Customer Reviews

Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction (Very Short Introductions)

5 star:		(8)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Introductory philosophical texts tend to adopt one of two possible approaches: Either they give a chronological account of famous thinkers and schools, or they examine a set of topics - ethics, free will, nature of mind, etc. Craig opts for something different and rather interesting. The first three chapters are intended to be read in tandem with the works they summarize, namely Plato's "Crito", Hume's "On Miracles" and the Buddhist "King Milanda's Chariot". How many readers will actually do that is doubtful but it is an interesting idea that introduces the reader to three very different areas of philosophy.

We then, somewhat more traditionally, have summary introductions to some philosophical themes and 'isms'. Next, Craig presents reviews of a very personal selection of philosophical classics. 'Idiosyncratic' may be a better word than 'personal' as it includes Darwin's "The Origin of Species" which would not normally feature in such a list.

Finally, we have a description of philosophy as a discipline, asking what purposes and interests it serves.

There's a lot of good things to say about this little book. It is a well-written, lively and authoritative introduction. Craig references the Hindu tradition as well as the Western and gives plenty of encouragement and advice for further study.

This is one of the more entertaining and reader-friendly books on philosophy I've read, and in terms of style it goes down more smoothly than even most other Very Short Introductions.

However, it's difficult to see the precise value or usefulness of this book. Obviously, you can't give a comprehensive overview of a subject as vast as Philosophy in a 130 page book. Still, the organization of this volume seems somewhat haphazard and meandering.

Edward Craig is certainly an expert on the subject, and the chapters do explore various facets of philosophy, such as predominant philosophical questions and key philosophers and philosophical texts. But the choice of topics seems a bit too subjective, and the manner in which things are explored lends itself more to entertainment than actual acquisition of knowledge.

I recommend this to anybody who has an interest in philosophy but knows literally next to nothing about it; for anyone else, the content is a bit too shallow to be really useful, though it's still an entertaining read.

A wonderful, lucid, entertaining and informative guide. Craig takes the reader step-by-step through some of the principal works of ancient and modern philosophy, and provides us with an essential guide to the somewhat daunting task of deciphering and understanding a range of compelling thinkers and their works. With an engaging, friendly writing style (and an excellent bibliography to encourage us to continue our journey), this is an indispensable little volume.

...with a very good tour guide. As the title suggests, it is a very short introduction. Prof. Craig gives an excellent introduction to the three big questions "What should I do?" (or how should I live my life?) "How do we know?"(very roughly, how do we draw conclusions? "What am I?" (again, very roughly, what is a person?) After dealing with these Prof. Craig then moves on to several other issues, all of which relate back to these questions.

Prof. Craig is a delightful guide, full of good humour and, for the most part, a fantastic explainer of very complex ideas; you'll have to read his description of Nietzsche's ideas to see what I mean. His annotated bibliography is definitely one of the best I have come across in this series.

Why four stars? I'd give him four and a half if I could. The only minor shortcomings of the book were that one or two of the explanations weren't all that clear (but then, it is a very short guide) and I found his treatment of C. S. Lewis bordering on contemptuous.

Those points aside, a fantastic book.

If Edward Craig's class lectures at Cambridge University are as disorganized as his writings, the student is in for a tough experience. If the author wished to present a basic introduction and overview of Philosophy, it would have been far better had he taken either an historical or systematic approach to the subject. Having done neither, his book is both disjointed and fragmented. In his introductory chapter, one would hope to find a clear and precise defintion as to the discipline of philosophy, but one finds this lacking. From an excursion into Plato, the author jumps an unbelievable amount of time into the 18th Century and David Hume. What!? Had nothing occured in the area of philosophy or theology during this intervening time?
What of Augustine, Anselm, or Thomas Aquinas and the age of belief? In his treatment of Rene Descartes, the period of rationalism, enlightenment, and empiricism, the author fails to make clear the heart and center of these movements.
And why devote space to Buddhism, and eastern philosphy? Here the author should have remained in the area of western philosophy. The author's treatment of the importance of Kant, Mill, and Hegel fails to convey their basic world view and essential thesis. Why include Charles Darwin, when Darwin was essentialy a scientist rather than a philosopher? Overall, this work of Edward Craig is fragmented and flawed. He demonstrates an inability to organize his thinking and writing. Do not waste your time or money on this book.

Have you ever been searching for something to read, picked up a text almost by chance, and then found yourself unable to put it down? For those with a philosophical bent - even those who may have studied philosophy - this is a wonderful introduction to pondering the big questions of life. It is neither shallow nor dumbed-down and encourages your to actually reflect and to think about life.

Craig first advises to read slowly: the text is short (about 125 pages or so) but there is a lot packed into it. Indeed there is! He begins with 3 important questions and gives a chapter to each: What should I do? How do I know? What am I? Each questions follows a text (all of which can be found online through a search engine) from Plato, from Hume, and a Buddhist text (The Questions of King Milinda). Craig outlines the arguments and raises interesting questions. The texts are classics and it helps to read them concurrently with Craig's book. This makes for an exceptionally enriching experience.

