Lucy Eyre

¿Debe la gente de a pie enfrentarse a las grandes cuestiones filosóficas o, por el contrario, dejar ese cometido a los filósofos? Ésta es la discusión que establecen Sócrates y Wittgenstein en el Mundo de las Ideas, el Olimpo al que van a parar los filósofos cuando fallecen y abandonan el mundo físico. Desde ese «más allá» de los filósofos, Sócrates y Wittgenstein deciden enviar al mundo de los vivos a Lila Frost, la joven ayudante de Sócrates, que deberá hacer lo posible para que una persona elegida al azar se plantee los grandes temas de la filosofía. La actitud de esa persona será la que establezca cuál de estos dos grandes filósofos tiene razón. Pero el elegido es Ben Warner, un adolescente cuyas respuestas a tan profundos planteamientos no dejarán de sorprender a los filósofos...y a los lectores.

Fifteen-year-old Ben Warner has a mundane summer job working in the local fish-and-chip shop. Then Lila arrives. She invites him to visit her in the World of Ideas, where she hopes to help Socrates win a bet with his arch-rival Wittgenstein: he and Lila must prove to Ben that philosophy can change his life for the better. So begins a mind-bending guided tour of the big and small questions in life, but will Socrates and Lila be able to convince Ben that the unexamined life is not worth living?

Ben Warner is dizzy with boredom, working for the summer at Cod Almighty, his local fish and chip shop, when one evening a sexy young woman called Lila arrives with a bizarre invitation. Ben is tempted, but suspicious - and with good reason. Lila wants him to visit her in the World of Ideas - a place he''s never heard of - and, though Ben doesn''t yet know it, Lila has been dead for thirty years (which at least explains the purple flares). Lila has a mission. Her boss, Socrates (President of the World of Ideas) has made a bet with his arch-rival Wittgenstein. To win the bet (and keep their jobs) he and Lila must prove to Ben that philosophy can change his life for the better. As Ben finds his way in to this dreamlike sector of the afterlife with its disconcerting worlds-within-worlds, he has no idea he''s the subject of a bet. And so begins a mind-bending guided tour around the big, and small, questions in life. Does time speed up when your heart beats faster? When is orange not orange? Do we have free will? Little by little, Ben starts to ask his own questions and to believe that - apart from football - the unexamined life is not really worth living.Quirky, playful and highly original, "If Minds Had Toes" is the story of a teenager''s escape from the tedium of the everyday into an exciting new world, and a delightful introduction to some of philosophy''s key ideas.

Una introducció deliciosa a algunes de les principals idees de la filosofia.¿El temps corre més de pressa quan se'ns accelera el cor? ¿En quin moment el color taronja deixa de ser taronja? ¿Tenim llibertat per escollir el nostre desti? Ben Warner es mor d'avorriment a la feina que ha agafat durant les vacances d'estiu, quan un vespre se li presenta la Lila, una noia jove i atractiva que li fa una proposta insolita. Ell encara no ho sap, pero la Lila fa trenta anys que es morta i te una missio: Socrates, president del mon de les idees i cap de la noia, ha fet una juguesca amb el seu rival per excel·lencia, Wittgenstein, que consisteix a demostrar que la filosofia pot millorar la vida de les persones. Es aixi com Ben acaba entrant en aquesta regio de somnis, que pertany a la vida despres de la mort, i comença una increible visita guiada a traves de les grans i petites questions de l'existencia. A poc a poc, pero, començara a plantejar-se les seves propies preguntes i a creure que, a banda del futbol, una vida sense reflexio no val la pena.