Corrupting the Youth: A History of Philosophy in Australia

Philosophers deal with hard and basic questions — the meaning of life, whether the mind is more than the brain, whether people have more rights than animals. Their answers affect how they and their students conduct their lives, make legal decisions, think about politics.

Corrupting the Youth follows a large cast of Australian thinkers, from admirable geniuses to dangerous fanatics, as they struggle with fundamental questions, argue, write and plot. Aboriginal philosophy, nineteenth century idealism, John Anderson's Sydney realism, Sixties hedonism, feminist and environmental philosophy and the ethics of Peter Singer and his opponents pass in review as philosophers, judges, Communists, priests, teachers, doctors and students promote their visions of the way the world is and how life should be lived.