Damon Young

Damon Young (born 1975 in Melbourne, Victoria) is an Australian philosopher, writer and commentator, and author of the books Distraction, Philosophy in the Garden and How to Think About Exercise.

He is an Honorary Fellow in Philosophy at the University of Melbourne.

Philosophy in the Garden, published in Australia in December 2012, was described by The Australian as "fluent and stylish and never marred by cliches or cliched thinking".

In 2013 Young won the Australasian Association of Philosophy's media prize for his public writing and broadcasting.

Young is the author of Distraction, an eclectic popular history of Western philosophy, focusing on themes such as attention to life and distraction from it, work, freedom and necessity.

The Australian called it lacking in precision, saying its "central proposition – that new information technologies distract us from our common existential challenge – is never thoroughly probed" while London's Financial Times called it "lucid and optimistic".

It was published in the UK in April 2014 by Rider, an imprint of Random House, under the title Voltaire's Vine and Other Philosophies: How Gardens Inspired Great Writers.

Young's columns, reviews and features have been published in The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, The Australian, Herald Sun, BBC and ABC.

He has written poetry and fiction for Overland and Meanjin magazines.

Young regularly comments on radio, and has appeared on Channel 7 Sunrise and ABC TV.

He was a regular panellist on ABC Radio National's Life Matters, a monthly guest on Mornings with Alan Brough on 774 ABC Melbourne, and was "philosopher-in-residence" on Afternoons with James Valentine on ABC Sydney 702, and "sports philosopher" with Francis Leach on 1116 SEN.

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