No comments about Aleister Crowley - Portrait of an Occultist (Biography).

1 comments about Levinas: A Guide For The Perplexed (Guides for the Perplexed).

1. The problem with these sorts of books is that they over-simplify matters. The blurb calls Levinas an 'ethicist,' but that is at best misleading, and in Levinas' own words incorrect. He is not concerned with giving an account of how one ought to behave using a deontological structure, or that of care ethics or virtue based theory. In short, he's not writing AN ETHICS. So many headaches could be avoided if people stopped calling him an ethicist; it's a very sloppy description.

1 comments about Bertrand Russell and A.N. Whitehead (The World of Philosophy).

1. Good introduction for 2.5 hour tape but this audiobook, like nearly all in the "World of Philosophy" series, is just too short to provide an adequate introduction. Tape should have been three to four hours longer to provide and adequate introduction. If all you have is 2.5 hours though, this tape is for you.

No comments about The Philosophies of India (The World of Philosophy).

No comments about Simone De Beauvoir (The World of Philosophy).

1 comments about Voltaire and Rousseau (The World of Philosophy).

1. This tape series is very good. They had college professors make an outline of the subject matter and then got famous actors to read the material. It is very good, the only part I don't like is the accents they give to the "historical characters." Especially if it is a German accent, it is just too much to try to understand German philosophy with a bad German accent thrown in for flavor. - this tape has bad French accents, which is only slightely easier to listen to. I have bought the entire series and listen to each of them 3 to 5 times - great information, quick and painless.

1 comments about Letters and Personal Writings (The Works of Jonathan Edwards Series, Volume 16).

1. This volume gathers together for the first time all known extant letters of Jonathan Edwards, along with his major personal writings. For more than three decades George S. Claghorn has scoured America, Great Britain, and Scotland for letters and documents by and about Edwards. The result is an unparalleled compendium of 235 letters-including 116 never before published or never reprinted since Edwards' death-and four autobiographical texts-Edwards' meditation "On Sarah Pierpont," his future wife, and "Diary," "Resolutions," and "Personal Narrative." These letters and personal writings reveal the private man behind the treatises and sermons. They trace his relations with parents, siblings, college classmates, friends, and family, as well as with political, religious, and educational leaders of his day. New documents include Edwards' only known statement on slavery and letters on the Indian mission at Stockbridge, Massachusetts, that display Edwards' interest in native Americans and his efforts on their behalf. These writings show the human face of Edwards as he applied theological and philosophical insights to the events of his daily life. They provide an unprecedented resource for understanding the man, his times, and his personal connections.

No comments about Explorations in Whitehead's Philosophy.

1 comments about On Kripke (Wadsworth Philosophers).

1. Originally published in 2002, On Kripke is an instalment in the Wadsworth Philosophers Series. From my perspective Consuelo Preti's short work is a good introduction and/or supplement to the study of Saul Kripke. The text is focused on Kripke's work in three primary areas:
   
   * Modal logic
   * His seminal work - Naming and Necessity
   * Wittgenstein's rules and private language argument
   
   Some instalments in this series have been criticized for poor editing. The present volume in is not bad in this regard - a few too many typos, but generally well organized.

1 comments about Derrida.

1. As with the DVD, this book is entertaining on its own, but is, however, probably best appreciated by those with a degree of familiarity with Derrida. The book itself is lavishly made and the introduction be Geoffry Hartmann makes for interesting reading.
   There is one minor disappointment. Derrida, though obviously possessing an incredible command of the English language was very careful to use French in many of his responses to questions and he makes this act very clear. There are, of course, a wealth of issues relating to the very act of translation and the translations in the movie istelf are an overt component of the the making/appropriation of the story that Derrida himself is "allowed" to comment upon in the DVD. It would have been wonderful to have Derrida's and the questioners French appear in parallel with the filmaker's translations -- dare I say it? a la Spurs/Eperons. I would be interested in purchasing a French version of the book for this very reason.
   I do really like this book.