The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten: 100 Experiments for the Armchair Philosopher

This was the one of the random book purchase of 2011 for me and it has been about an year since I purchased this book. Since then I have read it many time and gave it away as a present to many. Needless to say this book became one of my all time favorite book and here is why.First of all, this book is separated into 100 little thought experiments. If you are looking for long, focused and intense scrutiny on one topic like Sam Harris do, this book is not for you. But if you want a short thought experiment that will tease your brain daily and help you ponder about little things in reality or sudo reality, this book is perfect for you. Sure there are some thought experiment that seems little ridiculous, but some are rather profound. So much so that I believe some of the short thought experiments in "The Pig That Wants to Be Eaten", that are as long as 3 pages, carry horizon expending experience. Also, author doesn't talk about what is wrong or right answer for each situations, rather he leave the decision making and thinking to the reader, which I love. As a relativist/contexualist, I love the fact that author leave the decision up to each readers, leave decision up to each context.Highly recommend this book.Pros,1. Short compact scenarios with explanations2. Covers good area of philosophical problems of today.3. Easy to share and talk about with friends because it's segmented.4. Author doesn't necessary express what is right or wrong in each experiment, rather leave it up to the reader. Huge kudos for this one.Cons,1. Short, some stories can be extended.2. Book is not durable, my paper back book binding got destroyed.

Easy to read. There are good adaptations from the original thought experiments, it is a nice thing if we think about the clarity it brings. This has been made for a very wide audience.

This book covers a broad scope of topics. Each chapter features an example followed by an explanation. I enjoyed the examples. Some were quite interesting, and I appreciate the commitment to deviating from the more typical analogy platitudes. I also like the brevity of each chapter. It keeps things fresh.There’s about a dozen or so formatting/grammatical issues, which I found a bit jarring since there’s not much material to proofread in the first place, and none of it is written in a particularly esoteric way. But it’s nothing too serious that gets in the way of understanding. Also, it took a minute for me to adjust to the British punctuation and single quotation marks.If there’s something I would add, it would be an introduction to naming more of the specific principles that are being discussed. (E.g. ethics of care, hedonism, teleology, etc.) I can see this book as serving as a gateway to getting you more interested in learning about a particular theory, but it’ll be hard to find more information about a specific philosopher’s ideas if you don’t have a key term to go off of. But then again, perhaps that would deter people from reading this book if it appeared too “technical.”Overall, I like this! And I think it’s a quick read that is suitable for all reading levels.

Book arrived perfectly new, no dents, smudges, etc.I don’t like the flimsy paper cover, but that’s just my preference. There’s nothing wrong with the cover.

What a delightful book! There are 100 thought experiments that are interesting to think about and discuss.Each thought experiment is only one page, so each one is easy to understand. The author also provides a 2-4 page discussion of each thought experiment.

While an interesting effort, more often than not it's an irritating showcase for the author to flaunt his wit rather than truly facilitate an honest examination of perplexing philosophical or theological issues. Of course, Baggini has not reached the level of success he has by restraining his self-expression.The book is 100, one-page summaries of philosophical, theological, moral and ethical quandries culled from books, films, and various sources dating back to ancient Greece and all the way up to the movie The Matrix. Some of these are fairly intact summaries of their original expression. Others have been modified by Baggini to remove what he feels are familiarizations that might prevent the reader from viewing the issue as objectively as possible. This is ironic, since particularly on theological issues, Baggini is anything but objective in his assessment (and often dismissal) of certain points of view. This editorializing might lead the naive reader into assuming that either Baggini is a genius who has solved the greatest puzzlers of the ages, or that these questions are really not as difficult and challenging as philosophers and theologians make them out to be.This is a useful book for quickly exposing oneself to various realms of metaphysical and philosophical inquiry. Each one-page scenario is followed with a 2-3 page synopsis of the core issues that are perplexing, and usually a brief examination of the common approaches used by opposing or different schools of thought to resolve the situation. Generally the reader is left to sort out what seems to be the better option on their own, with the understanding that in most cases, there are challenges with any one particular solution.Frustrations with Baggini center around the theological issues he brings up - and his depiction of the issue is often anything but objective, leading the reader already to determine that a Biblical or supernatural possibility is anything but possible. In addition to skewed renderings of the scenario, Baggini frequently follows up with his own lampooning of religious thought as something that no educated person would consider valid for a moment. This ultimately demeans the book, skews objectivity, and creates more often than not an indoctrination text instead of a genuine effort to honestly present various explanations.