No comments about Walter Benjamin (Reaktion Books - Critical Lives).

2 comments about Truth Imagined.

1. I first read The True Believer over a year ago. No other book has made more of an impression on me. The insights into human nature it contains never cease to amaze me. I refer to it often and I never fail to be amazed at how current events prove Hoffers assertion correct over and over.
   
   I was rather surprised when I read this autobiography of hoffer. I was surprised at how small the book was and slightly surprised at how little he discussed writing The True Believer. The book describes Hoffers life as a transient and the many characters he met and worked with during this time. There are enough entertaining stories in the book to keep any reader engaged, even if youve never read any of Hoffers books.
   
   Reading the book really gives you an idea of just how intelligent Hoffer was. Hoffer was knowledgable on a wide range of subjects, from Chemistry and Philosphy to advanced Mathmatics and all sorts of sciences.



2. 
   
   Anything and everything by Eric Hoffer is always fascinating; this story of his life, and his responses to dozens of people he met, is no exception.
   
   This is book is an adventure, his life as a bum and the experiences until 1942 which shaped his personal outlook and created his rugged individualist philosophy of life. His first book was the classic 'True Believer' in 1951, significant enough to help shape the ideas of President John F. Kennedy. Hoffer is deservedly famous for it and 10 other such books. This one should be read in connection with any of them.
   
   Originally published in 1983, near the end of his life, it covers his career up to the start of his career as a longshoreman/intellectual in San Francisco. One element dominates, his insatiable curiosity and interest in other people. For that reason, he would undoubtedly object to be called an "intellectual". Yet, the term fits; this book appeals to the intellect, and he was an intelligent and informed person.
   
   The difference is how he related to people and ideas; many modern intellectuals relate only to books, documents and other abstractions. When Hoffer read Michael de Montaigne he "felt all the time he was writing about me" because he had learned the same sort of common sense and practical wisdom from the bums, hobos, homeless and other drifters who were always a part of his life. As Casey Stengel once said, "You can learn a lot by listening".
   
   The five paragraphs of his 23rd Chapter are a gem for every historian, fully equal in common sense and beauty to the Biblical 23rd Psalm. Skip the first paragraph if you want; the other four explain history and Hoffer better than anything else I've read.
   
   "History is made not by irresistible forces but by example," sums up Hoffer's style; an aphorism in the style of Montaigne, with the power of dynamite. Like dynamite, history is deadly if the anecdote is wrong, and such errors are easy to make; but, in the hands of a good historian, it shows how everyday events are illuminated by history.
   
   His 24th Chapter explains far more of modern economics than anything from Adam Smith to Alan Greenspan; had either economist learned to sum up Western Civ more astutely, the world would be far more peaceful, benign and just. During the Great Depression of the 1930s, with only $50 in hand, Hoffer learned a society without money means "there is no freedom of choice, since it is ruled by sheer power, and no equality, since brute force cannot be distributed."
   
   These two chapters, 11 short paragraphs in all illustrated by two clarion anecdotes, are worth the price of the book. The rest is interesting in explaining how he reached these two ideas and became one of the most significant intellectuals -- he'd prefer "thinker" -- who is more relevant today than ever before.

5 comments about Albert Camus: A Life.

1. One hopes that the French edition, which is 400 hundred, not 100, pages longer, is considerably better, but I find that hard to believe. The writing is unacceptably choppy and awkward, with paragraphs springing from nowhere and sentences shifting from one grand topic to another without stopping. It's almost laughable. Chock full of details and totally lacking in style or spirit, this book will only be useful to those seeking a blow by blow chronology of Camus' life - and the chronology is uneven at best (many times Todd goes back several months without clear indication).
   
   Poor writing wouldn't be a problem if there was at least a point of view, but Todd offers us none, preferring instead to recounting facts and quoting at length from Camus' letters. The fact that Camus was such a crystalline writer only makes this book seem like more of an insult.
   
   I was hugely disappointed by this book. (...)



