Heads Up Philosophy

Heads Up

by Marcus Weeks

Who am I? What is the meaning of life? Is there a God? Heads Up Philosophy, part of an exciting new series for young adults, explains and explores all these big ideas and more.

What is philosophy? It's the issues and theories that are most intriguing and relevant to curious teen minds—questions like: what is knowledge, identity, human nature, right and wrong, faith, freedom, and justice? are all addressed, offering big ideas, simply explained.
Written and designed specifically for the teen market, Heads Up Philosophy explains challenging but clear text to clarify and explain theories and arguments.

Biography spreads cover the famous quotes of great philosophers including Socrates, Aristotle, Friedrich Nietzsche, Epicurus, Plato, and Thomas Aquinas, while major theories and debates including epistemology, metaphysics, and ideologies are also explained.

Making a difficult subject more approachable, Heads Up Philosophy is designed to provoke, entertain, and stimulate young minds.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, History, Reference, Politics, Amazon

160 pages, Hardcover

First published May 1, 2016

About the author

Marcus Weeks é colaborador frequente de enciclopédias e livros de referência, atuando também como consultor de vários títulos da editora britânica Dorling Kindersley. É autor de diversos livros, como Se liga na filosofia e O livro da psicologia.

Possui uma vasta lista de talentos e interesses. Quando não está escrevendo, é professor de música, dá aulas de inglês para estrangeiros, administra uma galeria de arte, afina e restaura pianos, é editor de música, arranjador, compositor, entre muitas outras coisas. Mora em Hastings, na Inglaterra.

Ele também escreve sob o pseudônimo: Nicholas D. Satan

Reviews

[Tom Donaghey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Where was HEADS UP PHILOSOPHY when I was in school? This book would have saved me valuable time and the expense of the money I laid down for the college credit hours, not to mention the highly over priced book I had to buy. Now for $15.99 I can get everything I wanted to know about Philosophy but was afraid to ask, mainly because I could barely wrap my mind around the question let alone pull out the nugget of truth from what my professor (a very tenured and opinionated person who prized the sound of his voice over the possibility of clarity) decided was an appropriate answer.
Here you have all the big names in Philosophy, from Bergson (time as it is actually experienced) to John Locke (understanding the limits of human knowledge) to Zeno (the universe is made of a single, unchangeable substance) and everyone in between.
What is truth? What is identity? What is right and wrong? In fact just about any moral question that faces a person in the course of their life is summarized here with an applicable answer. You may not agree to the answer, but isn’t that the very nature of Philosophy?
The publisher, DK, has designed this book to be useful to teens as they grow into adulthood and seek to find answers to the many problems they are confronting. But this book would be a useful guide to anyone at any age that seeks to be enlightened. This book doesn’t try to supply the answers; it merely lays out a set of tools of thought one would use to seek their own solution.
To paraphrase, if you give a person an answer, they will survive for the moment. Teach a person to think and they can conquer the world.
I won this book through Goodreads.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

I've been generally interested in philosophy for a while, but it isn't something I have put much time into learning about, so I figured starting with some introductory books would be my best option. While this did have some of the information I was hoping to learn, it was definitely a mixed bag overall.

The chapters are broken up by the school of philosophy they covered, which I thought was quite sensible, as it allowed for the grouping of similar ideas. The information was explained in simple terms, which definitely made it suitable for an introductory piece. I appreciated that it covered philosophers and ideas from a variety of places, times, and backgrounds. The directory of philosophers in the back was helpful and interesting.

I did wish that it had addressed more than just Western philosophy. It often felt like Arabic, Chinese, Indian, etc philosophy was more of a side note, and not a lot of effort was put into the information pertaining to it. I also thought the layout was weird and difficult to read. Illustrations intended to be read from bottom left to top right, headings beneath the body, text in the same rows/columns that faced opposite directions, and so on. It would have been a substantially easier and more enjoyable read had it followed some sort of consistent rule.

I would still recommend this to anyone interested in an introduction to philosophy, especially for young adult readers, but I feel certain there is probably a better introductory text out there, and I intend to read more after having been interested by the content of this book.

