Customer Reviews

Socrates to Sartre with Free Dictionary of Philosophical Terms

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
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Professor Stumpf has done an excellent job at clearly describing all the key philosophical ideas and the awsome men who introduced them... beginning with the early Greek thinkers and moving chronologically to late 20th century philosophers. So the title of his latest edition should probably be slightly changed to reflect this latest reality.

Stumpf has taken the fog out of philosophy and instead has given the interested reader mostly sunlight from which to study these great ideas that have guided civilization to its present state.

Ironically, though, I find it odd that Stumpf book is not widely used, as I believe that it should be, throughout U.S. colleges and universities!

This may be due to the old silent fact that most college professors order textbooks for students that are exceedingly difficult to read, thus hoping that students will spend more time reading these foggy textbooks when in reality students end up not reading these foggy books at all. So college professors must begin changing their textbook selection criteria and start ordering textbooks that are, above all, well written and easy to follow as Stumpf's book clearly is.

Gerard J. Sagliocca, P.E.
Social Critic

I recommend this book to anyone studying Philosophy. I majored in Phil in college and owe a great deal to "Socrates to Sartre" for helping me understand so many abstract concepts. It is writen in contemporary english so it is much easier to understand than many of the philosophers' own writing. The reader can follow the book as a historical text or use it as an encylopedia. All major theories by all major western philosophers are concisely broken down and explained. Examples are given. The book is structured in order of schools of thought and historical order. I swear one of my instructors must used this book for his lectures beacuse I used it for his classes and did very well. I don't mean to sound like I'm related to the author but this book is the best guide around.

Socrates to Sartre is a great book to use to understand the basic thought of any philosopher. The greatest strenghts of the book lie in the analysis of philosophy up to the modern period. In particular the book seems thin on the areas of existential philosophy and post-modern thought. Those limitations acknowledged, I would recommend this book for any person trying to crack the world of philosophy. Make sure you get another book if you want to understand the thought of 19th century or 20th century philosophers.

Strumpf has proved himself to be a master of making somtimes dificult philosophical problems easy to understand. I found this book very helpful, it set out major points, and the basic philosophy of the most important philosophers from pre-socratic times up into the present. It is one of the few history of philosophy textbooks to include philosophers who are still living today, and most people haven't heard of (e.g. Quine). I appreciated the way in which Strumpf sets up the philosophies in referance to the past, as well as its respective present. The book was just a bit dry, but it was chock full o' info. Well worth it for anyone interested in getting into philosophy, or the college student looking for an easy to understand guide.

This book is a great launching pad for the the beginning philosophy student. With this book enables a student to understand Western Philosophy as a 2500-year process, rather than a series of unrelated, bright ideas.

This is a great beginners book for anyone interested in the history of philosophy. The concepts are well introduced in an easily read format. I could definitely see this book in the personal library of any college student.