Customer Reviews

Archetypes of Wisdom: Introduction to Philosophy

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For those familiar with the elusive jargon of most philosophy manuals, this masterful text will come as a pleasant and shocking surprise. It highlights complex thoughts without lapsing into confusing or vague terminology. It also ventures beyond the philosophical triumvirate of Plato, Socrates and Aristotle by introducing the reader to other philosophers frequently over-looked in traditional Phil. texts. Chalked full of modern examples and written in a concise and critical manner, Archetypes of Wisdom is a great introductory host to one of the oldest disciplines in the humanities.
An added bonus in this text is the slight, but still present, sarcastic humour of Doug Soccio. I have been fortunate enough to have had Professor Soccio as an instructor and his unique blend of humour and intelligence transfer to the pages in this book. I highly recommend it to anyone with the phil of soph.

I don't usually use introductory textbooks in my philosophy classes, preferring to give primary readings coupled with lectures and discussion. Being pricey, textbooks are also something of a burden, when other material is available. What recommends this text, however, is its arrangement by philosopher rather than the more traditional presentation of philosophy by topics. If one must use a single text, this one isn't bad.

Soccio is more or less fair to each author or movement he covers, an achievement in itself. It is nice to see thinkers like Marx covered as philosophers in their own right (he was very important for post-Hegelian European thought, regardless of the opinion one might have of his economic thought in practice), and Soccio rightly divides the twentieth century between Wittgenstein and Heidegger, both of whom are sometimes overlooked in intro classes. The text also spends a good third of its pages(6 of 18 chapters) on ancient thought from the Presocratics to Stoicism, another nice touch. I give the table of contents below, it will give a better idea of what is going on in the book.

CONTENTS:

1. Philosophy and the Search for Wisdom.
OVERVIEW OF CLASSICAL THEMES.
2. The Asian Sages: Lao-tzu, Confucius, and Buddha.
3. The Presocratic Sophos.
4. The Sophist: Protagoras.
5. The Wise Man: Socrates.
6. The Philosopher-King: Plato.
7. The Naturalist: Aristotle.
8. The Stoic: Epictetus and Marcus Aurelius.
9. The Scholar: Thomas Aquinas.
OVERVIEW OF MODERN THEMES.
10. The Rationalist: René Descartes.
11. The Skeptic: David Hume.
12. The Universalist: Immanuel Kant.
13. The Utilitarian: John Stuart Mill.
14. The Materialist: Karl Marx.
15. The Existentialist: Søren Kierkegaard.
16. The Pragmatist: William James.
17. The Anti-Philosopher: Friedrich Nietzsche.
18. The Twentieth Century: Ludwig Wittgenstein and Martin Heidegger.

Buy this book if you are seeking an intro to philosophy and get ready for an entertaining, yet educated reading of some of history's most renowned figures.

Book includes contemporary issues which have to do with a certain philosopher's thought, small bibliographies of thei lives and what influenced their way of thinking; and it really presents the subjects in an academic, objective light with no bias on the authori's behalf of thought tendencies of his own.

This is the 2nd edition, but buy the latest edition from Soccio for a current events version of the book.

Thank you for explaining the condition of the book. I was able to save lots of money by ordering through you!!!!

This book is a wonderful book that makes it easy to read about philosophy. It makes everything very interesting and they will even put neat quotes on the side of the book. I recommend to all.

It was mentioned that this book had some highlighting but in good condition. Hoever the truth is almost all pages are highlighted and at the front several pages were loose. They fell apart. I had to glue them.

I paid for expediated shipping which I thought meant 2-3 days. The book didn't arrive for 7 days. So I believe the expedited shipping charges are a waste when the book is not coming direct from Amazon.

I am a high-school teacher at a magnet school in northwest Louisiana, and we have used Archetypes of Wisdom in a philosophy class of gifted and talented students for the past five years. The book and the class are so popular that we now offer four sections instead of the original two. Our students love the class so much, we wonder why more high schools do not offer a course in philosophy. Many of the former students add philosophy as a minor when they declare their interests in college. The tests online and the cd-rom are useful items.

I tried for an hour to desrcibe Dr. Soccio as both a professor and an author but I can't capture the experience in words---see for yourself!