The rest of Philosophy considers different philosophical topics (individuals, animals, the state, ethics, etc)and philosophers (Descartes, Hegel, Darwin, Nietzsche, etc) in an engaging manner. There are many suggestions for further reading. On balance, this is quite a "very short introduction" to philosophy. Enjoy!

This little book is a gem. A couple of reviews here are too hard on this a 125 page tour. I came to this book as somewhat of a philosophy novice unlike, it seems, a couple of the disappointed reviewers here, so my perspective may be naïve, but the book did it's job for me and then some. Early on Craig correctly recommends reading slowly, because he packs a lot into the short tour. Apologies to a previous reviewer who found it shallow, keep in mind it's a large task for a small book.

If you know nothing of philosophy, I'd recommend first, as Craig does also, Thomas Nagel's "What Does It All Mean". My first read was Bertrand Russell's "History of Western Philosophy" which was too much for a beginner, although it did give me a sense of the history of western thought as it was intended. Russell's "The Problems of Philosophy" would have been a better start, but Russell can be a bit technical for the beginner.

Craig's book is not so much an intro to the problems of philosophy as a whirlwind tour of the major ideas that encompass western (and some eastern) thought, beginning with Plato, jumping to Hume and touching on some of the authors favorites: Descartes, Hegel, Nietzsche, and the impact of Darwin. He discusses some themes and introduces some "isms". He recommends readings along the way, and the end provides a list of other recommended intro and intermediate texts. He wraps it up with a chapter titled, "What's in it for whom": The individual; The priesthood; The working class; Women; Animals.

Craig did an excellent job piquing my interest in further readings. His enthusiasm for the subject matter is obvious.

My best friend majored in philosophy, and I've long admired the types of questions that occur to him when he's confronted with an issue. Now, having read this book -- as well as a couple from the bibliography -- I'm in the habit of asking myself similar questions. I recommend this book highly.

Philosophy is a large subject which can be made as complex as one wishes, so any introductory philosophy book will struggle with the problem that it simply isn't possible to achieve both breadth and depth, especially when the book is "very short."

Some books aim for breadth, but they generally wind up rushing through names and ideas in a superficial way which is ultimately ineffective and unsatisfying. Other books go for depth by focusing on one or a few topics, but examining selected trees without a sense of the overall forest fails to adequately orient the beginner.

I think that Craig's book actually manages to find a nice balance between breadth and depth, despite being very short. He starts by correctly identifying the three main questions philosophy wrestles with:

- How ought we to live?
- What really exists?
- How do we know?

(Note: I've listed the above questions in the order given by Craig, and this ordering is a practical one which probably corresponds to the sequence in which the questions will naturally emerge for most reflective people. However, if one wishes to take a more theoretical approach, it might make sense to reverse the ordering of the questions.)

Craig discusses various possible responses to these questions (and many related sub-questions) in general terms and using a variety of brief examples, but he also explores a handful of case studies of philosophers and portions of their books in substantial depth, thus showing us what a real work of philosophy looks like and how it can be fairly evaluated. An added and very important plus is that he draws his examples from both Western and Eastern philosophy, and provides insightful comparisons between them; this is rare in introductory philosophy books, especially short ones.

While anyone serious about philosophy will need to put a lot of time and effort into it, everyone has to start somewhere, and this book is about as good a short introduction as I've found so far, so I recommend it.

I agree with much of the positive reviews below, so I won't repeat their points. Edward Craig does an excellent job to familiarize the reader with the discipline of philosophy by way of looking at snapshots of philosophers that represent key aspects of philosophy. What Craig does present, he presents clearly and succinctly, and he certainly stimulates interest in the subject. So the book happily succeeds as an introduction.

While "biased" may be too strong a term to describe the book, it may suffer a bit from being a bit selective in topic coverage, although this is forgivable given the introductory nature of the book. Particularly, the absence of any discussion about the existence of God is striking, as it is a perennial topic in Western philosophy and a very lively one. Someone like Thomas Aquinas would have been a perfect philosopher to reference on this topic, especially given the lack of medieval philosophers represented by Craig. Incidentally, he does quote Aquinas, but it is a statement about animals, which is surely more obscure than his well known arguments for the existence of God. Furthermore, if Craig's goal was to present primarily philosophy that argues from reason rather than sacred texts, Acquinas' and others' arguments for God's existence (as well as detractors' rebuttals) would surely have been a better fit than a Scriptural reference.

All in all, though, Craig's book is only meant to be a sampling of philosophy, and such gaps do not take away much from the overall value of the book because Craig is so good at digesting and summarizing philosophers' thoughts for newbies.