Overview

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.' - Aristotle

Philosophy showcases the major philosophers of the western tradition. Written with the general reader in mind, it provides an ideal introduction to their ideas and the effect those ideas have had on the wider world. Concise and informative, the text introduces the basic concepts behind each philosopher's work together with biographical and ...
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Philosophy

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Overview

It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.' - Aristotle

Philosophy showcases the major philosophers of the western tradition. Written with the general reader in mind, it provides an ideal introduction to their ideas and the effect those ideas have had on the wider world. Concise and informative, the text introduces the basic concepts behind each philosopher's work together with biographical and historical details. Both easy-to-use and a stimulating read, this book is an ideal reference for anybody interested in philosophy, and especially for those who want a clear, entertaining exposition of the ideas that shape the way we think.

Key features:
. A-Z format, covering the ideas of many of history's most influential thinkers, from Aristotle and Cicero to controversial contemporary philosophers such as Peter Singer and Jacques Derrida
. At-a-glance summaries of the major works of each philosopher featured
. Fully illustrated
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Editorial Reviews

Children's Literature
This is quite a feat-100 essential philosophers' thoughts are condensed into one volume! One-page explanations alongside full-page pictures of these Western philosophers invite the curious reader to browse. Yet there is no light reading here. Interconnections among thinkers, such as the rationalists, empiricists, materialists, and existentialists, along with historical twists from the pre-Socratic to the new scientists are revealed only through close study of the entire book. Plato or Aristotle seems almost comprehensible once the reader arrives at the "linguistic turn" of the twentieth-century philosophers. The "love of wisdom" blazes trails where science, religion, politics, economics, and other methodologies dare not go or have not yet thought of going. Only two women, Mary Wollstonecraft and Simone de Beauvoir, are a part of this great journey-a fact that leads to speculation about the nature of philosophy itself. The book reviewed was an uncorrected proof, which probably accounts for the following omissions: final editing; glossary; index; biography of author; photo captions referencing artist/photographer, etc.; introductions to sections with definitions of schools of thought; time line; and references. A bright young adult could glean information from these entries, but the book leans more toward an adult student. This is a reference book a student will want to open again and again. 2003 (orig. 2002), Enchanted Lion Books, Ages 15 up.
— Carol Raker Collins, Ph.D.
Children's Literature - Wendy Glenn
This reference text introduces readers to one hundred Western philosophers. Each entry consists of two pages containing a full-page black-and-white rendering of the philosopher and a full-page of text delineating his or her key ideas, goals, and writings. Disappointingly, but not surprisingly, the philosophers referenced are overwhelmingly male (Socrates, Democritus, St. Augustine, St. Aquinas, More, Hobbes, Descartes, Locke, Chomsky, Skinner, among others), with Mary Wollstonecraft and Simone de Beauvoir as the only female thinkers considered worthy of inclusion. While the text claims to place each thinker in his/her associated school of thought, there is no attention given to describing these schools of thought as a means to provide context for the philosophers representative of it. While readers learn, for example, that Levi-Strauss, Foucault, and Derrida belong to the Postmodernist movement, they aren't provided adequate explanation for what this might mean. Although a glossary of key terms follows the entries, definitions for "postmodernism" and several other schools of thought are not included. In terms of writing style, the lofty language and attempt to convey complex notions in such a small space make the text difficult to access, especially considering the intended adolescent audience. A useful resource for classroom teachers but not likely to resonate well with kids.
KLIATT
This is a fine reference book. It is thoughtfully written and beautifully (if simply) designed. There's a full-page drawing or photograph on the left of each turned page, and an autobiographical, analytic essay on the right (with a pulled quote to highlight one key idea). There's also a useful philosophical glossary at the end. Philosophers are grouped into schools (rationalists, liberals, materialists, existentialists, etc.). While one could quibble with categorizations (Freud a materialist?), there's no denying the solid, sensible portraits of thinkers' work. The playful limerick objecting to Bishop Berkeley's extreme idealism that ends the Berkeley section shows that Stokes has a perfectly pitched approach, taking the material seriously yet making it intellectually fun as well. KLIATT Codes: SA—Recommended for senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2002, Enchanted Lion Books, dist. by Farrar Straus Giroux, 218p. illus., Ages 15 to adult.
—Daniel Levinson
Library Journal
Gr 10 Up-This book takes a thematic and then chronological approach to its subject. The philosophers are first grouped by their school of thought, clearly outlined on the contents page. Within each division, Stokes includes several examples, showing the progression of that philosophy over time. For example, existentialism is traced from Kierkegaard through Heidegger and Sartre to de Beauvoir. Each entry is two pages long, and includes a black-and-white illustration or photo of the philosopher. No biographical information is included beyond a general comment about nationality or education. Instead, readers are given a summary of each individual's contribution to the "science" of philosophy. There are cross-references throughout, indicated by boldface type. The glossary seeks to clarify some of the more difficult terms and concepts. This is not a work for beginners; both the vocabulary and content make it appropriate for more mature readers. Overall, however, it is a valuable introduction to some of the world's great thinkers.-Elizabeth M. Reardon, McCallie School, Chattanooga, TN Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
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Product Details