2. The only real problem I have with this book was that the American edition has been abridged. Over 150 pages have been cut. As a result much of the portrait of Camus as a philosopher has been deleted. So I would recomend reading the French edition if at all possible



3. If you want camus' angle on his life, read the first man, if you want an outsiders opinion, oliver todd is as good as it gets. Todd is a stickler for detail which is what anyone reading a biography really wants, so it's a must read on my list



4. This book provides an interesting portrait of someone whom most would now qualify as one of the more interesting (if not most important) authors of the twentieth century. This book documents his early life (somewhat disappointingly for anyone who has read 'The First Man'-- Camus' own account) through his dallainces with careers and women to his litery triumphs.

   This is a well-written and researched book, with the only negative from me that Camus comes out a lot less heroic and a lot more bitter and stereotypically hepcat and existentialist, which was a disappointment for I, who had raised him toward being a god....

   A must read for anyone interested in Camus....




5. If you ever wanted to know anything about Albert Camus, this is the book to read. An exceptional job of research and writing. I hated to see it end. Oliver Todd is an excellent writer and his book a joy to read.

5 comments about Diogenes The Cynic: The War Against The World.

1. This is a book about a 4th century B.C.E philosopher of the George Carlin school. If you think, like I do, that George is the wisest thinker in America today, then this book is for you.
   This book has a limited audience, I admit. I would have preferred to read a good historical novel about this guy rather than a cold book of facts.



2. The life and the legacy are both wrapped in mystery and controversy. Nothing of Diogenes' philosophical works has survived through to modern day from his life in the fifth century BCE. Yet, other Greek figures and philosophers are filled with stories and fables about the man who called himself a dog. Unfortunately, these accounts tend to vary substantially on the events of Diogenes' life as well as their opinion on whether Diogenes was a great philosopher or whether he was just completely insane.
   
   Diogenes the Cynic explores all the material and theories about Diogenes. This book looks at what we can truly ascertain about the man's life, examines Diogenes metamorphism into a dog, and details the foundations and philosophy of Cynicism in an attempt to understand both who Diogenes was, what he stood for, and what contributions, if any, the man had on future philosophers.
   
   Diogenes the Cynic is complete enough to be used as a text about Diogenes and Cynicism. The book even includes copies of many of the accounts about this man in the appendix and detailed bibliographies for those wanting to delve deeper into the subject. At the same time though, that this book is so complete, that the reader need not have prior knowledge of the subject matter.



3. This is a good book. I say that because the life, times, and philosophy of Diogenes, much based on inference, is laid out with integrity. Navia is trying hard to elucidate an obscure subject - he should get his "A" for producing a work of fine scholarship.
   
   Yet, having said that, I must also caution that the writing style is torpid at times, as is alot of academic writing. There is nothing bold here; the tentative nature of the writing is not complementary with the subject and research done. While it is a book worth reading for the content, it is not "an enjoyable read".
   
   The other flaw here is the cheap fabrication of the book itself. The paper is low grade; the typesetting is very poor; and the plastic delaminates from the paper cover after a minimum of handling.
   
   So, if you can live with the downer points in this review, Navia's book is worth the money for his overall treatment of Diogenes the Dog.
   
   
   Extracts: A Field Guide for Iconoclasts
   
   The Cloud Reckoner



4. Dr. Luis Navia aims to examine the life of Cynic philosopher Diogenes within the larger context of classical Greek Cynicism. To this end, he presents a clear and engaging account of perhaps philosophy's most eccentric and enigmatic figure. The difficulty of this task lies in the scarcity of reliable accounts of Diogenes. Primary sources are virtually nonexistent and while secondary sources abound, they are of questionable authenticity and often contradictory. The author, however, does an excellent job of resolving these difficulties. A coherent picture of Diogenes emerges as a result of a meticulous distillation process. The writing is lucid and very readable, making Diogenes The Cynic a definitive work while remaining a thoroughly enjoyable read.



5. Diogenes the Cynic has been a joy to read. It is well written and reads like a novel alot of the time. It's an in depth look at both the legacy of one of philosophy's most interesting figures and the world that he had to battle through.
   
   The book was informative, entertaining and makes you think about the state of our world today. In fact, it certainly puts alot of today's issues into perspective.
   
   L.E. Navia has written another masterpiece! I definately recommend it.

2 comments about Selected Letters of Friedrich Nietzsche.

