The Norton Introduction to Philosophy

by Gideon Rosen (Editor), Alex Byrne (Editor), Joshua Cohen (Editor)

An introduction to philosophy by experts for beginners. Edited by a team of four leading philosophers, The Norton Introduction to Philosophy introduces students to contemporary perspectives on major philosophical issues and questions. This text features an impressive array of readings, including 25 specially-commissioned essays by prominent philosophers. A student-friendly presentation, a handy format, and a low price make The Norton Introduction to Philosophy as accessible and affordable as it is up-to-date.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Reference, Textbooks

1168 pages, Paperback

First published December 15, 2014

Reviews

[Caroline · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up without any background in philosophy and found it an excellent introduction. It contains essays from a wide variety of philosophers, from ancient to modern, on a wide variety of topics. The essays are grouped by topic, which makes it easier to see how the different arguments relate to each other. Each section has a helpful introduction laying out what question will be discussed and some of the main viewpoints. Some of the older essays are followed by summaries in simpler language, which I also found helpful.

This book usually included the most influential arguments on each topic rather than sticking to short, self-contained essays, and it achieved this by frequently heavily excerpting from longer works. At first I found this annoying, since sometimes the excisions made it hard to follow all the details of an argument. I think it was the right call, though. Leaving out the most well-known arguments because they were part of longer works would have made this a much worse introductory text. I overcame my frustration by deciding to pause and read the full book containing any argument that was interesting and incompletely excerpted. That strategy turned this book into an excellent way to figure out which standalone philosophy books I might be interested in reading.

As a bonus source of book recommendations, the notes often suggested places to read responses to the featured arguments. I found many of those excellent as well. I now consider it a strong recommendation when a book is mentioned in this book.

[Lukasz Dygon · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the thickest book I've ever read. I didn't have to, but I wanted to and it was often a rewarding experience. The selection of texts is generally a great foothold into practicing philosophy, with some texts being incredibly difficult to read with understanding for a beginner. I think the chapter on Metaethics was especially terse for me. It seemed almost like an advanced mathematical theory I was just shown described in human language. I felt some other selected texts were also a bit tricky to understand for an introduction. That said, the ability to understand was aided with the additional explanations, introductions, and consulting the internet for a dumbed down summary of some principles I found difficult to decipher from the language.

Just before writing this, I have gone over the last questions for the last section, and kind of put the book down after finishing with slight frustration, which is emblematic of the book overall. Questions are a great way to revise and ensure the reader understands the material. Some questions were approachable or even fun to answer. They required reengagement with the text, or the whole chapter. Unfortunately, the difficulty, complexity and quality of the questions varies between chapters. Authors put variable emphasis on comprehension throughout. Some questions concern definitions, or yes or no and why. Some are phrased in an ambiguous way as to what exactly they concern. They require discussion and reference to ideas beyond the 'syllabus'. That would be fine if the questions came with example answers. Besides the "Test your understanding" section, a lot of the time, the reader has to guess whether their answer is sophisticated enough or even whether they interpreted the question as intended.

The gripe about the quality of questions aside, the book is a treasure trove of diverse ideas, and overall a well organised experience. It is a great value for money. I feel it equipped me with some tools to dive into source texts or SEP entries without it feeling like I have to translate another language. I really dread it, but I feel like I should reread this book and soon. It was impossible to absorb all the information on a single read.

[Albert Flores · Rating 4 out of 5]

To state that I read the entirety of the anthology, each argument and knowledge check from the authors, would be a blatant lie—some of the topics were less alluring than others. Rather than review the contents, I want to review the anthology's methodology, for the collection is supposed to function as a guide for those reading philosophy for the first time. First, reading philosophy, especially in an age where a great sum of people does not read, is demanding. While I appreciate the reading guides sprinkled throughout the anthology, I feel more guides should be concentrated toward the beginning to help novel readers grasp this new language with confidence. Also, reading this anthology as an eBook was a disruptive experience. Putting the answers to the knowledge checks in the back of a 1,000-page anthology is inconvenient—put them on the next page, or AT LEAST at the end of the chapter, after the section "Analyzing the Arguments." Ultimately, the content within this anthology is sufficient for each topic, and I definitely got my money's worth. Regardless, I do not see many people falling in love with philosophy via this anthology due to the steep learning barrier inherent to the subject. Moreover, although this is subjective, some of the content was a slog to get through and felt trivial in comparison to the other works within the anthology. For anyone interested in this anthology, the subjects I found most thought-provoking were the problem of induction (Chapter 4), consciousness (Chapter 8), metaphysics (Chapter 10), personal identity (Chapter 11), intentions (Chapter 15), moral theories (Chapter 16), reasons to act morally (Chapter 18, particularly the excerpt from Kant's Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals), and justifying the existence of the state (Chapter 20).

[A YOGAM · Rating 4 out of 5]

Mit über 1.150 Seiten bietet The Norton Introduction to Philosophy einen umfassenden Überblick über zentrale philosophische Fragen und fördert tiefgehende Reflexionen zu Themen wie Ethik, Epistemologie, Metaphysik, Religion, und politische Philosophie. The Norton Introduction to Philosophy vereint nicht nur Texte renommierter Autoren und Autorinnen der Philosophie, sondern erschließt auch schwer zugängliche Originaltexte und ermöglicht so einem breiten Publikum den Zugang zu tiefgehenden philosophischen Gedanken und Diskussionen. Im Anhang des Buches finden sich die "Answers to Test Your Understanding", die es den Lesern ermöglichen, ihr Verständnis der behandelten philosophischen Konzepte und Argumente zu überprüfen.
The Norton Introduction to Philosophy hat insgesamt sechs Teile:
1 Philosophy of Religion: – Philosophische Fragen zur Religion und Gottesexistenz.
2 Epistemology: – Untersuchung der Natur und der Grenzen des Wissens.
3 Metaphysics and the Philosophy of Mind: – Themen wie das Geist-Körper-Problem und die Realität.
4 From Metaphysics to Ethics: – Übergang von metaphysischen Fragen zur Ethik, z. B. persönliche Identität.
5 Ethics: – Untersuchung moralischer Fragen und Theorien über das richtige Handeln.
6 Political Philosophy: – Politische Philosophie mit Themen wie Gerechtigkeit und staatlicher Legitimität.
Teil 5 "Ethik" werde ich genauer betrachten und die vielfältigen moralphilosophischen Fragen und Argumente eingehend erkunden.

[Robert Ruckle · Rating 1 out of 5]

(2nd ed.)
What could have been a great textbook is undermined by the authors' incessant need to shoehorn identity politics and other postmodern nonsense, to the point of making the arguments themselves less coherent. They do not apply the same argumentative rigor to the positions they disagree with, which is quite impressive given they're a very inclusive board of five secular Jews. They mention focusing on equality, yet the essays included are noticeably unequal in authorship (who could have seen it coming?)