Customer Reviews

The Best Things in Life

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I read this book while taking a Socratic Dialogue Class with Dr. Kreeft at Boston College. "The Best Things in Life" is one of my favorite Kreeft books. It is a real page-turner, and poses simple yet perplexing philosophy throughout the dialogue. Kreeft's humor is a little corny, but his presentation of questions and conclusions are winning and convincing.

Highly recommended for young readers.

I read this book because I teach logic and public policy debate to high school home schoolers. Peter Kreeft harpoons sacred cows, political correctness, philosophy and lazy thinking with humor and razor sharp logic. What a delight! Like all of Kreeft's work, this is not a quick read, but a trememndously valuable one. I'll be introduing this book during second semester. I am buying it for a high school student for Christmas, as well as a personal shelf copy.

What would happen if Socrates returned to the present, showing up on a college campus over 2,000 years later? What sorts of things would interest him and what would he think about the modern world? With fine imagination, Peter Kreeft explores these questions in a book that discusses issues pertinent to the modern reader's life. Entertaining and instructive, this book is good for stimulating ethical and moral reflection.

This short, simple book carries a powerful punch. A real education is contained within: not mere factual information, but how to actually ask questions and think. I only wish someone had given me a copy when I was in high school, so I could have avoided needless, stupid mistakes.

What is the meaning of life? Should I go to college? What kind of job do I want? - These are the kinds of questions Kreeft (via Socrates) presents to the reader in his book. The dialogs are short, witty, and make excellent points. This book proves that Kreeft is a master of common sense and philosophy. This book would be perfect for mature high school students and any college student (and beyond college too). Of course, the focus of the book is on a question we hardly stop to think about as we trudge through life: What are we living for? Using "means" and "ends" Aristotelian principles, he does an excellent job of bringing about awareness of the Summum Bonum. It is a short and easy read that will challenge the way most Americans live.

With all the reams of paper devoted to the topic of "values" today, Peter Kreeft's, The Best Things in Life, is still a refreshing alternative thirteen years after it's first publication. Writing in the form of a play, the author places the ever-questioning Socrates in the 20th-century, and humorously debunks the popular pseudo-intellectual subjectivism and psycho-babble one usually hears these days. He not only entertains, but equips the reader to further examine values, ideas and his or her own life. In this book, as well as the others in his "Socratic dialog" set (The Unaborted Socrates, Socrates Meets Jesus, and Between Heaven and Hell), Kreeft also shows that Christians have brains and need not be ashamed to use them.

Peter Kreeft is known for writing in the dialectic style. Though Kreeft is famous for using this style, he does not pull it off in this book as well as he does in some of his other books. This book is written as a dialogue or series of dialogues between Socrates and two University students. `Peter Pragma' and `Felicia Flake' both of whom have 6 discussions with Socrates on different subjects.

That is just the beginning; the names are all puns in the book, as we have seen from our two main protagonists(Peter and Felicia). The puns continue through all the professors and personalities encountered. The president of Desperate State University is "Fudge Factor" and is as inept as his name implies. We also meet "Marigold Measurer", the scientist who is addicted to data but without really understanding its purpose or use. Felicia has some mentors in her life - "Pop Syke" who is the guru of pop psychology, and "Karl", the communist who is brother to "Adam", the Capitalist.

Having read a number of Kreeft's other books, this one was a bit of a letdown. The puns with the names got to be so trying and tiring that it was hard to finish the book. The same information could have been conveyed in conventional prose, with half the words. The dialogue grew boring and irritating. I just wanted the meat from this book and had to go through a lot of bone and grist to get to it.

The book has a lot to offer in the examination of why someone does what he does, and to help one live a more examined life. But the book often does it in a very long, roundabout way.

I never like to give a book a bad review, and often go back and read a book a second time before I will do so. This book, though hard to get through the first time, was more than worth it the second time. It teaches you the basics of philosophy, the Socratic method, as well as the Oxford method, for having an argument or discussion.