1. If you want to gain insight into Nietzsche's thinking outside of his usual philosophical writings, or follow his chain of thought throughtout his life, this collection of letters is somewhat helpful, but he does not seem to engage in the manner in which he does in his formal philosophical works. One of the features I found surprising in his letters is the courtesy he showed to his recipients. It is evident that Nietzsche treasured the friendships he had, and this is very apparent in his letters. And interestingly, I did not find any hostility in any of the letters addressed to Richard Wagner, considering the history of their relationship.

   The book is well-edited, and there is an index of recipients near the end of the book. The editor also includes a general index with subentries that allow the reader to scan an entire topic. This is a helpful aid for amateur readers of Nietzsche, such as myself, but could also be helpful I think to dedicated scholors of Nietzsche.

   I was only disappointed that more letters did not address more of Nietzsche's thinking on Dionysus and Apollo. It would have been interesting to read what he had to say about them via the "freestyle" of letter writing. Nietzsche's philosophical writings are actually the most frank and unrestrained of all in nineteenth-century philosophy. He is very honest with himself, and because of this he might be viewed as somewhat narcisstic by some readers. This may be true to some degree, but Nietzsche is refreshing in his style of writing, and actually it is quite entertaining to randomly move through his books and read his maxims and opinions.

   The most interesting letter is the one addressed to Carl von Gersdorff on April 6, 1867. He is writing about what he has called "the scholarly forms of disease", and tells of a story about a talented young man who enters the university to obtain a doctorate. He puts together a thesis he has been working on for years, submits it to the philosophical faculty. One rejects the work on the grounds that it advances views that are not taught there. The other states that the work is contrary to common sense and is paradoxical. His thesis is therefore rejected, and he does not therefore earn his doctorate. Nietzsche describes the "not humble enough to hear the voice of wisdom" in their negative judgment of his results. Further, the young man is "reckless enough", in Nietzsche's view, to believe that the faculty "lacks the faculty for philosophy. Nietzsche uses this story to emphasize the virtue of independence: "one cannot go one's own way independently enough. Truth seldom dwells where people have built temples for it and have ordained priests. We ourselves have to suffer for good or foolish things we do, nor those who give us the good or the foolish advice. Let us at least be allowed the pleasure of committing follies on our own initiative. There is no general recipe for how one man is to be helped. One must be one's own physician but at the same gather the medical experience at one's own cost. We really think too little about our own well-being; our egoism is not clever enough, our intellect not egoistic enough."

   He's right.




2. This book is real fun to have, and shows a side of Nietzsche that is hard to come across in his formal works and the countless biographies. You can read first-hand the conflicts with his sister's anti-semitic husband, read his own giddyness about finishing a new book, and follow his decline into a state of insanity (during which he wrote the strangest letters of all). His wierd sense of humor is much more visible in his letters, which helps one to recognize when he is humoring himself at the expense of the suprised reader in his other works.

   "Dear Professor: Actually I would much rather be a basel professor than God; but I have not yet ventured to cary my private egoism so far as to omit creating the world on his account. You see, one must make sacrifices, however and wherever one may be living..." (Jan. 6 1889, To Jacob Burkhart, from Turin).

   Also, the index in the back of this book is very thorough, making it easy to find any person or concept that he deals with.

   Note: If you are looking for other writers that write as intangible and beautiful as Nietzsche's works but less harsh on the world, try reading some Emmanuel Levinas, a briliant French Jewish Philospher who died in 1995, (Good book: Dificult Freedom)

5 comments about Soren Kierkegaard: A Biography.

1. My husband is reading this aloud to me. Although it is taking us a long time, we are close to the end now. It has been an incredible read and is written in a very accessible style.
   It has been a really great book to read aloud as the translation is beautifully done and the humor, both of the subject (Kierkegaard) and the biographer (Garff) shines through in every chapter. The translator (Kirmmse) must be very gifted.
   I would recommend this book to any student of history, theology, or modern thought and literature. Kierkegaard was a remarkable thinker and his humanity, genius, and foibles as a human being are evident in his own writings and in this beautiful and mesmerizing biography.