  • ISBN-13: 9781848584976
  • Publisher: Arcturus Publishing
  • Publication date: 8/31/2011
  • Sold by: Barnes & Noble
  • Format: eBook
  • File size: 8 MB

Meet the Author

Philip Stokes graduated with a BA(Hons) in Philosophy from the University of Reading in 1993, and gained his Masters degree from Bristol University in 1995. His Masters dissertation was a critique of Quine from a Wittgensteinian perspective. After working for several years in academic publishing, Philip returned to academia proper, beginning his PhD at the University of Reading, where he was Course tutor within the Department of Continuing Education at Reading. In 2005 he took up a post at Chulalongkom University in Thailand, where he is a member of the Language Faculty.
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Table of Contents

The Presocratics
Thales of Miletus 8
Pythagoras of Samos 10
Xenophanes of Colophon 12
Heraclitus 14
The Eleatics
Parmenides of Elea 16
Zeno of Elea 18
The Academics
Socrates 20
Plato 22
Aristotle 24
The Atomists
Democritus 26
Epicurus 28
The Cynics
Diogenes of Sinope 30
The Stoics
Marcus Tullius Cicero 32
Philo of Alexandria 34
Lucius Annaeus Seneca 36
Marcus Aurelius 38
The Sceptics
Sextus Empiricus 40
The Neoplatonists
Plotinus 42
The Christians
St Augustine of Hippo 44
Boethius 46
The Scholastics
St Anselm 48
St Thomas Aquinas 50
John Duns Scotus 52
William of Occam 54
The Age of Science
Nicolaus Copernicus 56
Niccolo Machiavelli 58
Desiderus Erasmus 60
Thomas More 62
Francis Bacon 64
Galileo Galilei 66
Thomas Hobbes 68
Sir Isaac Newton 70
The Rationalists
Rene Descartes 72
Antoine Arnauld 74
Nicolas Malebranche 76
Benedict de Spinoza 78
Gottfried von Leibniz 80
The Empiricists
John Locke 82
David Hume 84
Thomas Reid 86
Voltaire 88
Jean-Jacques Rousseau 90
Denis Diderot 92
The Idealists
George Berkeley 94
Immanuel Kant 96
Johann Schiller 98
Frederick Schelling 100
George Hegel 102
Arthur Schopenhauer 104
The Liberals
Adam Smith 106
Mary Wollstonecraft 108
Thomas Paine 110
Jeremy Bentham 112
John Stuart Mill 114
Auguste Comte 116
The Evolutionists
Charles Darwin 118
Henri Louis Bergson 120
A.N. Whitehead 122
The Pragmatists
Ernst Mach 124
Charles Peirce 126
William James 128
John Dewey 130
The Materialists
Karl Marx 132
Friedrich Engels 134
Vladimir Lenin 136
Sigmund Freud 138
Carl Jung 140
John Maynard Keynes 142
The Existentialists
Soren Kierkegaard 144
Friedrich Nietzsche 146
Edmund Husserl 148
Martin Heidegger 150
Jean-Paul Sartre 152
Albert Camus 154
Simone de Beauvoir 156
The Linguistic Turn
Gottlob Frege 158
Bertrand Russell 160
Ludwig Wittgenstein 162
Ferdinand de Saussure 164
George Edward Moore 166
Moritz Schlick 168
Lev Vygotsky 170
Rudolph Carnap 172
A.J. Ayer 174
Alfred Tarski 176
J.L. Austin 178
Gilbert Ryle 180
Noam Chomsky 182
The Postmodernists
Claude Levi-Strauss 184
Michel Foucault 186
Jacques Derrida 188
The New Scientists
Emile Durkheim 190
Albert Einstein 192
Karl Popper 194
Kurt Godel 196
Alan Turing 198
B.F. Skinner 200
Thomas Kuhn 202
Paul Feyerabend 204
W.V.O. Quine 206
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