Books by Rupert Read

That our ecological future appears grave can no longer come as any surprise. And yet we have so far failed, collectively and individually, to begin the kind of action necessary to shift our path away from catastrophic climate collapse. In this stark and startling little book, Rupert Read helps us to understand the direness of our predicament while showing us a metaphor and a method ¿ a way of thinking ¿ by which we might transform it. From the relatively uncontroversial starting point that we love our own children, we are introduced to a logic of care that iterates far into the future: in caring for our own children, we are committed to caring for the whole of human future; in caring for the whole of human future, we are committed to caring for the future of the natural world. Out of such thinking, hope emerges. As Read demonstrates in this urgent call to action, accepting that we care for our own offspring commits us to a struggle on behalf of us all.

''Rupert Read and Samuel Alexander take us deep inside the debates, tactics, and passion that have bound Extinction Rebellion together from its founding days, bringing us radical reflections from the frontlines of rebellion. If you want to understand the movement that is finally waking us up, read this book.''- Kate Raworth, author of Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist''Invaluable reflections and next-step ideas right from the heart of arguably the most inspiring and important movement of the twenty first century''. - Mike Berners-Lee, author of There is no planet B: A Handbook for the Make or Break Years ''Everyone should read this book. It is short, and impassioned, but full of important information: above all an honest and practical plea for us to seize the moment for change urgently. It is inspirational. Please, for all our sakes, read it, and take its timely words to heart.''- Iain McGilchrist, author of The Master and his Emissary: The Divided Brain and the Making of the Western World''The ecological emergency is the greatest challenge that humanity has ever faced, and Extinction Rebellion may be our last best chance to address it. Read this inside story of the most important social movement of our time.''- David Loy, author of Ecodharma: Buddhist Teachings for the Ecological Crisis ''From the eruption of XR in our lives in late 2018, Rupert Read has been closely involved in the organisation as an advisor, influencer, spokesperson and occasional critic. These fascinating essays read like dispatches from the front line, crackling with urgency, tempered by timely reflections, and reminding us of the scale of the challenge ahead as we rebuild our shattered, post-coronavirus economies.''- Jonathon Porritt, former Director of the UK Sustainable Development Commission and of Friends of the Earth''Activist-philosopher Rupert Read, a key thinker of Extinction Rebellion, has collected a treasure trove of foundational essays, documenting the transformational XR UK experience, that will be immensely valuable for activists around the world trying to replicate that achievement. The book is incisive, pertinent, self-critical, well-written, and, in the XR way, occasionally cheeky. Anyone concerned with combating the broader wave of ecological collapse - that led to the pandemic and that is rising behind it - should read Read.''- Ken Ward, protagonist in the documentary The Reluctant Radical''Most of us like to watch movies about people saving the world but too rarely do we even try to do it ourselves. Despite the situation so obviously calling for it! This is a book about what might well turn out to be the most important social movement in history.''- David Graeber, author of The Democracy Project: A History, a Crisis, a Movement

A Wittgensteinian Way with Paradoxes examines how some of the classic philosophical paradoxes that have so puzzled philosophers over the centuries can be dissolved. Read argues that paradoxes such as the Sorites, Russell's Paradox and the paradoxes of time travel do not, in fact, need to be solved. Rather, using a resolute Wittgensteinian ';therapeutic' method, the book explores how virtually all apparent philosophical paradoxes can be diagnosed and dissolved through examining their conditions of arising; to loosen their grip and therapeutically liberate those philosophers suffering from them (including oneself). The book contrasts such paradoxes with real, ';lived paradoxes': paradoxes that are genuinely experienced outside of the philosopher's study, in everyday life. Thus Read explores instances of lived paradox (such as paradoxes of self-hatred and of denial of other humans' humanity) and the harm they can cause, psychically, morally or politically. These lived paradoxes, he argues, sometimes cannot be dissolved using a Wittgensteinian treatment. Moreover, in some cases they do not need to be: for some, such as the paradoxical practices of Zen Buddhism (and indeed of Wittgenstein himself), can in fact be beneficial. The book shows how, once philosophers' paradoxes have been exorcized, real lived paradoxes can be given their due.

Discussing the work of Kuhn, Winch and Wittgenstein in relation to fundamental question of methodology, this title undertakes an examination of the nature of (natural) science itself, in the light of which a series of successive cases of putatively scientific disciplines are analysed.