Customer Reviews

New Skins for Old Wine: Plato's Wisdom for Today's World

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The book covers scattered topics of contemporary relevance, linked by the author's personal interest and connected to an underlying Platonic and Christian viewpoint of the world. The author covers topics of academic interest --- from life and consciousness to sexuality and religion --- in an opinionated style that brings the subject matter to life and should encourage lively debate in any classroom setting. In an attempt to address issues of importance today through a philosophy based on Platonism and objective realism, the author is to be commended. The book will appeal to many and should, as the author hopes, encourage readers to think more deeply about topics where everyday thinking can be muddied. In some topics (eg Islam) I fear the author strays beyond his area of expertise, but attempts to address such deficiencies by incorporating various personal exchanges in a manner reminiscent of Socratic dialog within the text. Such debates will add to the value of this book in a classroom setting and I recommend its use in an introductory course in philosophy.

For those who are familiar with much of contemporary philosophy- they will know that it is almost entirely "spiritual" and pretentious nonsense. Lovatt's book is a return back to logical thought and reasoned conclusions. As stated in another comment, he ranges a broad spectrum of topics with views that generally take concepts from both sides of the aisle to create what he believes to be the correct answer. This is a wonderful guide to many of Plato's thoughts, and raises pertinent issues in often unique ways. To the atheists out there- Lovatt will often raise the topic of God, but takes it as a given that God exists. Speaking as an atheist and or an agnostic, this is NO deterent to reading the book. Nearly everything Lovatt says will still carry weight in worldview without God, and you may find yourself pleasently surprised at his explicit use of logic. The only thing I have against the book is that I found parts of it a bit "dry". But if you are on the pursuit for truth, beauty, and justice- this book is an excellent place to start, continue, or finish.