Think Like a Philosopher: Get to Grips with Reasoning and Ethics

by Anne Rooney

大牌出版人文科普

Genres: Philosophy

251 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 15, 2019

About the author

Anne Rooney gained a degree and then a PhD in medieval literature from Trinity College, Cambridge. After a period of teaching medieval English and French literature at the universities of Cambridge and York, she left to pursue a career as a freelance writer. She has written many books for adults and children on a variety of subjects, including literature and history. She lives in Cambridge and is Royal Literary Fund Fellow at the University of Essex.

Reviews

[Tea · Rating 2 out of 5]

Anne Rooney's writing is incredibly dull, this was a task to read. I understand it is a philosophy book that gives a broad view of the subject, but 2-page chapters are useless in my opinion. Rooney has strong negative opinions on religion (that could easily be seen as rude and offensive), yet half the book based itself of off the philosophy of religion. She views religion as controlling people from "obedience derived from fear".

[Zohal · Rating 3 out of 5]

To be honest, you can get the same knowledge from this book by watching the Crash Course philosophy series on YouTube. That is also more interesting to watch than read about.

The writing was also pretty dull/unimaginative.

[Dierregi · Rating 2 out of 5]

Read in a couple of days. It is structured in short, easily digestible chapters that are supposed to give hints on how to live life and tackle ethic problems in a philosophical way, obviously quoting several philosophers along the way. It was a noble albeit unpractical idea because most of the chapters were too short, the scope too wide and there is just that much simplification you can do about very complex issues.

If you don't know anything at all about philosophy and need some "crash entrance course" this is better than nothing, but not good enough and I am not even the most learned person on the subject.

[Shauna Rose Raeside · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read it because I have no clue about the types of philosophy or who said what when. The book does a pretty good job of helping you just dip your toes into the big scary unfamiliar world of Philosophy but for such a broad and brief review/introduction I would have preferred more specific references/pointers to works of the philosophers mentioned throughout the book. If you're as new to philosophy as I am and enough of a newbie to want/need this book, you might want more than just names of philosophers and when they lived if you're looking for what to read next.

[Robert Geoghegan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun read. Nothing too deep, but enough to spark an interest to go deeper into philosophical works. Recommend for those who have not read any philosophy or, those interested in killing some time

[Reuben Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

an easy read, good introduction but could be more in depth

[April Nicholas · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very easy read concerning a number of topics of interest to philosophers.

[Behzad Oskouei · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this book after reading few other titles on philosophy and history of philosophy, yet I found it quite helpful on giving a lot of helpful summarizations on both. The person who picks a book should adjust expectations and gauge it accordingly. It is 220 pages, in 27 short chapters. Anna Rooney writes on variety of topics, biology, physics, Neuroscience , science for children etc, I see a lot of passion used on each of those.
Book goes through major questions that one might see in philosophy, truth, choice, soul, god, religion, person vs Society, war, science, suicide, etc. chapters refer frequently to well known philosophers and thinkers from all over the world since pre-Greek era till contemporary.
Yes if you want a detailed account there are numerous other books available.
A philosopher, asks question and critically examines ideas, I personally wouldn’t trust a philosophy book written by a religious or ideologically inclined writer, which is one additional reason I liked this book.
If you want a good intensive summary with good quotes on philosophy I do recommend this book strongly.

[Olivier Chabot · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good introduction. A little dry and too surface level.

[Tinykitten]

Did not finish, since I found a logical error in the first chapter and lost interest.

[Davide De Vincentiis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Libro interessante ma estremamente sintetico e scollegato tra le varie parti

[Angel Calderon · Rating 4 out of 5]

In my quest to find answers to some of the recurring questions I’ve had throughout my journey in life... I came upon the term “Philosophy”
When I found that Philosophy was actually a quest for truth and knowledge, I became fascinated and wanted to learn more.

This book was a helpful guide and an introduction for me to the World of Philosophy. It poses some of the most common questions and philosophies of ancient times, as well as current world conclusions/thinking brought on by modern day philosophers.
Great book!

[Jules]

Very good, well laid out and easy for a layman to understand and appreciate