i really enjoyed this book; why doesn’t goodreads have half stars? it’s better than a 3, but i rounded down due to the lack of works cited. this was an intentional choice, as this is supposed to be an introduction to philosophy, so instead ferry opted for a ‘further reading’ section of 6 or 7 books. there are no notes. you basically have to take ferry’s word on everything, which was a problem for me when it started getting into ideas i was familiar with, and found i didn’t always agree with ferry, which then led me to wonder about the areas i didn’t know so much about, and how helpful ferry was being. but that’s always the case with these kind of books; i’m a big believer in going to the source, reading the text and drawing your own conclusions, but i’d still prefer books like this exist rather than not, and for my purposes they are fun to read as a sort of supplement. and that’s why i don’t agree with opting for a small further reading section (for fear of overwhelming someone new to philosophy) over conventional notes and bibliography; there were specific points in the books i’d have loved to know where ferry was drawing from, most notably the historical context he provided to shed light on why certain thought had come about (not just helping one to understand the ideas themselves). that was the highlight of the book for me, and i’m now just left wondering where to look.
a further example: ferry dedicates a large part of the book to nietzsche, and goes on to define nietzsche’s nihilism as devaluing life through a belief in the ideal, so as to say that Christians and the like are sort of like “secret nihilists” because of this, and this is what nietzsche meant by the death of god. this is definitely an idea of nietzsche, and it’s not wrong, but it’s a rather peculiar way to define nihilism, and it’s the only context ferry provides. traditionally, nihilism is the conviction life is devoid of any meaning, that the universe is hostile to life even, and the death of god (meaning) meant nihilism may begin to sweep over the world. this was nietzsche’s prediction. to accept ferry’s definition is to have a biased and incomplete version of that monumental declaration by nietzsche, thus the importance of a more comprehensive bibliography, and main reason why one should be wary of books like this: you are not reading a brief history of thought, you are reading ferry’s interpretation of various notable philosophies.
that may all be obvious, but it’s so much the case here that i actually find the title misleading. ferry is tracing the history of thought to prepare readers for his own philosophy, his “post-nietzschean humanism”, which he spends most of the second half of the book on. it’s more a book of philosophy in its own right than a history. and it’s a more successful book when viewed this way. spending half your book tracing most of philosophy to show how it all logically progresses to your own is hard not to respect!
most of all i appreciate the clarity and lack of jargon ferry writes with. skepticism and bias aside, it’s obvious he does know what he’s talking about and is a very good teacher. look to his explanation of nietzsche’s takedown of socrates, the greeks concept of the cosmos, or how he deals a fatal blow to communism in a single sentence. he is able to sum up an incredibly complex line of thinking in a paragraph without significant compromise. overall, one is better off for reading this, either as a supplement to their own readings, or as an introduction.