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Title: Philosophy for Beginners by Richard Osborne, Ralph Edney, Richard Csborne ISBN: 0-86316-157-X Publisher: Writers & Readers Pub. Date: February, 1993 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.81 (27 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: How do you know who is a philosopher?
Comment: 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.
Rating: 2
Summary: A Love of Polemic, not Wisdom!
Comment: Blending little known writers with political polemicists & ecclesiastical dissidents, then referring to them as 'philosophers'; the book: PHILOSOPHY FOR BEGINNERS (1993) by Richard Osborne, et al; is a collection of obvious biases, obfuscations, and prejudicial views in an easy-to-read comic book format; which will obscure philosophy from mere opinion to the beginner.
Examples of the author's selected preferences runs throughout his work - one example is a short biography of communist agitator Rosa Luxembourg appearing on page 162, in absence of any commentary about Ayn Rand (but then neither are philosophers). Or the term 'libertarian' having been identified as meaning "right-winged", but the communist euphemism of 'progressive' is not to be found. Also the economist Karl Marx was referred to as a 'philosopher', but no comment is found on the genius J.P. Morgan!
It isn't just that a defunct theory such as Marxism is being preferred over economic rationality such as capitalism; or a dissident like Platonist Duns Scotus Eriugena being preferred over accepted Aristotelian St. Thomas Aquinas; it is just this author had obviously emphasized any mechanistic, deterministic, or behavioristic view over any ideological, existential, or teleological system, without adequate explanation for the beginner to comprehend the difference - the result then is sheer indoctrination.
To the author's credit, he stated on page 149 that the "Characteristic of the school (i.e. Analytic Philosophy) is the desire to clarify, through analysis, and a hostility toward metaphysics." It is this preference for Analytic Philosophy and a "hostility" towards metaphysics in any form, without defining the differences, which perverts PHILOSOPHY FOR BEGINNERS (and pervades this entire 'Beginners' series)!
The book PHILOSOPHY FOR BEGINNERS has amusing cartoons, a general overview of the history of philosophy, a nice selection of marginalized thinkers, loose usage of the term 'Philosopher', and a selective emphasis of radicals, as the author demonstrated his love of polemic over wisdom!
Rating: 3
Summary: Entertaining But Could Have Better Explanations
Comment: This book would be better titled "The History of Philosohy for Beginners." The book tells what the philosophers thought but often did not explain what their thoughts meant. In addition, I think more explanations of the questions the philosophers are trying to answer would be more helpful. It seemed that this book highlighted the answers of the individual philosophers without really explaining the questions they were trying to answer. However, I found that some of the questions were revealed when the book had a comic strip describe how another philosopher answered the same question. I did enjoy reading this book though, and after reading this I feel that I have a much better grasp of philosophy.
On a syntax note, the author of the book used UK english (e.g. labor is written labour), so I got thrown off a few times, thinking there was a typo.
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Title: Eastern Philosophy For Beginners by Jim Powell, Joe Lee ISBN: 0863162827 Publisher: Writers & Readers Pub. Date: 04 October, 2000 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: Plato for Beginners by Robert Cavalier, Eric Lurio, Shey Wolvek-Pfister ISBN: 0863160395 Publisher: Writers & Readers Pub. Date: September, 1990 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: Kierkegaard for Beginners (Writers and Readers Documentary Comic Book) by Donald D. Palmer ISBN: 0863161928 Publisher: Writers & Readers Pub. Date: May, 1996 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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Title: Marx for Beginners by Rius ISBN: 0375714618 Publisher: Pantheon Books Pub. Date: 15 July, 2003 List Price(USD): $11.00 |
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Title: Sartre for Beginners (Writers and Readers Documentary Comic Book,) by Donald Palmer ISBN: 0863161774 Publisher: Writers & Readers Pub. Date: July, 1995 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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