Customer Reviews

Brief Guide to Ideas, A

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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. ...

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.

The authors did a superb job of bringing the greatest minds in history seamlessly into one book. If you enjoy the questions of life and the symmetry of psychology, philosophy, theology and more this is a must read. If you are already familiar with Plato, Freud, Marx and the likes it may be to brief for you, but if your new to them it's a must buy.