A C Grayling at the Edinburgh International Book Festival

One of the country’s foremost philosophers, A C Grayling has produced a brilliantly readable and authoritative survey of his discipline – the first in a generation. The History of Philosophy is a landmark tome, bringing western and eastern thought together and charting a path from Buddha and Confucius through the Enlightenment to philosophers writing now. Professor Grayling explores the legacies of what we’ve learnt in this event filmed live at the 2019 Edinburgh International Book Festival.

Book Festival News

Communities Programme participants celebrate success of 2024 Communities Programme participants celebrate success of 2024
Friday 13 December

Enjoying this event? You can help us produce more like it.

Donate

Share

Watch more

Outriders Africa: Tsitsi Dangarembga & Nadine Aisha Jassat | Edinburgh International Book Festival Outriders Africa: Tsitsi Dangarembga & Nadine Aisha Jassat | Edinburgh International Book Festival In 2017 the Edinburgh International Book Festival supported ten writers to travel on journeys across the Americas. This was Outriders – an ambitious exploration of the idea that in shifting, disorienting times, a writer can make a unique contribution to… Flora Fraser: On Flora Macdonald Flora Fraser: On Flora Macdonald Historical biographer Flora Fraser has illuminated the hidden lives of queens and mistresses through revolutions and scandals. Now with Pretty Young Rebel, Fraser turns her sights to Flora Macdonald, who disguised Bonnie Prince Charlie as a maid and… Sergio Della Sala Sergio Della Sala The much-admired Professor of Human Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Edinburgh, Sergio Della Sala takes us on a highly amusing and accessible journey, exploring the myths and beliefs about our brain. Can mind conquer matter and diseases? Are… EWWC Feature Film EWWC Feature Film Elif Shafak: Rivers and Roads Elif Shafak: Rivers and Roads Elif Shafak’s latest novel explores profound connections across borders and sees her immersed deep in the mysteries of water. Today the Booker Prize nominated author of The Island of Missing Trees launches There are Rivers in the Sky, a luminous story of… Interview - Billy Collins (2014) Interview - Billy Collins (2014) He’s twice been poet laureate in the US and says he hopes his poems ‘begin in Kansas and end in Oz’. Now Billy Collins returns with Aimless Love, his first collection of new and selected poems for 12 years. Elegant, poignant and… Isabel Wilkerson: America’s Unspoken Caste System Isabel Wilkerson: America’s Unspoken Caste System As America seemingly implodes its way toward the 2020 election, pundits and political classes continue to try to understand how the Land of the Free has found itself in such disarray. And — as it has throughout Western democracies — the conversation… Roger Robinson: ‘Ordinary Poems Won’t Change the World’ Roger Robinson: ‘Ordinary Poems Won’t Change the World’ Earmarked as ‘the voice of our communal consciousness’ by Edinburgh International Book Festival’s 2018 Guest Selector Afua Hirsch, it’s hard to believe that Roger Robinson hasn’t been a staple of British public life since time immemorial. A fixture of the… Amy Bloom: Till Death Us Do Part Amy Bloom: Till Death Us Do Part The last time American author Amy Bloom came to the Book Festival in 2014 to talk about Lucky Us, she travelled with her husband Brian. In 2020 they made a very different kind of journey together – to Switzerland where Brian was helped by Dignitas to end… Kate Atkinson: Last Good Man Standing Kate Atkinson: Last Good Man Standing Twenty years after it began, this year Kate Atkinson’s Case Histories series of murder mysteries celebrates its sixth instalment with Death at the Sign of the Rook. Come and hear how another master of the form does it as Atkinson speaks with Alex Clark…