About Philosophy

by Robert Paul Wolff

This classic text introduces the major fields, problems, theories, and personalities of philosophy through the biographies and writing of leading thinkers.Presenting philosophy as an activity whose guiding principle is reason and whose goal is critical self-understanding, this book explains in a clear, uncluttered manner not only what the great philosophers said, but why they said it. The book also includes discussions of Alternative Philosophies throughout the book where appropriate. Each chapter concludes with a Contemporary Application that relates the philosophy to important issues of current concern. The seventh edition of About Philosophy has been revised to include presentation of topics related to Medical Ethics; new Contemporary Applications; and a strengthening of feminist theory throughout the book.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Reference, Textbooks

468 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1976

About the author

Robert Paul Wolff was an American political philosopher and professor emeritus at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.
Wolff has written widely on topics in political philosophy, including Marxism, tolerance (against liberalism and in favor of anarchism), political justification, and democracy.

Reviews

[Abby · Rating 3 out of 5]

A solid intro to Philosophy. It introduced me to all of the basic subfields and their major contributors. One thing I was increasingly frustrated by was that (though not directly a fault of the author) all of the “worthwhile” philosophical thinking has been done by OLD WHITE MEN. I’m kind of tired of that. They definitely do have profound ideas about all sorts of everything—social justice, ethics, epistemology, art, being. But aren’t we limiting our horizon by only reading the thoughts of those who have been in power? That in mind, this book was liberal for its time. I think it was written in like the 70s. I read it, in spite of its antiquity, because it was my dads intro philosophy textbook. If we hope to understand our society and its problems today, it might help to know a bit about the societies and their problems then, for what is today but a subsequent iteration of yesterdays?