Books By Martin Cohen

Martin Cohen, 2002

When it first came out way back in the last century (sighs), 101 Philosophy Problems was quite an iconoclast. Up to then, the most radical book of philosophy was Bertrand’s Problems of Philosophy, and that book splits the problems into boring categories like logic and epistemology... So I knew, as a young(ish) philosophy teacher, there was room for a new look at the subject, and 101 PP was it. In time, it went on to sell (I think) about 250 000 copies in about 20 languages. The USP of the book is that it actually encourages people to think about things in new ways. As one reviewer put it, it is a kind of literary Sudoko for exercising the mind.

Martin Cohen, 2022

This book really brings together into one place everything I’ve read or thought about thinking skills over the years. Trips offered in it include (this via Sun Tzu’s classic text, The Art of War), don’t do things the clever way, nor even the smart way: do them the easy way. Another one is avoid ‘black and white’ thinking, binary distinctions, ‘yes/no’ language, and questions, and instead go for narratives. And my favourite tip is ‘pump up the intuition’.The ability to create imaginary worlds in our heads is perhaps our most extraordinary mental tool –yet so often neglected.

Martin Cohen, 2011

This is one of my favourite books, with a wonderful cover by Zolumio (also artist for 101 Philosophy Problems and 101 Ethical Dilemmas) and although it didn't have quite the impact of those 101s, it was translated into French (who are very picky about ‘their’ philosophy books) and featured on their much-admired station, France Culture. Mind Games is about how the mind works, and thus, philosophy – but with a very different set of experts along with the usual philosophical names. There's Freud and Jean Piaget, but also Descartes and Daniel Dennett. There's Jung and Seymour Papert and William Molyneux alongside Locke and Loehr. Who he? But Franklin Loehr. This is the investigator who conducted experiments with plants to see if prayer could make them grow better. Did they? ‘Get the book’ as GoogleBooks likes to say... No, I'll let you have this one on me: 46 corn kernels were put in a large seed tray, half on one side, half on the other. The corn kernels on the left side were then prayed over for every day for a week. At the end of that time, as the experimenter reported ‘sixteen sturdy little seedlings’. On the other side? ‘There was but one.’