The Philosopher's Book of Questions & Answers: Questions to Open Your Mind

by D.E. Wittkower

Your life through the lens of the world's greatest thinkers!Do you ever wonder how important money really is in life or what you need to do to achieve happiness? With "The Philosopher's Book of Questions and Answers," you will be one step closer to solving these uncertainties. Inside, you'll find the basics of philosophy, written in plain English, and thoughts for applying these important theories to your own life. You'll also be encouraged to dig deep into the philosophical reasoning behind your everyday actions with a series of fascinating prompts, such as: If you had ten times your wealth and ten times your income, what would you do then that you can't do now?What's a version of that activity that you could do right now?Is it ten times less meaningful, important, or enjoyable than the activity you would do with more money? From Socrates and Epicurean to Kierkegaard and Nietzsche, "The Philosopher's Book of Questions and Answers" will not only help you grasp history's greatest thoughts, but will also unveil the world in a whole new light.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Self Help

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

D.E. Wittkower received a Ph.D in Philosophy from Vanderbilt University in 2006. His training concentrated on German philosophy and the history of value theory (ethics, aesthetics, social/political philosophy), and his research has concentrated primarily on issues of ethics, technology, and political philosophy. Prior to accepting the position of Assistant Professor of Philosophy at Old Dominion University, he taught at Coastal Carolina University, Sweet Briar College, Virginia Tech, University of Missouri - St. Louis, and University of Maine - Orono.

He is contributing editor of Facebook and Philosophy (Open Court, in press), Mr. Monk and Philosophy (Open Court, 2010), and iPod and Philosophy (Open Court, 2008); contributor to Applying Care Ethics to Business (Springer, forthcoming 2011), Audiobooks, Literature, and Sound Studies (Routledge, forthcoming 2011), Encyclopedia of Social Networking (SAGE, forthcoming 2010), Putting Knowledge to Work and Letting Information Play (Center for Digital Discourse and Culture, forthcoming 2010), The Psychology of Facebook (Stanford Persuasive Technology Lab, forthcoming 2010), Anime and Philosophy (Open Court, 2010), Ethical Issues in E-Business (IGI Global, 2010), and Radiohead and Philosophy (Open Court, 2009); and author of articles appearing in Social Identities and Fast Capitalism.

Reviews

[Jess Dollar · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very enjoyable beginner's exploration of philosophy.

[Matt · Rating 3 out of 5]

The questions in this book were pretty good, though the author does admit that many of them are meant to be leading. I felt like many of the questions contained assumptions which are incompatible with a modern materialistic and scientific viewpoint, which made those passages slightly less interesting. What I mean is that sometimes you'd have questions like "If you believe X, then what does this say about situation Y?", where X may be something people commonly believed fifty or a thousand years ago. This is probably for historic reasons, as a means of introducing various philosophical trains of thought, but I didn't really like how many of the questions were specifically tailored to lead into a specific philosopher's specific philosophical contribution. This meant that I had already heard or thought about many of the questions introduced in this book. I think it would have been much more interesting to ask a bunch of new and unexplored questions, and to think about how different philosophers would have answered each question.

[Chitrak Mitra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting questions, if sometimes too brief in its exploration of them.

[Liliana]

Fez-me refletir sobre assuntos interessantes

[Craig · Rating 4 out of 5]

I do not know a lot about philosophy, and this is a topic that has always interested me. I do have quite a lot of exposure to ethics and ethical issues though. I found this book was a nice introduction to philosophy, and I enjoyed reading and working though it. Would recommend as a good introductory book on the topic.

[Martijn Reintjes · Rating 4 out of 5]

Philosophy is not interested in being reassuring, and it is not interested in making you comfortable. It’s interested in discovering the truth, and that means being open to the possibility that the truth is horrible.

A lovely book to have on your nightstand and read in every now and then.
The Philosophical questions the book raises are interesting as is the historical context and philosophers that have pondered the answers.
I only wish that the format of the book gave more room for contemplation and to first come up with your own answers. But maybe that was on me and my lack of discipline as I always immediately read the "answer"

just because life amounts to nothing does not mean it isn’t worth living.

[Hope · Rating 4 out of 5]

More or less the book presents a surface level view on some philosophical questions and concepts, i do believe they could be a nice nudge into a better and a more indepth research and conversation, though i did find some questions irrelevant to the present day, especially those that question scientific discoveries which can be broken-down by a simple Google search

[Nat · Rating 4 out of 5]

i'm still new to philosophy but enjoying it so far. this book gives a nice introduction and overview of different topics in philosophy. love the questions and how it's formatted. an interesting and thought-provoking read.

[Pedro Luís · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uma abordagem bue simples de imensas questões filosóficas. Acho que é muito didático e muda a nossa perceção em alguns assuntos. Está bue subdividido e podem facilmente ir lendo às pinguinhas