2. I have read a number of reviews of this book. They are unanimous in acclaiming it the definitive Kierkegaard biography, both in its comprehensiveness and its readability. It tells the story of Kierkegaard's life year by year, with special emphasis on what happens from 1835 when he was twenty- two to his death in 1855. The biography places special emphasis on the literary poetic Kierkegaard. It does not interpret in depth his varied and paradoxical philosophical and religious works. It does however provide the valuable biographical information which can enable us to better understand those works.
   Mankind has few geniuses and when they come along they shock us into a new awareness. It is possible to argue that where Kierkegaard most shocked was in his emphasis on the 'lived life' the 'real experience' the 'authentic encounter with God' .And this as opposed to the false, formal and protected encounter.
   This of course is the major reason why the Existensialists, including the atheist Sartre could find a true predecessor in him.
   Kierkegaard 's labors in decrowning Hegel, and in showing the official Church to be at odds with the true experiencing of Christianity were couched in a language, ironic, paradoxical, parabolic and witty. The pseudonymous authors who spoke for various sides of his personality enabled him to express sides of a personality which always wished to remain somewhat hidden, secret and mysterious.
   I have read only a small part of this work and am very eager to read more. And this because Kierkegaard like Kafka is one of those thinker- poets one of those supreme individual masters of their own way of writing in the world as to to seem to me as for so many others, a true spiritual forbearer.



3. First published in Denmark in 2000, Joakim Garff's massive and monumental biography of the "melancholy Dane" makes its English debut just in time to commemorate Kierkegaard's death exactly 150 years ago ( November 11, 1855). Anyone who has taken a college freshman class in western civilization or philosophy has a vague familiarity with the name, if not his thought, and some have even dared to tackle his complicated and brilliant work of "indirect" communication via pseudonyms and his later "direct" (and was it ever direct!) communication under his own name. In grad school I took a turn at Kierkegaard, and even now in my office there hangs a poem by him thanks to my wife's calligraphy:
   
   Herr! gieb uns blöde Augen (Lord, give us weak eyes)
   für Dinge, die nichts taugen, (for things that do not matter)
   und Augen voller Klarheit (and eyes full of clarity)
   in alle deine Wahrheit! (in all your truth!)
   
   Kierkegaard prefaced his work The Sickness Unto Death with this prayer-poem.
   
   Although a wild diversity of interpreters from existentialism to deconstructionism has claimed Kierkegaard as their own, and although SK's personality and complex oeuvre present any biographer with an extraordinarily difficult task, Garff shows that he is rightly understood as an artist-poet whose focus was distinctly and deliberately religious. He treats the reader to large doses of SK himself, and reviews all his major writings and journals, focusing on Kierkegaard's life and not really his thought. In this sense he treats Kierkegaard personally rather than intellectually or theologically. He starts with his early years, and proceeds year by year. I would have enjoyed an epilogue that took a stab at Kierkegaard's ecclesiastical, pastoral, and theological legacy. How did a writer in backwater Denmark whose books had print runs of 500 copies (only one of which sold out), whose grave remained unmarked for twenty years after his death, and who barely traveled, emerge as one of the most seminal thinkers of Christian history?
   
   Throughout his short life (1813-1855) Kierkegaard battled a pronounced and chronic melancholia that resulted from a number of factors--his pietistic and stern father, his public humiliation in Copenhagen's rollicking newspaper the Corsair, his sense of victimization, his scathing denunciation of the Church of Denmark's chief bishop (Mynster), and his broken engagement with Regina Olsen. His hypochondria did not help, nor did his estrangement from his lone surviving sibling (his five siblings and mother all died by the time Kierkegaard was about 20). For much of his life, he tells us, through a monumental effort of repression, diversion, and displacement, Kierkegaard distracted and protected himself from his melancholia through his prodigious writing. And there is no doubt that his melancholia served as a fund for enormous artistic creativity and interior reflection (a fact not lost on psychiatrist Peter Kramer in his recent book Against Depression). Writing was his therapy, he once observed: "I saved my life by telling stories." Like Mozart, he just might have been the artistic genius whose sickly body could hardly contain its pulsating brilliance.
   
