James Garvey’s books range across the history of ideas, social and political philosophy, climate ethics, and consciousness. His most recent book, The Persuaders: The Hidden Industry That Wants to Change Your Mind, was an Amazon business bestseller. It’s a close look at the persuasive techniques that marketers, PR specialists, lobbyists, advertisers, and politicians use to shape how we vote, what we buy, believe, and do. He gives keynote talks on influence to businesses and at international book and ideas festivals.
Professional Experience
Garvey has published in peer-reviewed academic journals and writes for The Guardian, The Times Literary Supplement, Prospect, and Times Higher Education. For BBC Radio 4 he has written, presented, and appeared on programs on neuroscience, government use of persuasion during the pandemic, our inner lives, consent and governance, and messaging in visual media.
Before joining CCS, Garvey completed a Ph.D. on the nature of consciousness at University College London and taught at universities in the United Kingdom. He gained real-world business experience as Managing Director of the Royal Institute of Philosophy, a publishing concern and charity dedicated to bringing rigorous thinking to the wider world. He is co-founder of a publishing company and was Editor-in-Chief of The Philosophers’ Magazine for a decade.
Significant Publications, Presentations and Exhibitions
The Persuaders: the hidden industry that wants to change your mind, Icon Books, 2016
The Story of Philosophy with J Stangroom, Quercus, 2012
The Bloomsbury Companion to Philosophy of Mind (ed), Bloomsbury, 2011
The Ethics of Climate Change, Bloomsbury, 2008;
The Twenty Greatest Philosophy Books, Continuum, 2007
The Great Philosophers, Arcturus, 2005,
Series Editor, Think Now: Contemporary Social and Political Issues, Bloomsbury.
‘Climate Change and Causal Inefficacy: Why Go Green if It Makes No Difference?’ in A O’Hear (Ed) The Environment, CUP, 2011
‘Climate Change is a Moral Problem for You Right Now’, M. Nelson and K. Moore (Eds), Moral Ground, MSU Press, 2011
‘Climate Change and Moral Outrage’, Human Ecology Review 17 (2), 2010
Climate Change, Consequences, Intentions and Consistency’, Dialogue, 31, November 2008
‘The Moral Use of Technology’, in A. O’Hear (Ed.) The Philosophy of Science, CUP, 2007
Consciousness and Absence’. Journal of Consciousness Studies, 13, 2006
Explore some of James's Work
