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Title: Metaphysics (4th Edition) by Richard Taylor ISBN: 0-13-567819-6 Publisher: Prentice Hall Pub. Date: 01 September, 1991 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $32.20 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.2 (5 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Nice and lively
Comment: First of all, let me emphasise that this review refers to the THIRD EDITION of this book. I don't know how extensively the third edition differs from the latest edition. So maybe this review is misleading and no longer relevant. Anyhow, I've already written it, and I want to post it here.
Richard Taylor's Metaphysics is a clear and interesting introduction to metaphysics. He is not so concerned with issues of what some call general metaphysics (for example, ontology and possible worlds) but with particular subjects in metaphysics, including personal identity, the mind body problem, freedom of will, fate, God, space and time and causation, among others.
Taylor does not write as a detached spectator. His discussion is lively, communicative and provocative. I think he has some unpopular and very controversial beliefs (especially regarding the issue of fatalism). In my opinion his chapters on the existence of God and on freedom and determinism are the best, though not unproblematic.
The (third) edition I read (I don't know whether the book has been improved) seems a little dated in some areas. He also has (had?) two chapters (on Polarity and Being and Nothing) which at points seem to go in a continental and even "eastern" direction, which is not usual in analytic philosophy. I got a bad impression at the start of these chapters, and perhaps I didn't read through them carefuly enough. Some people may find these chapters interesting. The book is also quite slim. But there is more to be had in it than at first meets the eye.
Taylor is often original and almost always colourful. This together with his strong opinions may not make the book an ideal general introduction to or overview of metaphysics. Also, he sometimes fails to provide anything resembling a comprehensive overview of all the issues involved in each section, if that is what you are looking for. For example, his section on God does not even touch on the problem of evil and some of the most important arguments for the existence of God. Nevertheless, I thought that what Taylor has to say is original.
So sometimes the book fails to offer a comprehensive overview within each particular subject. But its scope (in terms of the number of subjects it does discuss) is quite broad. Some may question whether Taylor's style (with his strong opinions) is appropriate for an introduction. But I liked this alot. I don't think that this book is essential reading, but I doubt that you'll be sorry to have read it. (Once again, this refers to the third edition of the book, and not the latest edition, which I suspect is better.)
Rating: 4
Summary: Good Introduction to Philosophy
Comment: "Metaphysics" has been used in classrooms since the 1960s, and for good reason -- it is a clearly-written introduction to central metaphysical issues such as the mind/body problem, determinism and free will, and the existence of God (the chapter on God has been reprinted in numerous anthologies). Here and there, author Taylor gets carried away with the "heaviness" of his subject, as when he writes like Ecclesiastes, or succumbs to faux-Spinoza-isms about how "untutored and vulgar" people lead impoversished lives because they can't understand metaphysics. But otherwise the book is excellent. If you wanted to introduce a smart teenager or college freshman to philosophy, you couldn't do better than "Metaphysics."
Rating: 4
Summary: Good Introduction to Philosophy
Comment: "Metaphysics" has been in print and used in classrooms since the 1960s, and for good reason -- it is a clearly-written introduction to central metaphysical issues such as the mind/body problem, determinism and free will, and the existence of God. Here and there, author Taylor seems to get carried away with the "heaviness" of his subject, which leads him to immitate the tone of Ecclesiastes, or to succumb to faux-Spinoza-isms about how "untutored and vulgar" people lead impoversished lives as a consequence of their inability to understand metaphysics. But otherwise the book is excellent. If you wanted to introduce a smart teenager or college freshman to the subject of philosophy, you couldn't do better than "Metaphysics."
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Title: Good and Evil by Richard Taylor ISBN: 157392752X Publisher: Prometheus Books Pub. Date: November, 1999 List Price(USD): $22.00 |
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Title: God, Freedom, and Evil by Alvin Plantinga ISBN: 0802817319 Publisher: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. Pub. Date: January, 1978 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
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Title: Theory of Knowledge by Roderick M. Chisholm ISBN: 0139141774 Publisher: Prentice Hall College Div Pub. Date: January, 1989 List Price(USD): $16.76 |
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Title: The Possible and the Actual: Readings in the Metaphysics of Modality by Michael J. Loux ISBN: 0801491789 Publisher: Cornell Univ Pr Pub. Date: June, 1979 List Price(USD): $21.95 |
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Title: Virtue Ethics: An Introduction (Prometheus Lecture Series) by Richard Taylor, John Donnelly ISBN: 1573929433 Publisher: Prometheus Books Pub. Date: March, 2002 List Price(USD): $18.00 |
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