The Philosophy Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained Paperback – February 21, 2017

This book is a great primer for anyone interested in delving into philosophy. I've read a fair amount of classic philosophical texts but realize it's often hard to understand the terminology or references that philosophers make. This book is great because it succinctly explains basic concepts of many thinkers and traditions and explains how they fit in the timeline of ideas, making things much more accessible.A friend told me he was interested in philosophy but didn't know where to start so I gave him this book. He got through it relatively quickly and said it greatly strengthened his base understanding of the philosophical tradition. It's really a great resource for getting an overview before diving into deeper concepts.I have more confidence now that someday I'll successfully tackle Hegel to impress a dinner party: the ultimate goal of philosophy.

Although I can’t speak to the nature of the e-book on any device, The Philosophy Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained is a very entertaining introduction to various historically significant philosophical minds. It includes images as well as a light amount of biographical information which is important for gathering the context through which these people were developing their thoughts. The intention of the book is be an overview of an entire subject since its inception in ancient times, so personally I find it difficult to fault for being brief considering how much content it aims to tackle. The segregation of time from section to section is fine given, once again, what a large time-span the book seeks to cover. In addition, this book is tailored to be appealing to youths who probably aren’t yet enabled to take a formalized philosophy course so there’s little cause to make it hyper-informative of individuals or get into the weeds of specific time periods. It is not a history book after all. If someone wants to learn more about a specific philosopher’s ideas this book provides a litany of paths to go down and without a publishing like this, it’s hard to have a significant awareness of the breadth of what is out there.However, there are some things it seems like the book could benefit from. Dedicated passages describing concepts of empiricism and rationalism would be a big plus since a lot of philosophers consider themselves to be decidedly one or the other. Without defining these terms the book’s intended audience, being people who are potentially reading their first book about philosophy, might come to feel like they were in the dark if they learn these things later. As well as this a page or two dedicated to the various formations of logic-based arguments you can make would have been instructive since that is where most meaningful philosophical dialogue is derived from. One more thing that may have been worthwhile would be a page indicating the various ethical theories in brief definition and who was able to first formally publish works regarding them such as utilitarianism, feminism, Kantian ethics, etc. It also needs to detail that although science does explain many things about the universe it cannot begin to explain everything, such as life after death or the nature of “God”. This is especially relevant to any of the stoic philosophers since their conception of God was pantheistic and radically different to any sort of self-centered human looking creation that many people today are inclined to conceptualize it as.All things considered the book is highly informative and more than intriguing enough to get someone more interested in the original subject. It could use more expansive discussion of what many of the cornerstones of basic philosophy courses are. It also quite crudely brushes by conceptions of “God” and takes no time describing the basics of forming an argument. I still am giving it the highest rating just because the interest it generates overwhelms all other deficiencies in it, especially given most people don’t receive a philosophy class in high-school and in terms of daily life it’s definitely critical to be able to contemplate things on a deeper level.

I will begin by saying I am completely new to the world of philosophy. I purchased this book along with Philosophy 101 by Paul Kleinman which I highly recommend. Ok where do I even start? This "book", if you can call such an amazing work of art that, is absolutely stellar and I am proud to own it (FYI I got the hardcover version which you should too). This is not a traditional book in the sense of needing to read the text in chronological order. The introduction is only about 8 pages long and rest of the book is comprised of short bios of famous philosophers, explaining who they were, and their philosophies.You could certainly read the book in chronological order, but I consider it to be something more of a reference book with greater flexibility in how you utilize it. You can flip to a random page and read about a staggeringly amazing human being or you can seek out specific philosophers/areas of interest. I cannot explain in words just how exemplary and profound the illustrations/graphics are in this book, succinctly explaining complex philosophical topics in an understandable manner.Do NOT buy this book to put on your coffee table and to look like an intellectual. Actually read it and you and those around you will become just a tad bit wiser.***FYI: This entire book is available online for free in PDF form but I highly suggest you buy the physical copy instead. Reading a book on a screen just isn't the same especially for a book in this format. Having said that I mention this because you can print out pages to highlight/take notes if you're interested.

This sweeping overview of philosophy walks us through history in chronological order, dedicating a couple pages to our most influential thinkers. It’s an ideal starting point for anyone interested in the topic. The lucid prose spares us from impenetrable academic jargon of the Stanford Encyclopedia; the illustrations and quotes add visual appeal to compensate for what might be considered dry topics; and each section contains a philosopher biography as well as historical context to help orient us to their work. The authors provide adequate synopsis to explain key principles—just enough to map the field and pique interest.This is Philosophy 101. It’s extremely clear and succinct, yet it still captures the essence of a host of meaningful ideas. After reading it, I had a pretty good idea where to focus my future dives into philosophy.