Brief Guide to Ideas, A [Paperback]

William Raeper (Author), Linda Edwards (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2000

Philosophy -- dry and remote? Think again. It's as relevant as tonight's news, as immediate as the choices you make in a career. If you want to interact wisely with the world you live in, you need to understand the ideas that shape its commerce, launch its humanitarian efforts, trigger its wars, and profoundly impact the way you yourself approach God, life, and relationships. Postmodernism, Platonism, Humanism, Existentialism, Feminism, Rationalism, Fundamentalism, New Age . . . They're more than just terms. They're structures of thought you encounter constantly. This book gives you a fundamental grasp of what they are and how they influence your dealings with the world . . . and its dealings with you. You'll gain essential insights into over 40 of the world's major thinkers. Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Descartes, Kant, Locke, Marx, Nietsche, Freud, Wittgenstein . . . A Brief Guide to Ideas introduces to you these and many more of the great philosophers. You'll develop a working knowledge of numerous key ideas and movements. And you'll learn how philosophers and religions through the ages have grappled with critical questions that influence your life today.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

Philosophy -- dry and remote? Think again. It's as relevant as tonight's news, as immediate as the choices you make in a career. If you want to interact wisely with the world you live in, you need to understand the ideas that shape its commerce, launch its humanitarian efforts, trigger its wars, and profoundly impact the way you yourself approach God, life, and relationships. Postmodernism, Platonism, Humanism, Existentialism, Feminism, Rationalism, Fundamentalism, New Age . . . They're more than just terms. They're structures of thought you encounter constantly. This book gives you a fundamental grasp of what they are and how they influence your dealings with the world . . . and its dealings with you. You'll gain essential insights into over 40 of the world's major thinkers. Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Descartes, Kant, Locke, Marx, Nietsche, Freud, Wittgenstein . . . A Brief Guide to Ideas introduces to you these and many more of the great philosophers. You'll develop a working knowledge of numerous key ideas and movements. And you'll learn how philosophers and religions through the ages have grappled with critical questions that influence your life today.

About the Author

The late William Raeper was a writer and teacher based in Oxford. Linda Edwards and William Raeper together wrote the highly successful textbook 'Luke: A Gospel for Today.'

Linda Edwards (M.A., Oxford University; M.Ed., Nottingham University) is visiting lecturer at Trinity College, Carmarthen, Wales, and a freelance writer and educational consultant. Together with the late William Raeper, she is author of Luke: A Gospel for Today.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 18 and up
  
• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Lion Hudson; Revised edition edition (February 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0310227747
• ISBN-13: 978-0310227748
• Product Dimensions: 8.6 x 5.5 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #856,809 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars level headed reading, September 18, 2006

By 

David Stump - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Brief Guide to Ideas, A (Paperback)

this is a pretty good medium beginners level intro to several philosophical thinkers and concepts spanning the ages. A good place to start sampling thought. There may be one or two places in the book where the analysis/presentation of a particular thought is slightly askew, but not too much to detract from what is overall pretty much on the level.

1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It is a very BRIEF! but very lucid and fun to read!, March 4, 2003

By 

Hyun Yu "katy" (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Brief Guide to Ideas, A (Paperback)

You defintely can judge the book by its cover on this book. I really liked it a lot. I used this book as a reference tool to teach my philosophy/ethics class in college. This is defintely not for the serious philosophy student, but a very nice introduction to the ideas that dominated western thought throughout the Greek/Roman world that has come to us today. It also treats postmodernism, and the ideas that dominates today as well. This book presents a very lucid history of ideas that is very enjoyable and fun to read!

Because I had to interloan the book from another library and I am unable to renew it, I will buy it after I place this review. ...

2 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very poor book, February 10, 2004

By 

Frank (Stockton CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Brief Guide to Ideas, A (Paperback)

This book lost all credibility when I read the authors' attack on fundamentalism. I am a former fundamentalist, so I might be expected to have an apostate's bias against fundamentalism, but these authors are not only inaccurate but almost comically biased. The authors claim that the fundamentalists' belief in the truth of the Bible is "borders on idolatry," that fundamentalists are "often parasitic" and define themselves not by belief in their scriptures or truth, but by their opposition to "other approaches." Instead of examining the mainstream Christian fundamentalist beliefs, the authors simply define all fundamentists as having "a totally closed world view," and damn all fundamentalists by guilt through supposed association with the Ayatollah Khomeini, David Koresh and the Taliban.
Lastly, the title is misleading, especially when sold in secular stores, as mine was. The title would more accurately be, _A Liberal Christian Response to Philosophy_, instead of the current title.