- Paperback: 192 pages
- Publisher: Writers and Readers Ltd; 2nd Revised edition edition (Mar 1993)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 086316157X
- ISBN-13: 978-0863161575
- Product Dimensions: 22.2 x 15.2 x 1.4 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 463,019 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Product Description
Product Description
Why does philosophy give some people a headache, others a real buzz, and yet others a feeling that it is subversive and dangerous? Why do a lot of people think philosophy is totally irrelevant? What is philosophy anyway? The ABCs of philosophy??—easy to understand but never simplistic. Beginning with basic questions posed by the ancient Greeks - What is knowledge? What is good and evil? Philosophy For Beginners traces the answers given by western philosophy over the last 2,500 years.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
37 of 37 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book by Osborne is an interesting brief introduction to the course of Western philosophy over the past 2500 years. It does not directly involve non-Western philosophies; a simple look at the introduction will show the standard progression of names and ideas from the pre-Socratic Greeks through the philosophers of the classical age, to Christendom, then Enlightenment, post-Enlightentment through to modern thinkers whose names often adorned the faculty lists of Western institutions as much as their names dominate the philosophy coursework today. However, on occasion as historical reality might require, there is a discussion of other cultures. For example, Osborne mentions both the Tang dynasty of China and the rising Muslim empire as both being more advanced than Christendom during the period around 1000.
Of course, much of what is considered 'philosophy' outside of the Western framework is often more of a spirituality or mystical task than one that is properly philosophical. On the other hand, Osborne tries to define philosophy in the first few pages, with the help of Plato, Gramsci, Marx, and Russell, and comes to a sort of non-conclusion. Osborne's sense of humour, well established in this book, starts here, by his play with the idea that whereas Plato though philosophers should rule the world to set everything to rights, other philosophers speak of the meaninglessness of everything, which would leave one with no content or ideas, which would make ruling rather difficult.
One of the drawbacks of this text is that it does not have the time or space to go in much depth on any of the topics represented. This is more or less a who's who of philosophy, giving some basic outlines of their thinking and showing in broad strokes the general trends of philosophy over time. I cannot really speak to how I would understand philosophy using this as an early text, as I came to it after some considerable philosophical education, but my impression is that it might leave a rather thin understanding in many areas.
Fortunately, Osborne provides a bibliography, both of basic survey texts and of more advanced primary texts and studies. I'd like to see more done with this. Osborne does often refer to the primary texts in the narrative stories of the philosophers so that readers will become acquainted with them. Hopefully this will prove a motivation for further reading.
There is a subtle (occasionally not-so-subtle) anti-Christian and anti-religious bias in the book. When discussing the fate of Hypatia, a deplorable event no matter who carried it out, he ascribes the blame not to the particular people involved, but with an off-the-cuff remark slams the whole of Christianity. Similarly, he offers Bertrand Russell's quote about philosophy being a no-man's land between theology and science, embattled from each side; odd how many theologians feel theology is embattled between science and philosophy -- I did note as well that there are no pointedly anti-scientific jabs the way there are against religion.
This is a rather minor criticism, however, and probably one that most people wouldn't notice too greatly. It is true that the church and freedom of inquiry has not always been synonymous (to say the least) but there are better ways of approaching the issue.
The presentation is an attempt, largely successful, to render into an interesting format a topic that frightens or bores many people today. Why is philosophy irrelevant to most? Again, this is a good question, asked at the beginning, and difficult to answer. This probably needs to answered by each reader for herself or himself; hopefully the reader will make it all the way through the book. It also asks the question, how can you tell if someone is a philosopher. Of course, you can always accept the answer of Gramsci -- we all are, to a certain degree.
I've read several books in the 'For Beginners' series. They are often used in graduate and undergraduate classes to help people ease their way into difficult subjects. This, as a history of philosophy, is a fairly good text.
27 of 27 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This book serves as an excellent resource to familiarize yourself with the great thinkers.It's easy to read and laid out well, providing a student to the subject, easy reference.The basics are so well explained that you will have no trouble in selecting further reading material to deepen your knowledge.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I bought this book for my son who is currently unemployed but looking to keep improving himself. He finds this book very well thought out with information given in small chunks but which does not come across in a 'dumb down' way. He has learned quite a lot for the first book on a subject he wanted to know more about. He will certainly be wanting to expand the knowledge he has already gained!
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Philosophy for Beginners
i found this a very useful book for those starting to study philosophy. the cartoon nature of the book belies comprehensive information provided, a good book to dip into whilst... Read more
Published 3 months ago by greglessley
A beautiful marriage
Not all of these series work that well but this book is a beautiful marriage of image and idea, dancing a wonderful pas de deux around philosophy and making it exciting and... Read more
Published on 13 April 2005 by peter grodbecki
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.
