Roger Kuperways
In Conversations with the Great Philosophers
Complex Ideas. Simple Conversations.
Philosophy, demystified.
In Conversations with the Great Philosophers brings 63 of history’s greatest philosophers, psychologists, and thinkers out of history and into living conversation with the modern reader.
Their ideas are explained in plain English, connected to everyday life, and explored through direct conversations that ask not only what they thought, but how they thought.
Roger Kuperways speaking in New York
The Book
Unlike traditional introductions to philosophy, which explain what philosophers believed, this book brings the philosophers into the reader’s room.
Each chapter introduces the thinker and their achievements, explains their philosophy in plain English, shows how those ideas can be applied through Practical Philosophy, and explores the thinker’s Method and the Point of the Method.
Then the conversation begins. Roger questions the philosopher. The philosopher answers. Then the roles reverse, and the philosopher questions Roger.
Three People in Every Conversation
The philosopher. The author. The reader.
Although the dialogue takes place between the philosopher and Roger, the questions are meant to reach beyond them. The reader is invited to consider how they would answer, where they agree or disagree, and what the philosopher’s ideas might mean in their own life.
The reader is not simply observing the conversation. The reader is being invited into it.
Timeless Questions
The same eight Timeless Questions are posed to every thinker in the book, creating a conversation across centuries.
Readers can compare how different thinkers approach the same enduring questions about happiness, failure, fear, self-improvement, purpose, death, mistakes, and even artificial intelligence and social media.
Their answers often disagree—and that is part of the point. The book does not tell readers which philosopher is right.
Instead, it places 63 radically different minds before the same questions, allowing readers to compare their answers, consider which ideas speak to them, and perhaps find wisdom that helps them solve some of the puzzles of their own lives.
For Readers Who Want to Explore Further
The book concludes with an accessible Appendix covering the great branches of philosophy, the history of philosophy, women philosophers, philosophical traditions and schools, philosophy and religion, Eastern and Western philosophy, philosophy in everyday life, learning to disagree, the courage to change your mind, the Philosopher’s Toolbox, and the distinctive methods used by the thinkers throughout the book.
An Evening with the Philosophers
In the Coda, the book’s central idea comes fully to life. Philosophers from different centuries and traditions gather in the same room for one final conversation—and the reader is invited to join them.
They question, challenge, disagree with, and occasionally surprise one another. They also turn their questions toward the reader.
By the end, even a guest who admits he knows almost nothing about philosophy is welcomed into the conversation.
Philosophy does not belong only to philosophers. It belongs to anyone willing to ask a question, pull up a chair, and join the conversation.
About Roger Kuperways
Roger Kuperways was born in hiding during the Holocaust in Voiron, near Grenoble, in 1944, and raised in Paris. He left school at fourteen, later apprenticed in the Paris couture world, and at seventeen immigrated to the United States with twelve dollars, two old handmade suits, and not a word of English.
Beginning as a sewing machine operator in a Chinatown sweatshop, he went on to build a successful fashion label in New York’s Garment District.
His designs were carried nationwide by many of America’s leading department stores, including Saks Fifth Avenue, Bergdorf Goodman, Bloomingdale’s, Neiman Marcus, Nordstrom, and Lord & Taylor.
When the American garment industry declined, Kuperways reinvented himself again, entering academia and teaching entrepreneurship and philosophy at New York University for nearly three decades. He is now Professor Emeritus.
For much of his life, Kuperways believed philosophy belonged to academics and often felt he was simply not smart enough to understand it.
Over time, he discovered that the problem was not the questions themselves, but the intimidating way philosophy was often presented. That realization became the foundation of In Conversations with the Great Philosophers.
Philosophy, demystified.
For Literary Agents
In Conversations with the Great Philosophers is approximately 168,000 words and complete.
A query letter, book proposal, sample chapter, and complete manuscript are available upon request.
Also by Roger Kuperways
From Chocolate to Philosopher
A memoir of survival, reinvention, fashion, teaching, and the art of beginning again.
From postwar Paris to New York’s Garment District, from couture ateliers to university lecture halls, the memoir traces a life shaped by survival, immigration, ambition, and reinvention.
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