Customer Reviews

Reason and Responsibility: Readings in Some Basic Problems of Philosophy

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

 

 

It is unclear whether my previous attempt to write a review of this book went through or not. If not, here goes again:

A disclaimer: I have absolutely no connection with the authors or publishers and stand to benefit in no way from the sale of this book.

My background: MA in philosophy and have taught as a teaching assistant on a number of philosophy courses at university level.

Review:
This is the best anthology of philosophical writing that I am aware of. It's strength lies in the range of readings it includes. The editors have, it seems, stayed very involved with their book and update the readings every few years. As a result this anthology includes some very recent material in addition to the classics. so, the reader has available to him/her a collection of writings that span nearly 2,500 years of Western philosophy. Note: it is an anthology of philosophy in the western tradition.

A second notable strength of Reason and Responsibility is the introductory essays that appear at the start of each section. These are clear and especially helpful to those new to philosophy.

It is also noteworthy that the editors have attempted to compile readings that give the reader a sense of the two sides to any given debate. This is not always the case with anthologies.

One word of warning for those new to philosophy: much of the reading in this anthology (as in any such anthology) is not, in my view, suitable for a newcomer to the subject. The material was not intended for those without any philosophical background and would be very heavy going for a beginner in this field. So, to avoid being disheartened and turned off philosophy it might be a good idea to buy a general introduction to the subject as well as this anthology. I'd recommend:

An Introduction to Philosophical Analysis, by John Hospers
or
Philosophy: the basics, by Nigel Warburton
or
Philosophy: a beginner's guide, by Jenny Teichmann and Katherine Evans (I am not certain that I have the second author's name right)

I highly recommend Feinberg's 'Reason and Responsibility' to beginning philosophers. Feinberg presents various philosophical topics in an organized manner and selects text that is easy to understand for readers new to philosophy. Readers are weaned into the language of philosophy by first being presented with the jargon in the beginning of each section. It's a great book that covers a variety of topics, from arguments about God's existence to ethics to abortion.

I had to buy this book for a general education requirement this year. However, the class turned out to be my favorite (the teacher certainly helped) and I'm keeping the book after the semester is over. Reason and Responsibility contains essays from the greatest philosophers (and some not so great) in order to give the beginner a comprehensive overview of philosophy.

At times, the essays were edited so that parts of the original selection were omitted. I had difficulty writing papers which criticized certain arguments become some claims can only be made from the entire text. However, if you are just reading this for fun as an introduction to philosophy, I highly recommend it.

great anthology. constantly updated with great spread of readings covering almost 2,500 years of philosophy. great introductory essays to sections. and a nice range of topics covered. the editors do a good job of selecting readings to give a sense of both sides of the debate.

I bought the kindle edition because this book was assigned as a textbook for my Philosophy class. When I downloaded and opened it up I noticed that half the readings that were assigned to me were actually not in the book at all, instead there was "Text not available due to copyright restrictions" typed up all over dozens of pages.
I think Amazon should at least warn us about this before claiming that an entire book, at almost the same price as the hard copy, is available for digital download.
Needless to say, I am disappointed.

The book itself, however, is a good read, the selected articles are thought provoking and will leave you pondering about the ideas presented for days to come. One of my favorite pieces is John Pollock's "A Brain in a Vat"... too bad that it was also missing from the kindle edition.

I really didn't expect this from a company that I thought to be so reliable and thus (in my opinion and reasoning) gaining huge popularity - but i didn't know that this could happen and, moreover, I didn't know that I didn't know that this could happen.
I just couldn't resist lol

I have never taken a course in philosophy. But, I think this is not just a text book for Philosophy 101. It is a great collection of essays, on a variety of topics, written by some of the greatet thinkers the world has produced. The editorial introduction for each topic beautifully lays down the ground work. This is followed by writings from eminent scholars representing various positions that have been taken on the issue. It is hard to find so much material in one volume. A must-have book for anyone with even a precursory interest in some of the most fundamental questions posed by life.

"Text not available due to copyright restrictions" is the message you get for half the articles in the book. If the publisher is going to do half a job as poorly as this, they should at least have the decency to lower the price, or at least put a warning on the page, letting the customer know *which* articles are missing.

This is a great book for understanding philosophical ideas and arguments. This book has a collection of many writings from well-known philosophers. If one wants to get an idea of others' views or even question their own, this is a perfect read. The only complaint I have is that sometimes the language of the writing is a little difficult to interpret.

My life was dull and dreary for many years. Plagued by unfortunate mishaps, my life had turned to shambles. But in the deep pit of that depression, i found life. And that life was in the form of this philosophy book. With it i was able to confront classical age-old philosophical questions and i could read from such brilliant minds such as Bertrand Russell (Who is a total BAMF by the way, you should totally check him out). But in all seriousness, this product is orgasmic.

A straight anthology without sufficient background material to help students make sense of the essays. I would not advise it for an Introduction to Philosophy course. Essays in the books focus on issues of reason, the limits of knowledge, and ethics based upon human reason. The selection of essays show a bias toward American positivism and contrary philosophical views (of which there are many) are not represented. The amount of philosophy this book ignores on the book's chosen topics is enormous. This is also a reason not to use this text for an Introductory class. If this was the only text used in an introductory course, students would come away with a very stilted and erroneous view of philosophy. It would be good for an upper division course focused on American positivism where students already have sufficient background in philosophy to understand these specialized essays and understand the selective nature of the text's selections.