GREAT MINDS ON SMALL THINGS

'The Philosophers' Guide Everyday Life' is the sub-title of this witty, entertaining compendium of quotidian wisdom. Three centuries ago, Voltaire published his Dictionnaire Philosophique, taking in such idiosyncratic topics as nakedness, adultery, mountains and more besides. In 1957, French philosopher Roland Barthes mused on the masculine pursuits of wrestling, striptease and the Citroën DS in his Mythologies. All the world's great thinkers have been unable to resist the lure of applying their formidable brains not only to the meaning of life, but also to the meaning of coffee, trapped wind, vegetables, food, faeces (Plato), wine (John Locke) or efficient boiler installation. From Wollstonecraft to Wittgenstein, Descartes to Neitzsche, Chinese sage Laozi (604-517BCE) to Berkeley, Aristotle to Arendt, Kant (1724-1804) to Australian philosopher Peter Singer (born 1946) the animal rights activist, here is a highly entertaining and eye-opening miscellany. Line art, 208pp.