   What infuriated Kierkegaard was pious pretense, intellectual sophistry, the evisceration of the radical Gospel, and a bourgeois religiosity that tamed Christianity of what he called its "terror." The state-paid clergy, he sneered, derived social and financial gain from the Gospel: "In the splendid cathedral, the high, well-born, highly honored, and worthy Geheime-General-Ober-Hof-Preacher, the chosen darling of the important people, steps before a select circle of the select, and movingly sermonizes on a text chosen by himself, namely, 'God has chosen the lowly and despised of the earth'--and no one laughs" (p. 773). Since no one laughed at the discrepancy between genuine Christianity and the pale imitation of cultural Christendom, Kierkegaard intended to provoke a collision or catastrophe between the two. This was train wreck by design. He was an agitator and pyromaniac who employed his literary brilliance to utilize satire as an act of arson: "I am the one who has set the fire in order to smoke out illusions and trickery" (p. 774).
   
   Garff honors his subject but does not ignore his faults. Kierkegaard could be unctuous, petty, shrill, cynical, inaccessible to anyone he did not care to see, and vindictive. One subject of his lethal pen lamented, "he could make you feel small." His father was one of the wealthiest people in Denmark, and it was not lost on his critics that Kierkegaard never worked while he enjoyed an extravagant lifestyle. But he had little money at his death, and financed most of his own publications. One observer complained that while Jesus cried over Jerusalem, Kierkegaard employed dripping sarcasm to laugh at the church.
   
   There is something like a scorched-earth smell in Kierkegaard. It is hardly news that the church "swarms with many faults" (John Calvin). I rather like the choice of the feminist Catholic writer Joan Chittister who describes herself as a "loyal member of a dysfunctional family." Still, we can thank Kierkegaard for never letting us forget the ideal, how far and so self-servingly we fail it, and forcing us to consider what it might mean for each one of us as a "single individual" whom he addressed.



4. K fans-and in this day of badly needed freely speaking Danes, who is not one?-can at last rejoice. Here finally is a book about SK that makes clear the Corsair magazine affair, the matter of K's trousers and thin legs and curved back and how he took his coffee (strong with lots of sugar), the unending engagement to Regine, and oh yes K's attack upon Christendom.
   
   
   Garff is learned, witty and a master prose stylist. Under a photo of K's elder brother Peter Christian we read...'Irresolution seems almost to shine forth from the eyes...' A self-promoting K enthusiast named Sommer is described as having the 'zeal of a plagiarist.' One could go on and on, and Garff's observations always seem to hit the mark.
   
   Also wonderfully, there is nothing here about 'the father of existentialism.' Garff tells the life, and leaves the impact on the future to others.



5. It may seem astonishing to many that a nearly-900 page biography of Soren Kierkegaard would ever be described as riveting, or as a page-turner, but that is exactly what this book by Joakim Garff, translated by Bruce Kirmmse from the original Danish, turns out to be. I first noticed it at the bookstore of my seminary, and, intended only to read through a few pages at the beginning to be somewhat familiar with the text (having a friend who is very into Kierkegaard), I noticed when I next looked up that I was 60 pages into the book, and half an hour late for my next appointment.
   
   As Garff states in his preface, biographies of Kierkegaard are few and far between. Even in his native Danish language, 'biographies of Kierkegaard that have appeared since Georg Brandes' critical portrait was published in 1877 can easily be counted on the fingers of one hand.' Part of this was Kierkegaard's own stated desire that readers read his works, not into his person, and he often published under pseudonyms. However, this is an ironic situation, Garff writes, because Kierkegaard puts so much of himself into his writing that there are definite autobiographical elements. Israel Levin, Kierkegaard's secretary for many years, also recognised the paradoxical situation in dealing with a Kierkegaard biography - 'this is a life so full of contradictions that it will be difficult to get to the bottom of his character.'
   
   One of the things Garff should be credited for is not trying to force a particular paradigm or interpretation on Kierkegaard. We don't discover 'Kierkegaard the existentialist' or 'Kierkegaard the religious rebel' or other such personas here - rather, these elements and more are all interwoven into Garff's text to show a complex and not always comprehensible figure. Garff is neither a true-believer nor an official apologist from any set place - he instead set out 'not only to tell the great stories in Kierkegaard's life but also to scrutinse the minor details and incidental circumstances, the cracks in the granite of genius....'
   
