and timely, The Genealogy of Genealogy offers both a diagnosis and a vision, challenging scholars across the humanities and social sciences to rethink how we write history and whether our most trusted methods are fit for the futures we seek to build.
5) The Nature of Law: Authority, Obligation, and the Common Good by Daniel Mark—University of Notre Dame Press
When and why do we have an obligation to obey the law? Prevailing theories in the philosophy of law, starting with the work of H. L. A. Hart and Joseph Raz, fail to provide definitive answers regarding the nature of legal obligation. In this highly original and effective new work, Daniel Mark argues that there is a prima facie moral obligation to obey the law simply because it is the law. In Mark’s view, the best concept of law—one that allows for the possibility of justified authority and obligation—defines law as a set of commands oriented to the common good. Legal obligation, he proposes, shares defining features with moral obligation and with religious obligation while aligning wholly with neither.
6) Setting Fire to Reason: The Ethics of Free Speech by Jeffrey W. Howard—Princeton University Press
The debate over free speech is often marked by two extremes: in one corner, those who think that the right to free speech is nearly absolute; in the other, those who defend sweeping prohibitions on harmful speech. In Setting Fire to Reason, Jeffrey Howard rejects both extremes. He argues that free speech is among our most important moral rights, but—like all rights—it has limits, determined by moral duties we owe to each other. Yet exactly how these moral limits should be translated into law is complex, depending on the particular speech regulation at issue and the risks of government abuse.
7) A Theory of Happiness: Lessons from a 100 year old Korean Philosopher by Hyung-Seok Kim—Bloomsbury
105-year-old Professor Kim reveals key aspects of
ancient Korean philosophy and shares stories from over a century of living to
help us live better.
Showing us how to lean into the world with more softness, gratitude, openness
and sincerity – especially when confronted with life's challenges – he invites
us to discover the everyday lessons we can take from Korean values, giving
invaluable insight into:
how to find the happiness that already exists in our daily lives
how we can cultivate happiness through hard work and personal growth
how to nurture happiness in our closet relationships
how we can enjoy happiness that grows with us as we age and mature.
8) Nursing Ethics: Normative Foundations, Advanced Concepts, and Emerging Issues, edited by Michael J. Deem and Jennifer H. Lingler--Oxford
This edited volume comprises twenty original essays in nursing ethics by an international, interdisciplinary group of scholars, researchers, and clinicians. The volume is the first wide-ranging, advanced edited volume in nursing ethics that explores the normative foundations and frameworks of nursing ethics, philosophical views of ethical knowledge, practical identity, moral agency in nursing, and emerging ethical issues in nursing practice and health policy. Part I focuses on foundational normative issues in nursing ethics, including questions about its independence as a field of inquiry among other subfields in bioethics, its methods, and its potential contribution to forming ethical environments for healthcare professionals. Several chapters address questions surrounding the scope, reliability, and limit of nurses' ethical knowledge and expertise, and the moral and practical identities that nurses take on qua nurses. Part II focuses on emerging issues in clinical practice and nursing education, including current and anticipated ethical challenges in the care of persons, families, and communities impacted by both physical and mental health conditions are addressed. Several chapters aim to proactively identify ethical concerns posed by new developments in areas such as biotechnology, health policy, and cultural shifts.
9) AOP: Toward an Art-Oriented Philosophy by Wilfried Laforge—MIT Press
How can we examine the relationship between art and philosophy in both directions? What does philosophy have to say about art? What does philosophy have to say to art? AOP: Toward an Art-Oriented Philosophy seeks to provide new insight on the relationship between art and philosophy since the 1950s. This study investigates artists' relationships with philosophy, from the artschool to the studio.This book is intended for students, artists, philosophers, and (more generally) all the art enthusiasts who wish to have a clear vision of what the relationships between art and philosophy are and what they will become as significant changes occur within contemporary art.
10) Of a Different Mind: An Introduction to the Philosophy of Mind and Psychology by Erik Myin—MIT Press
Much of contemporary philosophical discourse of the mind is dominated by understanding the mind as a biological information processor, and it is thanks to its computational operations that we perceive, act intelligently, and think. By contrast, this novel textbook presents a view of the philosophy of mind where action, rather than thought, is the most fundamental thing a mind does. Erik Myin covers a broad range of action-based views—embodied, embedded, enacted, extended, and enculturated—while providing a thorough introduction to standard analytical philosophy of mind. Balancing historical perspectives with forward-looking pluralism, Myin tells a different story about the philosophy of mind that expands, rather than constrains, possibilities and provides a relevant blueprint for the next generation of thinkers in the field.
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