Metaphysics;: An introduction

by Archie J. Bahm

For a specific description of this book, please see each individual seller offering.

Genres: Philosophy

259 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1974

Reviews

[qivy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I wish I could say that I'm just disappointed.

Perhaps I'm simply unfamiliar with philosophy and not used to this sort of writing, in which case maybe this book deserves a 2-star rating. I feel like I just read 200 pages of nonstop word vomit, and I'm slightly annoyed that I'll never get the time I spent reading this book back. There's absolutely no way this book went through more than one read before publishing. Take the following quote (warning: prepare yourself), for example:

"To endure, or to have or be duration, is to remain the same; and to remain the same is to endure, or to be or have duration. Each remaining-the-same in any respect is an endurance or a duration, and each duration is a remaining the same."

Again, I admit I'm not familiar with philosophical writing, but I can't get over how confusing 95% (low-balling) of this book was. If a book has the words "An Introduction" in the title, I think it's a fair request that the writing and language then be somewhat understandable to the layman. I also felt as though Bahm's entire tone was somewhat arrogant, especially in regards to science and mathematics, writing off Newton's theories of space-time as mere speculation, a subscript beneath some "other theories of time". Seriously?

I couldn't help but laugh when on page 133, I read the words, "At this writing, I do not recall a specific clear example," in reference to some nonsense semantics about cause and effect. If the author can't bother to research some examples for his introduction to metaphysics book, I don't think it's worth the bother of reading. But maybe this book just wasn't for me, in which case you can ignore my warnings and struggle through the read for yourself.