Customer Reviews

First Philosophy: Fundamental Problems and Readings in Philosophy

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I was looking for a lightly edited book of important philosophical works for my section of Introduction to Philosophy. My section had a lot of science, math, and engineering students in it, and my pedagogical goal was to get these students involved in doing philosophy. I worked through chapters 3, 5, and then 4 over a 12-week (36-hour) course.

The introductory material is very good. It gives some description of the philosophers as people, tries to situate their work in the broader context of the area of philosophy at hand, and gives a brief overview of the structure and key point of the reading. The questions for reflection will take the students deeper into the material. I found these invaluable as I created lectures and sought discussion points.

For my purposes this book a number of small advantages. It is, in many ways, just another introductory anthology. However, works that are excerpted are marked clearly, so there is no illusion that one is reading the whole piece if it has been abridged. Feminist or situated epistemology is integrated within relevant topics, rather than being relegated to a late chapter as a curiosity. The book is inexpensive compared to other comparable anthologies, and the paper and binding reflect that--but it was less expensive than putting together a course package, so it is of great value if you want to put a good book of introductory readings into your students' hands. Finally, it is from a Canadian press, and I thought that was fitting for use at a Canadian university.

I will not hesitate to use the same text if I have the opportunity to teach an introductory metaphysics and epistemology course again.