[Cheryl · Rating 4 out of 5]

If this book had not been sent to me for a chance to review than I never would have purchased a copy myself. I have not been that interested or given much thought on the topic of this book "Philosophy". However after reading this book, I have a better understanding of just how important philosophy plays a role in our lives. Having no knowledge of this topic I thought this book was very well written. It was written with lots of great facts and information. Yet at a level that someone like me can understand without feeling like this book was written over my head. I found the information in this book to be very informative and interesting. All of the references were good as well. Check this book out if you are interested in philosophy.

[Whitney Sorensen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is part of a fantastic series of books that simply explain difficult concepts. Lots of excellent graphics and very appealing layouts. Felt a little repetitive in places, but I think that's just the philosophy subject. This book, and the others in the series, are ones that I would love to have in the classroom. Interesting enough to be picked up, and well written and designed enough to hold the attention of a variety of readers.

An advanced readers copy was provided by the publisher for an honest review.

[SevieReads · Rating 4 out of 5]

Received an ARC for this from Goodreads. Classroom teacher... lots of my students enjoy non-fiction -- this is a great book for those students. It isn't an easy or a fast book to read. There are big ideas, and ideas that challenge their way of teaching. I've had three students read this and all said it was very interesting -- and a little overwhelming.

[Christina Gallup · Rating 5 out of 5]

I received this book from a first reads giveaway. I absolutely loved it! Really got me thinking deeper than I ever have before. I would recommend this to everyone, whether or not you think you like philosophy or not you will after this!

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

It contains what it is supposse to contain. I do understand philosophy much better in a broader sense and I do want to learn more. It is very easily read and has a lot of pictures and funny aneqdotes. It makes for a good start but I do feel like I had thought about most of the things by myself but it was interesting to know how those thoughts came to be. And it gives an historic perspective that makes you realise how you are a part of something so much bigger and older than you can imagine. The society as we know it today. The knowledge we have and the questions we are asking ourselves still to this day. It is pretty damn amazing. And I can't wait to dig deeper into this. Where to start though?! There is so much to learn. So much to ponder over. Any suggestions on how to move on from here? Well.. over all. I LOVED IT. only minus is that I wanted more. So much more.

[Petr Flégl · Rating 2 out of 5]

Četl jsem jako navazují knihu po "Knize filosofie - https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1..." a nedá se to srovnat. Zatímco v knize filosofie je vše rozebráno tak, že se člověk má alespoň šanci zorientovat, zde je to jak z rychlíku. Měl jsem dojem, že čtu dětskou encyklopedii, ale pro děti mi to přišlo složité. Chápu, rozsah knihy je menší, bylo potřeba udělat spoustu zjednodušení, ale mám dojem, že nečíst před tím Knihu Filosofie, měl bych z různých směrů a přístupů spíš guláš.

Abych to shrnul - pokud chcete nějaké základy a přehled, doporučuji Knihu Filosofie místo Filosofie pro chytré hlavy. Obsahuje víc informací a přitom je paradoxně čtivější.

[Laurel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Just ok.

The descriptions of different philosophies are too short and often lacking context.
The graphic design is a nightmare. Having a very thin font on top of shaded backgrounds was SO hard to read sometimes. The stock art images were ugly and sometimes nonsensical, seemed like they were just there to fill in space.

Didn't mention a female philosopher until page 130 of a 147 page book (not counting the glossary and index).

I still enjoyed the content because I enjoy philosophy in general but this wasn't a great book. Don't recommend. I read "The Philosophy Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained" last year and found it similar but much more informative than this book.

[Lisa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would rate this boook a 7/10. It would be good for a young adult who is looking for a very basic introduction to philosophy. It provides short paragraphs of information on philosophical ideas, as well as very brief biographies on some of the most well-known philosophers.

[JAEWOO CHOI · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading this book was really a good start to get information about philosophy!
Because of this book, I can comprehensive much more deeper concepts coming from Post-modernism!

[Marcel Schwarz · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice philosophy summary, maybe just a bit short.

[Jb · Rating 5 out of 5]

Better than the other summary in the same collection. Good brush and anchoring if the concepts.

[Petro Gon P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Faltaron muchos filósofos y movimientos, pero es ideal para adentrarse en los temas.

[Val Mid · Rating 3 out of 5]

If updated; they should add Niccolò Machiavelli, Franz Kafka, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Anne Frank, Carl Jung, Alisa Zinovyevna Rosenbaum, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, and Richard Wurmbrand.

