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The seventh edition of Steven Cahn's "Classics of Western Philosophy" features several major additions, including selections from Plotinus' "Enneads", Schopenhauer's "The World as Will and Representation", Husserl's "Paris Lectures", Wittgenstein's "Philosophical Investigations", and a new selection from Hegel's "Phenomenology of Spirit". Selections from Aristotle's "Metaphysics" and "On the Soul" have been expanded, while Aristotle's "Physics and Nicomachean Ethics", Hume's "Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding", Mill's "On Liberty", and Russell's "The Problem of Philosophy" have been further abridged. In all, the new edition presents complete texts or substantial selections from fifty-six philosophical masterpieces, in pre-eminent and thoughtfully annotated translations and editions, with introductions by a team of distinguished scholars including Sara Ahbel-Rappe, Richard Bett, Steven Cahn, Charles Guignon, Kathleen Higgins, Patricia Kitcher, Philip W. Kitcher, William Mann, Derek Pereboom, Ruth Anna Putnam, Israel Scheffler, David Shatz, George Sher, David Sherman, Jonathan Vogel, Meredith Williams, and Michael Williams.
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Steven M Cahn
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This review is based on the 3rd Edition. Cahn has collected a representative selection of the best philosophical writing from Plato to Mill (I understand he extends the range to include Nietzsche in the present edition.) For the most part, these selections comprise entire books, which is the best way to get a feel for the styles of different philosophers, and allows you to get to grips with their arguments directly - this is far better than having a third party interpret texts for you, as you are then at one remove from actually engaging with the work or thereby doing real philosophy yourself! Cahn's editorial imposition on the texts is restricted to providing brief biographical glosses to the philosophers included, to extracting generally decent-sized and representative chunks from very large texts, and to providing commendably brief, clear and occasional explanatory footnotes.
This book is not politically inclusive - there are no women philosophers here, and nothing by the great Muslim or Jewish philosophers (who lived and wrote in Mediaeval Spain and so must surely count as Western) - however, it gives you a great number of core texts essential in any exploration of the history of ideas, as well as offering a series of "great reads" which will delight and make you aware of the world and many problems of its interpretation. It is the best "history of philosophy" anthology I have come across and the ideal introduction to the activity of philosophy.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
If you want to know how western philosophy got from Plato to roughly where we are now, this book provides the perfect overview. I'm using it, specifically, to trace the development of modern philosophy from Descartes to Kant, a key period. Cahn's judicious selections provide the structural bones and a good deal of the meat of the arguments, allowing you to trace a line through all the major thinkers with remarkable speed. A process I'd expected to take years now looks achievable in a couple of months of dedicated reading. It's still a lot to get through and it's still only a beginning, but, to extend my skeleton metaphor, this is a solid spine from which to branch off in whatever direction you ultimately choose. Having the actual texts, in such generous quantities especially, is also a far better way to get into this material than going through the often distorting lens of secondary expositions.
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19 of 20 people found the following review helpful
Cahn is a Leviathan, and a Steal
20 Aug 1997
Format:Paperback
I have been teaching philosophy in college for six years and have yet to find an anthology more broad, pliable, or reasonably priced than Cahn's "Classics." The selections are generally entire works, not short snippets; when the entire work is not included, the selection is ample, judicious, and representative.
Of course, most anthologists feel it necessary to include short biographical sketches of the contributors and a short synopsis of the works included; generally, they cannot refrain from interpreting the works for you. Cahn refrains, and also keeps his comments mercifully brief and readable.
Inclusive of minorities and women it is not. One might even wish for something more current than "Twilight of the Idols"--or indeed for "Twilight" not to be among the abridged works. Still, adding anything else to this work, especially something under copyright, would make it even longer than its current 1,270 pages and threaten its very reasonable price.
"Classics" is itself becoming a classic. Now in its fourth edition, it seems to defy anyone to match its range, breadth, and price.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
simply the best
25 Nov 2006
Format:Paperback
This anthology is by far the best anthology of its kind. If you love ancient and medieval philosophy the way I do, it is possible to teach an entire semester "intro. to phil." course out of Plato, Aristotle, Sextus, Augustine, Anselm, Aquinas, Maimon, Ockham, Gerson, and the Stoa.
This book could also support a whole early moderns course, as it features full texts of MEDITATIONS ON FIRST PHILOSOPHY, ETHICS, MONADOLOGY, AN ENQUIRY CONCERNING HUMAN UNDERSTANDING, and DIALOGUES CONCERNING NATURAL RELIGION. This great text also contains a well-selected excerpt from Kant's KrV.
If you are a philosophy instructor who loves great texts, and if you teach an historical approach to intro., this text is your choice. This servicable anthology is priced reasonably enough that it can also serve as a primary-source reference for thematic courses. Thanks to Hackett for this gem. This text is also ideal as the core text for a one-trimester course. I have even used this book once for a one-semester ethics course!
This book could also support a whole early moderns course, as it features full texts of MEDITATIONS ON FIRST PHILOSOPHY, ETHICS, MONADOLOGY, AN ENQUIRY CONCERNING HUMAN UNDERSTANDING, and DIALOGUES CONCERNING NATURAL RELIGION. This great text also contains a well-selected excerpt from Kant's KrV.
If you are a philosophy instructor who loves great texts, and if you teach an historical approach to intro., this text is your choice. This servicable anthology is priced reasonably enough that it can also serve as a primary-source reference for thematic courses. Thanks to Hackett for this gem. This text is also ideal as the core text for a one-trimester course. I have even used this book once for a one-semester ethics course!
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
One of the best historical anthologies...
16 Jan 2006
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Cahn's text was a requirement for a historical-introduction to philosophy class that I had. Cahn has included much relevant material from key philosophers from Plato and on. I highly recommened this book over Pojman.
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