Book Review: Philsophy -- The Basics

I finished one of my subway-reads a day or two ago.

In 2004 the 4th edition of Philosophy: The Basics, by Nigel Warburton, was printed; and by 2008 it was in its fourth reprint; clearly a good seller. I found it a nice introduction to philosophy covering the prominent philosophical topics: God, Ethics, Politics, Reality, Science, Mind and Art. For each Warburton introduces some of the main ideas and also some common arguments against these ideas (and occasionally counter-arguments against the arguments).

It is definitely a good introductory book to philosophy. It is regretful that an attentive reader is able to infer Warburon’s personal preferences from his writing. This is especially unfortunate for a book of this type – an introduction to philosophy, which I believe ought to be consistently unbiased. While Warburton does supply good arguments for and against the major topics, his writing gives away (although not overtly) his preferences to some ideas.

Philosophy: The Basics is a good introductory book, but for referencing I’d rather consult a Dictionary of Philosophy.







...ooOoo...

I think my next subway-book will be Die Mugu, by Etienne Le Roux.