[Willow (Taylor's version) · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 rating rounded down to 4 stars.

[Petro Gon P. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Faltaron muchos filósofos y movimientos, pero es ideal para adentrarse en los temas.

[Ricardo Valdés · Rating 3 out of 5]

Muy breve y resumido, tiene buenos temas pero no profundiza mucho en ellos.

[Goran Lausic · Rating 5 out of 5]

El libro es extraordinariamente claro, gráfico y simple. Organiza de una forma coherente, bien visual que sirve de punto de partida para el análisis

[Zaira]

'Cuando hablaba de filosofía con los principales de Atenas, se daba cuenta de que estos creían saber mucho, así que él era más sabio que los demás por ser consciente de los límites de su conocimiento.' - Sobre Sócrates.

'Platón afirmaba que hombres y mujeres tienen la misma capacidad intelectual y deben recibir la misma educación.'

'No elegimos existir, nacemos en un mundo en el que estamos obligados a vivir, pero, una vez alcanzada la conciencia de nuestra existencia, debemos crear nuestro propio objetivo en la vida para darle significado.' - Jean-Paul Sartre.

'Tratar de asumir la mortalidad y el aparente sinsentido de nuestra existencia puede resultar traumático, pero la filosofía existencialista también ha influido en la psicoterapia, que nos ayuda a responsabilizarnos de nuestros actos y hallarle una finalidad a la vida.'

'Cada cual tiene una caja con algo en el interior que nadie más puede ver y a lo que llamamos "escarabajo". Todos decimos saber qué es un escarabajo al mirar en nuestra caja, pero puede que cada cual tenga algo diferente.' - Wittgenstein.

'Si los argumentos científicos y racionales se niegan en virtud del dogma religioso o político, no queda espacio para el debate racional.'

'En el núcleo de casi todos los sistemas de filosofía moral y de la mayoría de religiones, radica alguna versión de la "regla de oro", más conocida tal vez como el principio de reciprocidad, según el cual debemos tratar a los demás como queremos que nos traten a nosotros.'

'El principio de la libertad de expresión nos permite decir lo que queramos si no perjudicamos a nadie.'

'El mundo no pertenece a los humanos.' - Arne Naess.

'A pesar de que la intención sea buena (mejorar la vida de la gente), estos avances tecnológicos afectan a nuestro entorno y pueden resultar destructivos a largo plazo. El filósofo ambientalista noruego Arne Naess fue de los primeros en sugerir que deberíamos vivir como un elemento más del mundo natural y "pensar como una montaña": no tener en cuenta sólo los perjuicios y beneficios para las personas o incluso para los demás animales, sino los intereses a largo plazo del medio ambiente en su conjunto.'

[Timothy McNeil · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a free Advanced Readers Copy via the Goodreads First Reads program. Review to follow soon.

[Rough Draft & notes for Review]

There is much to like in DK's Heads Up: Philosophy . For the most part, it does a serviceable job in covering some of the more accessible points of philosophy. I also appreciated that it gave a place of prominence to moral philosophy (my favorite), though I am not sure that team did a fantastic job of making clear, concise, and accurate points.

Early on (p. 6 & 7), the book sets up philosophy in opposition to the dogmatic belief systems of religion. It is science, not religion, that tells "us how things are, whereas moral philosophy is concerned with how things ought to be". This takes the two major pillars away from religion; it cannot be trusted to establish that which is demonstrably true nor can it answer the question of which actions are moral. More on point is:

Many believe the universe was created by God, and that there is some form of life after death. Others believe the opposite. Often, we acquire our beliefs from our cultures, communities, and traditions. But these beliefs can change. Not so long ago, most Westerners thought it was morally acceptable to own slaves, and to prevent women from voting. Now, we know better. It is the role of the philosopher to try to establish whether or not such beliefs are true.

Religion cannot be relied upon to handle these issues (not to the progressive, Western mind). As the authors write on p. 9, "philosophy teaches us not simply to accept conventional wisdom. Philosophers demand rational justification rather than faith or prejudice, and can offer new ideas as well as challenge beliefs."

There is an issue with how Western philosophy is depicted as being separate from religion as opposed to Eastern philosophies (p. 13 inset). It is not especially accurate, and serves to further the myth of Eastern mysticism as opposed to Western rationality.