   Kierkegaard was a troubled and troubling figure. His life was very brief for someone with such a prodigious output - he lived only 42 years, and his productive time as an intellectual was really only half that time. Garff organises the biography chronologically, taking a year-by-year approach (after putting Kierkegaard's childhood and adolescence together into one chapter, 1813-1834), each year being devoted to its own chapter. In this fashion, Garff looks much more closely at the events and relationship in Kierkegaard's life (both personal and institutional relationships) rather than systematically looking at themes and ideas in his works.
   
   Garff seems to assume some familiarity with Kierkegaard's works at various points - this is not a critical analysis of Kierkegaard's thinking, nor is it even necessarily descriptive of his work in many cases. However, the biography is accessible to those who do not have much experience with Kierkegaard (and I must count myself among those; I have read a few of Kierkegaard's works, and a few analyses, but would never consider myself an expert on the subject).
   
   As translator Bruce Kirmmse states, the book is done in a rather conversational style with an informal sense about it - it is not a dry and dusty historical tome. Not being familiar with Danish, I cannot but take his word that this is true of the original text by Garff, but given the reading here, one cannot imagine that Garff or the editors would have been happy with it done in any other way had this not been faithful to the original. In keeping with this more informal style, there are endnotes rather than footnotes. There are nearly three dozen illustrations (paintings, photographs, other line-art and maps), an extensive bibliography.
   
   I will dare to say, as ironic as it may be both to the subject of reading the biography of a philosopher as well as to the subject of this particular figure, this was a fun book to read.

No comments about Memoirs: Hans Jonas (Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry Series).

5 comments about Confessions of a Philosopher: A Personal Journey Through Western Philosophy from Plato to Popper (Modern Library Paperbacks).

1. Confessions of a Philosopher is more of an introduction to philosophy than an autobiography. I thought that the book was very clearly written and presented what often comes across as dry subject matter in a way that made it interesting and enjoyable to read. Magee covers most of the great Western philosophers (as the cover says, "from Plato to Popper") but pays particular attention to Kant, Schopenhauer, Popper and those philosophers who inspired the twentieth-century focus on analytic philosophy (notably Wittgenstein and Russell). Magee appears to feel strongly that the logical positivists and later analytic philosophers took philosophy down a fruitless, damaging detour and he devotes three chapters to refuting logical positivism and linguistic analysis.
   
   I do not recall how I heard about Confessions of a Philosopher since I was not familiar with Magee before reading this book. I generally do not read autobiographies, especially not those that are nearly 500 pages long and involve a person whom I have never heard of, but I am happy that I took the time to read this one. The front of the book includes a note stating that "[this book] is about ideas: the autobiographical element is medium, not message." I certainly got that feeling while reading the book, although I thought that the autobiographical aspects generally added to the presentation and tended to make the ideas more interesting (such as when Magee's personal conversations with Popper and Russell were included in the sections discussing their philosophical ideas).
   
   I have always been interested in understanding philosophical ideas but I have generally found reading philosophy to be rather dense and boring. This is one of the only books that I have found (along with some Nietzsche, Camus and Dostoevsky) which discusses philosophical ideas while actually being enjoyable to read. Magee is an excellent writer who clearly presents ideas and I definitely plan to check out some of his other works (especially his books on Popper and Schopenhauer). I would highly recommend this book to those interested in a broad introduction to philosophy.



2. A very readable and easy way for an introduction to a many sided and complex subject, absolutely fascinating and enjoyable.



3. Having read Magee's outstanding book on Popper, I got interested in this "biography"...which I knew was some kind of introduction...I have found his confessions to be very interesting and if you want to say so..they apply in some aspects, mainly in what he says about his midlife crisis, not just to himself, but to a lot of us. Regarding the "introductory" part of the book..the chapters on Kant, Popper, Russell and Schopenhauer are very good indeed, and some of the explanations that he brings forward are very much to the point and very clarifying. This is due to the fact that Mr. Magee is a very good writer and I would add, very honest. The way he puts his ideas in writing are very easy to follow and to digest. Get this book if you are really interested in Philosophy...



