- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Ebury Press (12 Jun 2003)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0091889219
- ISBN-13: 978-0091889210
- Product Dimensions: 21 x 13.4 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
-
Amazon Bestsellers Rank:
117,430 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #63 in Books > Music, Stage & Screen > Film > Film Genres > Science Fiction
The Philosopher At The End Of The Universe
and over 900,000 other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
There is a widespread reawakening of interest in philosophy, however, many people are put off by a belief that it is difficult to understand. This entertaining but educational book shatters that myth by showing, for example, that if you understand Keanu Reeves smash, "The Matrix", you can understand Descartes. In "The Matrix", the world human beings seem to inhabit is not real, but a computer-generated illusion. This idea is essentially Descartes: what can we know? How do we know that everything is not really a dream? Or how do we know we're not being constantly deceived by an evil genius? This is just the beginning and amongst other things you'll learn about: materialism and dualism fom the Terminator films - "Egoism" from "The Invisible Man". Read this book and become be a veritable Jedi master of philosophy!
From the Publisher
New edition packed with good old-fashioned, high-octane, high body count, alien ass-kicking, robot-wrecking- philosophy!
--This text refers to an alternate
Paperback
edition.
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Picture Arnie shaking hands with Plato!!,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Philosopher at the End of the Universe (Paperback)
This is a great book! For ages I had a passing interest in philosophy but never had the time to really grasp it's basics. This book allowed me to do so while still enjoying a great read. Rowlands explanations are fantastic and what surprised me was the humour that is littered throughout the book. I can honestly say that I will never look at Arnold Schwarzenegger in the same light again. I would highly recommend this book to anyone, it is a book that will make you look at some of your favourite movies in an entirely different way. I just hope that there is a follow before long!
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
philosophy - accessible and enjoyable,
This review is from: The Philosopher at the End of the Universe (Paperback)
I am relatively new to philosophy and really enjoyed this book.Subjects that had been covered in my lectures finally started to make sense and I found revising much easier , I no longer needed to learn things off by heart as I understood them and just had to think back to the movies if I got confused.Incidently , my boyfriend loved the book aswell even though he had never read any philosophy before. Definately looking forward to the follow up.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Gimmick is thin but a suprisingly good read nethertheless,
By
This review is from: The Philosopher at the End of the Universe (Paperback)
The concept of the book, explaining philosophy through sci-fi films sounds good, especially to me as it combined something I knew well (sci fi) with something I wanted to learn about (philosophy).
In the actual course of the book, the chapters begin with a retelling of the film's story, then analyse some philisophical theme that the author has decided is related. In actuality, the discussion usually strays far from the film and one wonders what the point of the 'schi-phi' gimmick was; however the films do serve as useful examples for Mark's discussions and get one thinking in the right frame of mind beforehand. (It also pointed me towards some good films.) The book, however, is excellent as an introduction to philosophy. I was a veteran 'armchair philosopher' beforehand but reading this book got me to think my ideas through in a more consistent fashion, and introduced me to the major ideas and characters of philosophy. It covers most of the major questions in philosophy (the ones that actually interest people, anyway) and goes over the basic arguments for the different views surrounding them. It's a credit that Mark makes his writing so clear, to the point and is low on any technical terms, making this a very easy read and allowing the basic ideas to be understood very easily. Obviously not every point of view can be adressed, and in a book of this size he must gloss over the counter-arguments and answers to his claims. It's very likely that the reader will disagree with some of his conclusions, however one gets the feeling from reading this book that this is encouraged, and not that Mark is in possesion of some divine, inarguable wisdom. One is instead inspired to do some more research on points one finds interesting in the book (I thought Mark hadn't given a good answer to compatibilism, and reading more about it, i think it's a better answer than his of determinism, for one.) The last word I can say about this book is: Sometimes I see on the internet some 'philisophical' debate or dissertation, where the author seems completely oblivious to some contrary argument or POV, and I think 'Hey! That was in the first book on philosophy I ever read!'
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews |
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