Much like some of his other writings - for example, Between Heaven and Hell and Making Sense out of Suffering - this book is one I will return to and re-read many times during my lifetime. So even if it seems cheesy and trite at first, I encourage you to persevere. It will be well worth the effort.

As an aside, let me just say that reading the book recalled fond memories of my college and graduate school years, and even reminded me of some people I knew.
The premise of the book is contained in its title: What are "the best things in life?" The modern mind is exposed as one that is so introspective that it is oblivious to the workings of logic, reason, and basic self-understanding. Thus an irony is exposed, namely the inclination toward the self-delusional of the "me" generations.
Socrates' famous dictum: "the unexamined life isn't worth living," is the central tenet of the book. Two people closely evaluate their lives and realize that everything may not be as it seems.
The hopeful effect this will have on a reader is for he or she to turn and examine his or her own life. The book makes some interesting points, and is a "lighter" read than some of Kreeft's theological and philosophical treatises.
All in all, I like the book.

Once again, Kreeft is able to imitate Socrates voice, and show us what the sage might have said had he been in contemporary society. Socrates' strength in not in the assertion, but in the cross-examination of ideas. Kreeft-Socrates, like Søren Kierkegaard, does not come out with direct assertions, but you are bale to read between the lines and find out what they believe.

The device of using Socrates talking to two college students is great. Sadly, universities are not longer places of learning, but more of a regimented indoctrination corps. And intellectual corpses is what they produce.

This book should be read BEFORE someone goes to college, as a form of intellectual inoculation. The prepared mind is he conquering mind. In fact, I would suggest that high school freshmen should be required to read this book.

The only problem I have is in chapter 11, the discussion of capitalism and Marxism. Kreeft misunderstands Adam Smith's whole philosophy. He is not describing Adam Smith's philosophy, but a general "conventional wisdom" understanding of capitalism.

In fact, the very word "capitalism" betrays Kreeft's hidden assumption. The essence of Adam Smith's theory is not capital, but freedom. By virtue of its size, Russia/USSR has far more capital than the United Sates, but is far poorer. The only difference is the freedom. That is why there was a brain-drain in 1989.

On page 142, Kreeft mentions that freedom of thought is not confined to capitalism and that freedom of thought is not the defining factor of capitalism. This is dead wrong. You have the economy, but who makes the products and transactions that actually move the economy? A free human mind.

He also says that you can have freedom of thought without capitalism, and capitalism without freed of thought. This is also dead wrong. As he presents it in the book, it is a "free-floating abstraction" since he never cites any historical data. In other words, he is not dealing with historic objective reality.

Free markets must have free minds. Modern prosperity-cultural, politcal, scientific, religious, and economic prosperity-stems from the Renaissance, which was the era the mind was freed.

To supplement your reading in this chapter, I suggest Frederic Bastiat's "The Law," Hayeck's "Road to Serfdom," Rand's, "Philosophy-Who needs it?" and "Capitalism: the Unknown Idea," and Hugh Nibley's "Approaching Zion."

I would also suggest reading Adam Smith himself: "Wealth of Nations" and his often-overlooked "Theory of Moral Sentiments." Remember, before being an economist, Smith was a moralist.

With this one exception, recommend this book for high school students before going to college. It is an easy read, easy to understand, and rather mind expanding.

I think the last chapter on relativism is a crown jewel. Kreeft covers the issue thoroughly, and in a friendly manner. He also included a scratch outline of the discussion. This outline should be memorized by everyone BEFORE they get higher education.

Note: I find it ironic that Kreeft points out that morality is seen by the eye of the mind, which sounds suspiciously similar to Adam Smith's "man within the breast" from his "Theory of Moral Sentiments." Aha! Kreeft is a crypto-capitalist!

In this book Peter Kreeft uses a line from some of his previous books, having Socrates interact with modern characters. This time socrates finds himself in a university setting, and in his dialogues with two university students he examines many topics including sex, money, music, and ultimately objective truth.
The only drawback to this book is that at times Socrates serves only as a poor veil for the author's own beliefs. However for the most part the book is well written. In particular I found his discussion on objective values to be well written and insightful.