4. This is a fantastic book that I literally cannot put down. Bryan Magee is an Oxford and Yale educated philosopher/politician/British television personality who recounts his philosophical development throughout the whole of his life. The book deals with his formal education in college as well as his never ending search for meaning once his academic training is over. The book does not present philosophy from a historical or chronological perspective but from the first person process of actually encountering them. Magee makes it clear from the very first chapter that he actually HAD philosophical problems as a child...fundamental questions he thought about that served as the impetus for his education in philosophy. He spends several chapters criticizing the atmosphere he encountered during his many years as a student at Oxford. Oxford at the time, was the bastion of linguistic philosophy. Magee never could accept the view the the way we utilize language was the primary subject matter of philosophy, and he spends a good deal of time in the book demolishing this tradition. It is clear that Magee's chief philosophical influences are Kant, Schopenhauer and Popper. He gives considerable time to discussing the ideas of each and includes chapters on his personal relationships with Popper and Bertrand Russell. He ventures into more personal aspects of his life and his mid life crisis. In doing so, he not only recounts personal thoughts and experiences but gives overviews of numerous philosophers in doing so. The book is very clearly written and is very enjoyable to read. It is a book written by a man who has spent a life time in the study of philosophy and it clearly shows how ver, VERY well read Mr. Magee is. When he writes, you know that the knows what he is talking about. I think anyone who enjoys this book will be motivated to begin reading the classics of philosophy immediately.



5. I simply could not get over the horribly plentiful, useless detail about the author's life. The actual "blood and guts" philosophy is little and scarce. I expected an honest discussion of one's philosophical journey, but be prepared to loose interest fast rummaging through trite repetition of events of the author's life who considers himself hopelessly self important. Don't waste your time or money

5 comments about Thomas Aquinas in 90 Minutes (Philosophers in 90 Minutes).

1. In Feb., on Maui, my wife found this book in our condo laundry room. and, I read it. I liked it so much, I have not only acquired it, but, most of the 90 Minute series. I keep reading and adding.



2. Assuming good faith, I'm not quite sure why this book was written. There's very little discussion about and explanation of Thomas' philosophy. Filling his book with put-downs from page one, dripping with sarcasm, the author comes across as a stellar example of late 20th century intellectual snobbery. If you're looking for a concise beginner's introduction to Aquinas' influential thought, this is not it. The only practical use I can think of for this book would be as fodder for a study of published modern anti-Catholic "intellectualism."



3. Strathern says Thomas Aquinas was a towering figure of Medieval philosophy. I had to read another book (Aquinas for Armchair Theologians) to find out why.
   
   Strathern is less interested in revealing Aquinas' philosophy than in reviling his theology. Strathern outlines Aquinas' life, discusses Aquinas' philosophical errors, and ridicules Aquinas' theology. Along the way, he succeeds in ignoring almost every important contribution Aquinas made to the history of Western thought. E.g., Aquinas' profound effect on the thought of Martin Luther King, Jr., helped shape the American Civil Rights movement. But why write about that when you can lampoon Aquinas for making philosophical arguments in support of Christianity?
   
   In the last paragraph of his afterword Strathern celebrates Descartes' dictum "cogito ergo sum" because with it, modern philosophy had begun and the cobwebs of Aquinas' teachings were "swept away forever." A reading of Descartes' "Discourse on Method" reveals that Descartes reasoned from "cogito ergo sum" to the existence of God. Far from "sweeping away" Aquinas' cobwebs, Descartes seems to be very much entangled in them. The belief that reason could provide a pathway to God was not original to Descartes, Aquinas thought of it a few centuries before Descartes' time. There are still enough of Aquinas' cobwebs around for Martin Luther King, Jr., to have quoted Aquinas in his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," and for George Bush, Sr., to have patterned his speech justifying Desert Storm after Aquinas' model for the just war.
   
   Almost everything about modern thought is influenced by Thomas Aquinas, from Greenpeace to the World Court. You won't learn how reading this book. Read "Aquinas for Armchair Theologians" instead.



