Nationality British Name Gary Cox | Role Biographer | |
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Born 1964 England Alma mater University of Birmingham Occupation Philosopher, biographer, writer Website www.twitter.com/garycox01/ Books How to Be an Existentia, The God Confusion: Why Nob, How To Be A Philosop, The Existentialist's Guide to, Sartre Dictionary | ||
Education University of Birmingham | ||
Gary Cox (born 1964, England) is a British philosopher and biographer and the author of several books on Jean-Paul Sartre, existentialism, general philosophy and philosophy of sport.
A Philosophy graduate of the University of Southampton, UK, he was awarded his PhD in 1996 from the University of Birmingham, UK, for his thesis on Jean-Paul Sartre's theory of consciousness, freedom and bad faith and is an honorary research fellow of that same university. His most notable works to date are The Sartre Dictionary (2008), How to Be an Existentialist, or How to Get Real, Get a Grip and Stop Making Excuses (2009) and The God Confusion: Why Nobody Knows the Answer to the Ultimate Question (2013).
Cox’s early publications reflect his research into both the philosophical, fictional and biographical writings of Jean-Paul Sartre, with his book, The Sartre Dictionary, providing a comprehensive overview of Sartre’s major works, ideas, influences and contemporaries. From 2009 onwards, with the publication of his best selling book to date, How to Be an Existentialist, Gary Cox took the ideas of existentialism to a wider, non-specialist audience, emphasising the self-help and personal empowerment aspects of the theory. An attack on contemporary 'excuse culture', the work urges the reader to face the hard existential truths of the human condition and to take full responsibility for his or her inalienable freedom. How to Be an Existentialist has been cited in such diverse areas as existential counselling and management and leadership training.
In 2010, Cox continued his efforts to popularise philosophy in the UK with the publication of How to Be a Philosopher, or How to Be Almost Certain that Almost Nothing is Certain, a beginners' guide to philosophy written in the same accessible, popular style as How to Be an Existentialist. 2011 saw the publication of his Existentialist’s Guide to Death, the Universe and Nothingness, a guide to key existentialist themes that, as its title suggests, is something of a homage to Douglas Adams. In 2013 Cox published The God Confusion, a controversial book exploring questions concerning the idea and existence of God that is critical of both theism and atheism and advocates agnosticism as the only tenable philosophical position.
Bloomsbury Publishing released Deep Thought: 42 Fantastic Quotes that Define Philosophy in October 2015, and Cox's biography of Jean-Paul Sartre - Existentialism and Excess: The Life and Times of Jean-Paul Sartre - in September 2016.