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Title: The Consequences of Ideas: Understanding the Concepts That Shaped Our World by R. C. Sproul ISBN: 1-58134-172-5 Publisher: Crossway Books Pub. Date: June, 2000 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.24 (17 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: A Superb Introduction
Comment: Sproul's work, The Consequences of Ideas: Understanding the Concepts That Shaped Our World, is probably one of the first works that I would recommend for beginners studying the history of philosophy. The writing is clear, the content is good, and the issues are not so complex that it would require outside research to follow the writing.
The content covers from Thales to Freud (he chose to not cover Dewey, as Gordon Clark's work on the history of philosophy does). To see who Sproul covers, you should use Amazon's page to view the table of contents. Basically, he covers the main figures and a number of not so popular people (such as with the greek philosophers).
The nice thing about this book is that it presents each view as is in non-philosophical jargon. That is not to say that latin phrases or important maxims are missing, but those who are not educated in philosophy could follow this book. Another good thing is that he often presents views without much criticism of the view, it is just an explication of what the person believed. However, Sproul is critical of certain people (especially Immanuel Kant, and Marx).
Another point that should be brought up is that Sproul writes from a Christian perspective. He occasionally looks at the Bible to compare what it says to other philosophies.
Concluding point: Sproul's book is a good introduction. I think its place is best fit for a christian high school philosophy class. But Sproul is not so much dealing with Christianity in relation to other philosophical theories, so others may benefit from reading this work as well. This is more of a good broad survey into how the world has moved into the ideas it currently has (hence the title)- a nice place to start!
Rating: 4
Summary: Well written, but lacks influences of last 50 years.
Comment: _Consequences_ covers great philosophers from Thales of Miletus, to the philosophers of modernism. The penultimate chapter before the conclusion covers Darwin and Freud. Sproul discussed how these 19th century thinkers have had great influence on the current secular worldview. As others have noted, the book ends rather abruptly after 200 pages.
Throughout this book R. C. Sproul does not hide his biases. He clearly states he is a Christian and a dedicated supporter of the philosophy of Thomas Aquinas. He agrees with Roman Catholic philosopher Etienne Gilson, and concludes, "our choice is not between Immanuel Kant and René Descartes or between G. W. F. Hegel and Søren Kierkegaard. We must choose instead between Kant and Thomas Aquinas. Gilson insists that all other positions are mere halfway houses on the road to either absolute religious agnosticism or the natural theology of Christian metaphysics."
R. C. Sproul is a very good writer. He is both easy to read, and communicates many ideas in a few words. I gave _Consequences_ four stars because it is a very good introduction to ancient, medieval, and modern philosophy. Some of the discussions of how philosophies interacted with each other were very nice. Sproul also has an excellent skill in explaining such concepts as epistemology (knowledge), ontology (being), and teleology (purpose).
This book includes the best short introduction to the medieval scholastics I have ever read. The inclusion of proofs for the existence of God was very nicely done. Kierkegaard is also very good, although Sproul does not seem to go as far as he might to meet him on his own terms. As a fideist Kierkegaard has a different philosophical emphasis than Sproul. To judge Kierkegaard in purely rational way seems unfair; he was more concerned about matters of faith and heart and saw philosophy as a means to expression, rather than a way to find absolute truth. I respectfully disagree with Sproul who feels that fideism is one of the "mere byproducts born of the decomposition of the Christian living God." R. C. Sproul certainly is not as friendly to his philosophy as Calvin College's C. Stephen Evans is in _Faith Beyond Reason_.
The book claims to help the reader understand "the concepts that shaped our world." I felt that the book fell short of its purpose because it seems to ignore the influences to our culture in the last fifty years. There was little, if any, mention of postmodernism and eastern philosophy. I found myself checking the copyright date to make sure it wasn't written in the nineteen-fifties. In recent years, the influence of postmodernism has had a profound affect on our culture, and I see the omission as a flaw. In the introduction, Sproul states, "Philosophy forces us to think foundationally." The current voices of postmodern philosophers reject the foundationalism, and much of the rationalism of the modern era. Some people today go as far as saying "What is true for you, is true for you. What is true for me is true for me." That being said, this book and another such as Stanley J. Grentz's _A Primer on Postmodernism_ make a great pair.
The fact that R. C. Sproul is a Reformed Christian, and seems to be quite partial to Thomas Aquinas, does not detract from the fact that he is also a very competent historian of philosophy. I appreciate his ministry to promote thinking among evangelical Christians. After reading _Consequences_, I would highly recommend the highly acclaimed nine-volume series _A History of Philosophy_ by Thomist philosopher Frederick C. Copleston.
Rating: 3
Summary: A little cumbersome to read; limited practical use.
Comment: I'm a big fan of Dr. Sproul and his radio program "Renewing Your Mind." I appreciate the way he takes a philosopher's perspective of Christianity and analyzes/debunks competing worldviews in light of biblical teachings. I had also read some of Sproul's other books, and thus was drawn to this rather intriguing offering. It is intended to supplement the average believer's biblical knowledge with some essential grounding in philosophy, of which Christianity (some would argue) is just another variant.
The book promises to give an overview of major philosophical influences on modern western thought, and it does just that. The presentation is essentially chronological, beginning with the early Greek masters and proceeding through the Renaissance to the likes of Descartes and Kant (where's Hegel?), and on into the twentieth century. There is some loose structure beyond that as certain thinkers built upon the frameworks of some of their forebears, but otherwise the major movements of thought are unconnected.
Sproul presents the gist of each philosopher's major teachings, then analyzes it to identify its particular weaknesses, occasionally doing so in a dismissive way that sort of assumes that the reader understands the subject matter nearly as well as the author. In general the writing style comes across very much like a professor's lecture, sometimes easy to follow, sometimes not. In light of Sproul's radio presentation style, though, this was to be expected (although frankly I thought the style in "Chosen By God" was much preferable).
My real disappointment was that the book really had no specific direction other than as a quick trip through philosophical history. There's no real point that's being made, and very little practical application that can be drawn from it for daily living. The book ends rather abruptly as the discussion of the last thinker's position is concluded, without any real effort to draw it all together into a meaningful whole.
Maybe I'm just looking for more there than the author intended, maybe not. Yes, it's valuable to edify your mind a little bit if (like me) you have no background in philosophy. If that's not what you're after, however, I think you would be wasting your time with this one.
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Title: Lifeviews by R. C. Sproul ISBN: 0800753577 Publisher: Fleming H Revell Co Pub. Date: July, 1990 List Price(USD): $12.99 |
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Title: Chosen by God by R. C. Sproul ISBN: 0842313354 Publisher: Tyndale House Publishers Pub. Date: October, 1994 List Price(USD): $10.99 |
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Title: Classical Apologetics by Robert Charles Sproul, Arthur Lindsley, John H. Gerstner ISBN: 0310449510 Publisher: Zondervan Pub. Date: 06 July, 1984 List Price(USD): $22.99 |
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Title: Defending Your Faith: An Introduction to Apologetics by R. C. Sproul ISBN: 1581345194 Publisher: Crossway Books Pub. Date: September, 2003 List Price(USD): $19.99 |
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Title: Philosophy for Understanding Theology by Diogenes Allen ISBN: 0804206880 Publisher: John Knox Pr Pub. Date: July, 1985 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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