4. I am so glad I was able to obtain this book on loan because I can think of much better ways to spend my money. I was so hopeful when I started this reading that I would get a general idea of the philosophies of Aquinas. Obviously I did not expect to get to know him intimatly. What I got was a sarcastic and condescending review of a man who has greatly impacted the catholic church (the author claims that without Aquinas, the church may not have survived) and thus western civilization. I wish I had read the other reviews here first. The book presents itself as being biographical and unbiased but from page one you learn of the author's obvious distaste for Aquinas. I don't mind this sort of writing, only that I would like to know what I am in for. But worse, the books claims it will help you understand Aquinas but instead the author wanders off on barely related topics leaving me with no more information about Aquinas' philosophies than when I began.



5. The title of this 2 CD set is Thomas Aquinas in 90 minutes, and that is exactly what this is: a very basic introduction. If you have a Doctorate in Midevil Philosophy, I doubt you will be impressed. However, if you know a little about Aquinas, and would like an overview of his life and work, this CD set fits the bill. I gave this 4 stars, in part, because this volume is the only game in town. The audiotape market is not exactly bursting with Thomas Aquinas introductions. It is lonely at the top. And the reality is, beggars cannot be choosers! Still this is a well read, solid introduction. The one negative aspect is it does not really focus much on the philosphy of Aquinas, rather the emphasis is on his biography and times.
   
   Now, why should you get this volume? Because it is a serviceable quick introduction to Aquinas, which if you listen to it, will put you ahead of 99.9% of the people out there with regard to a knowledge of his life and work. Aquinas had a major role in Catholic history as well as in philosophy. He also is an interesting person. For one thing, he had a fascinating mystical experience near the end of his life, after which he lost all interest in philosophy. And then there is the story of his chasing the French coquette off with a faggot when she tried to seduce him as a young man. I would say this is a very profitable way to spend 90 minutes, we are lucky to have this volume available.

4 comments about Socrates: A Life Examined.

1. This new book on Socrates is unique in many respects. It addresses in a clear and convincing way practically all the major issues related to Socrates' life and philosophy. It is an indispensable book for anyone who wants to learn from the example and ideas of the great Greek philosopher.



2. Navia is sophisticated enough as a philosopher to make a walk with Socrates sound like reading Kant without sitting down. I was impressed that the last two chapters dealt with religion in a wilt two power way that blended quite well with my reading of The Accursed Share by Georges Bataille, in which the feudal values of aristocrats are most famous for squadering whatever opportunities anyone else ever had in life.
   
   The chapter on comedy is like a roast of Hugh Hefner on "The Aristocrats" DVD. Religion in pre-industrial society was much more like witchcraft than the religions which are currently practiced. People know different jokes, and yearly comedy contests featured the current round of comments about whoever was getting a wide stance reputation. The taste of hemlock was just the finishing touches on the way freedom empire's gulag deal with those who have an evil eye for prying into things that most people cover over lightly with euphemisms.
   
   It was truly great for Socrates to cash in some religious chips at the end by remembering which god he was supposed to sacrifice a rooster to for whatever the hemlock cured Socrates of wishing for. I think 2008 should be a great year for people to read this book because it might inspire them to see leaders that are shuffling off into the sunset as going to join a long line of other devils who thought we never had it so good as when everybody was willing to lend us money.



3. Philosopher Luis E. Navia provides a fine biography of Socrates and reviews his philosophy in a title perfect for either advanced high school grades entering into basic philosophy studies, or college-level collections. It provides a critical, documented study of the major ancient sources about Socrates, blends in new research and critical analysis of his ideas and concepts, and considers Socrates in light of his times, history and culture. The result is a wider-ranging study than most, combining the best elements of biography with philosophical analysis and review.



4. In this remarkable and welcomed book on Socrates, Luis E. Navia gives us what is very likely his final assessment of the historical nature of the character and, more importantly, the real philosophical thinking of this most significant but enigmatic of ancient thinkers. The result of decades of research and reflection, this book become and will remain, I think, one of the standard and necessary works on the subject, not only for the philosophy of Socrates, but for the very powerful relevance that his presence has exerted on the modern world. It is this presence, this legacy, which is of real importance. In a world that values material things more than spiritual ones, that highly prizes the ordinary and glorifies the second-rate, Navia understands clearly that it is ultimately the search for the soul, as Socrates understood it, that matters most of all. It is this search, and the possible discoveries along the way, that is the substance of this work. Highly recommended it for everybody!