Introducing Philosophy: A Text with Integrated Readings [Paperback]

Robert C. Solomon (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0195174623 | ISBN-13: 978-0195174625 | Publication Date: July 29, 2004 | Edition: 8

Philosophy is an exciting and accessible subject, and this engaging text acquaints students with the core problems of philosophy and the many ways in which they are and have been answered. Introducing Philosophy: A Text with Integrated Readings, Eighth Edition, insists both that philosophy is very much alive today and that it is deeply rooted in the past. Accordingly, it combines substantial original sources from significant works in the history of philosophy and current philosophy with detailed commentary and explanation that help to clarify the readings. The selections range from the oldest known fragments to cutting-edge essays in feminism, multiculturalism, and cognitive science. At the end of each chapter is a summary, a list of review questions, a glossary, and a bibliography with suggestions for further reading. Important philosophical terms are carefully introduced in the text and also summarized at the end of each chapter, and brief biographies of the philosophers are provided at the end of the book.

New to the Eighth Edition:
* Addressing the needs of a new generation of students, Robert C. Solomon has included for the first time more than 300 study and review questions. Appearing throughout the text and at the end of each chapter, these questions require immediate feedback from students. They encourage students to articulate the central ideas of what they have just read, instead of just "passing through" on the way to the next reading.
* New selections expand and update the chapters on religion, knowledge, mind and body, freedom, ethics, justice, and beauty. The selections include work by Charles Hartshorne, Paul Davies, Cory Juhl, Friedrich Nietzsche, Jean-Paul Sartre, Sextus Empiricus, Edmund L. Gettier, David Braddon-Mitchell and Frank Jackson, John R. Searle, Colin McGinn, Daniel Dennett, Harry Frankfurt, Gilbert Harman, Emma Goldman, and Arthur C. Danto.
* A companion website at www.oup.com/us/solomon8e features 300 study and review questions (100 multiple-choice, 100 true-or-false, and 100 fill-in-the-blank), discussion questions, chapter overviews and summaries, topical links, suggestions for further reading, and PowerPoint lecture aids.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Strikes a nice balance between commentary and original sources. Accessible to students at different levels."--W.B. Hepburn, College of Charleston, SC

"This book is fascinating because it has great depth but also a simplicity for the first-year student."--Rev. Dale J. Pritchard, Jefferson College

About the Author

Robert C. Solomon is at University of Texas, Austin.

Product Details

• Paperback: 768 pages
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA; 8 edition (July 29, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0195174623
• ISBN-13: 978-0195174625
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #223,156 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Superb Introduction to Philosophy, July 28, 2002

By 

Greg Feirman (Sacramento, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Introducing Philosophy: A Text With Integrated Readings (Paperback)

Robert C. Solomon's "Introducing Philosophy" is a superb introduction to philosophy. I have the 6th edition published in 1997 but this (the 5th edition) is the only one I could find on Amazon. This book is so good because it takes a Topical approach but integrates excerpts from the great philosophers. Historical introductions don't give you the intelletual excitement of great thinkers across time addressing the great problems which is why I like a topical approach (another good topical approach is Tom Morris's "Philosophy for Dummies"). But the great thing about this book is that it integrates selections from philosophers throughout history, in manageable chunks, so that one gets to read some Plato, Aristotle, St. Augustine, Descartes, Locke, Hume, Kant, Stuart Mill, Bertrand Russell and more.

The chapters are also very well organized and build on each other. The introduction introduces us to Socrates and the philosophic tradition and some logic. Then we deal with Reality, Knowledge, Truth, Necessary Truth (mathematics, logic), Religion, Personal Identity, Mind and Body, Freedom, Ethics, Political Philosophy and Aesthetics. So everything is covered and there are excerpts from all the relevant thinkers on these topics. This book is a fantastic way to get a really good feel for the issues of philosophy and some of the great writings in philosophy. Highly recommended.
Greg Feirman (...)

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent textbook, with one problem..., January 20, 2009

By 

S. McCarthy - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Introducing Philosophy: A Text with Integrated Readings (Paperback)

Just finished the first semester of a philosophy degree and we used this as one of our textbooks. As a beginner, I found it very good. Solomon explains the extracts from philosophers in a very clear way. It is presented by topic, e.g. a chapter on Freedom, a chapter on Knowledge, with each chapter containing extracts from a number of philosophers on the subject.

The only problem I found with the book is that the extracts Solomon uses are not cited with page numbers, in the ninth edition at least. This is problematic when writing papers and essays, as once you find what you're looking for, if you want your referencing to be correct you need to get the original book and vainly attempt to find which page in the original text that the extract in Solomon came from. He gives all relevant details in his citations except for page numbers. As a student, I would argue that the page number is much more important to me than the name of the publisher.

But besides that... the book is genuinely good. It will certainly always have a place on my shelf.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive; tells how to think about Philosophy without telling what to think, July 2, 2007

By 

Owen Hatteras "h_sapiens" (Austin, Texas. An oasis in a desert of imbecillity.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Introducing Philosophy: A Text with Integrated Readings (Paperback)

Back when I took Intro. to Phil. (when dinosaurs still walked the Earth), the text used was Joel Feinberg's "Reason and Responsibility". Professor Feinberg's book (current and past editions are available from Amazon) takes a thematic approach with discrete readings and relatively little commentary from the editor. By contrast, the readings in Professor Soloman's book are short fragments woven throughout his text. To me, this gives the book a somewhat choppy feel; but for a someone encountering the subject for the first time or engaged in self-study, this connective tissue will probably be helpful in explaining passages that may not be entirely clear and placing them in their proper context.

One of the great virtues of this book is its sheer breadth. Readings are included from African, Indian, and East Asian cultures. There are some well-chosen excerpts presenting feminist perspctives that many students will probably not be familiar with (except perhaps as conservative caricatures).

My own favorite part of the book was the section dealing with philosophy of mind. Despite the immense advances in cognitive psychology and neurophysiology over the past thirty years, the precise nature of human consciousness still remains elusive (see philosopher Colin McGinn's "The Mysterious Flame" for good reasons why this is likely to remain the case). Questions of personal identity and free will are inextricably mixed with this, and Professor Soloman does a good job of disentangling these controversies and giving them a through airing.

To conclude, it is sad to report that Profesor Soloman died suddenly in Zurich airport while awaiting a flight in January of this year with his wife by his side. It later emerged that he had a congenital (and inoperable) heart defect which he was aware of and knew could potentialy prove fatal. Professor Soloman was, by all accounts, a gifted teacher who decried what he called "thinking thin" and believed that Philosophy was not merely a parlor game of puzzle-solving, but had a powerful contribution to make to 'real life'. My sincere condolences to his wife, family, and students, past and present.

"If death was truly an evil, than Socrates would have told us as much."--Epictetus, "Enchiridon"