[Edgar Miguel Grajeda · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a great introduction to philosophy. As a philosophy major, I was taken back to my undergrad years with most of the philosophical issues and arguments presented in this book. While most of the concepts where focused on wester philosophy. I believe that this book is a good source for a general survey to a philosophy course. Yes, the book lacks depth, but it is clear and makes it an interesting read for most people (including youth) who are interested in learning philosophy.

[Breanna · Rating 5 out of 5]

I won a "first-reads" ARC copy of this book. This review wasn't paid for and is my own views and opinions, and nobody else. Thanks.

I originally entered to win this book because I thought it looked really cool and interesting, who doesn't want to learn more about their mind and their actions?
I was surprised and happy to have won and obtained a copy, and I haven't looked through all of the book yet, just browsed through it, but I'm rating it 5 stars for being both interesting, and insightful.

I don't want to give too much away but I will tell a couple of my favorite sections that I have read so far.

1. Do ends JUSTIFY the means?
2. Is the world we know an ILLUSION?

If you like Philosophy, or even learning some new things, pick up a copy of this book because it really is interesting and it's something different.

[Septia K. · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sesuai judulnya, buku ini berisi narasi dan eksposisi terkait filosofi; mulai dari sejarah, filsuf dunia dari masa ke masa, penalaran, realitas, pikiran, relativitas, hingga peran agama, sains, dan teknologi dalam pembentukan peradaban dan eksistensi manusia; didesain dalam bentuk pertanyaan dan jawaban sederhana.

What makes you you? What is real? Is your mind separate from your body? Adalah beberapa contoh subbab dalam buku setebal 150an halaman ini. Cocok dibaca santai sambil makan kacang goreng atau siomay sore-sore. Enggak, buku ini nggak seserius kelihatannya kok 😎

Buku ini menyenangkan banget, i mean literally fun, karena dicetak di kertas glossy dan isinya full colour; penuh gambar dan ilustrasi jadi nggak bikin bosen. Cocok buat anak-anak atau dewasa yang suka ngantuk kalo lihat deretan huruf 😝 Eits, tapi tetep padat berisi lho.

[Annie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have never seen a philosophy book for kids before, so in that respect, this book is very unique. Even then, it's meant for high school-age students. Although I am not sure a high school student would pick this up on their own for pleasure reading, the book does pose some great questions for discussion that could be used in a history classroom. Teachers could use sections of this--especially the entire section called "Right and Wrong" that features topics such as justice, freedom, and civilizations--to bring a philosophical lens to historical events. In that way, this book would be great to use in the classroom for it's simplified texts and graphics.

2/3

[Kimberly · Rating 3 out of 5]

DK Eyewitness' Heads Up Philosophy is a short, very basic primer for teens and older who wish to learn a little something about philosophy. Basic tenets are explained in a simplistic, repetitive manner with a number of visuals, drawings, short texts and other alternative forms of explanation. While this makes the book very visually appealing, it also breaks up the text to a point that I found distracting. A nice directory of philosophers and a glossary of common terminology are also included.

[Debby · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like how the book separates philosophy into five big chapters: Knowledge, Reality, Mind, Reasoning, and Right & Wrong; which makes it easier to understand. In addition, this book also gives several good examples on how to apply philosophy in our daily life. However, I do not like the design of the book. It looks visually appealing –I have to admit that–, but the layout design somehow distracts me. There is too much going on in every pages.

[Zhelana · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is a series of two -page spreads about different philosophers and different philoshopical ideas that attempted to get through all of philosophy very quickly. Unfortunately, it moved so quickly that by the time I started to get into a thought, it was over and not touched on again. There were also so many small thoughts that I couldn't remember most of what we had talked about by the end of the week.

[Kit · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won this in a Goodreads First reads giveaway
I really like this book. I didn't know a lot about philosophy before reading this but I learned a lot. I'd definitely recommend this for anyone interested in philosophy or how it impacts/influences our lives. The pictures in the book are interesting and make more enjoyable reading. Definitely give this book a try.

[Molly · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received this book in a Goodreads giveaway. It explains the ideas and methods behind philosophy in a very simple way. This is a quick read and really makes philosophy easy to understand. It contains plenty of information on the subject and the layout and graphics are appealing and quite different than a textbook. It makes it much easier to read.