Philosophy for Beginners

For Beginners

by Richard Osborne

Banyak orang menilai bicara filsafat identik dengan pembicaraan yang rumit dan mengada-ada. Bahkan sebagian meragukan manfaat filsafat. Buku ini mencoba memaparkan perjalanan filsafat dari masa ke masa dengan menunjukkan pemikiran-pemikiran mendasar dari para filsuf yang berpengaruh pada zamannya, baik yang saling melengkapi maupun yang saling bertentangan. - Buku Filsafat untuk Pemula ini ditulis dengan gaya yang unik untuk mengantar siapa pun yang merasa awam ke pintu masuk dunia filsafat.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, History, Comics, Graphic Novels, Reference, Comics Manga

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1992

About the author

Pseudonym for Robert Tine

Reviews

[Jens · Rating 4 out of 5]

A relatively short (180 page) comic book covering the history of Philosophy. I've picked up "I am a strange loop" again and they've been sort of fun in combination. I think I'd like more from this series - it declares itself to be a "writers and readers beginners documentary comic book." There are a whole lot of philosophers in the series, and some other works I might be interested in - the UN, Islam, Buddha, and of course ... the History of Clowns. For beginners. I'd like to have a beer with the publishing staff. They sound odd.

I miss comic books. Maybe I'll get some French graphic novels, see if that helps me. I used to think graphic novels were the best way to influence the world - and that was before every Marvel character became a movie.

Anyway, back to this book - it's good. Obviously impossible task, but they do a good job with it. I guess they could have done a little bit better job trying to remind you of the overall picture, the map - a big chart (or lots of little charts) of who influenced who would have been a good use of the medium. They did talk a lot about that, but I could have used more. But the exposition of the basic feel and thoughts of these folks, good and bad (the misogyny of many of the 19th century folks is highlighted, for example) is really quite good.

[Kay · Rating 2 out of 5]

mmm, ok. The format (comic style) doesn't really help, and the jokes are few and far between. the explanation was a little unclear, but the overview - just the fact that it goes through all the important philosophers in history - redeems it a little. still, it's the literary equivelent of working on a couple of matrix problems.

[Colin · Rating 3 out of 5]

I admit that sometimes I'm willing to start with the elementary textbook, if I really want to learn something. The cool thing about the "...for Beginners" series is that the comic-book style never made me feel dumb, and the books within it are usually funny, too. Hey, chalk it up to the graphic-novel craze, and run out and buy a few. They have "Freud for Beginners," and "Judaism for Beginners" and "Sex for Beginners." (But you'll probably want to pick up the latter just before Books-a-Million closes for the evening. And don't look the cashier in the eye.) However, as soon as someone starts trying to simplify philosophy, that person will inevitably run into more (not fewer) arguments.

[Aaron · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book #1 from Great Uncle Bob’s Library. This is the first book I’ve finished from Uncle Bob’s vast 3,000+ book collection. Philosophy for Beginners introduces the history of philosophy in a lighthearted, comical style through cartoons and witty captions. While this first edition has its share of distracting grammatical errors, the content remains fun and approachable. As often happens for me, the narrative grew a bit murky once it reached 19th-century German philosophy, but the book serves as a lively and accessible introduction to the subject. I enjoyed this enough to warrant seeking out more of these silly introductions to challenging topics.

[G. Branden · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pretty darn good for what it is: a whirlwind tour of 2500 years of Western philosophical thought that makes an earnest effort to summarize the "great ideas" without dumbing them down. Its mildly irreverent tone also leavens the material, as most philosophers tend to get ponderous.

Just about everyone you've heard of is here, plus very likely lots of people you haven't. The approach is strongly historical; the author, Richard Osborne, begins at the beginning (Thales) and marches through the centuries to the late 20th and the dreaded post-structuralists. Osborne does not attempt any grand unifying theory, and does not suggest that philosophy is a project that can ever be completed. Every writer has a bias, and I think I detect a mild affinity for Marx and the post-Marxian Left in the sense that the author appears to regard philosophy as something that ultimately should benefit all of humanity, not just the leisure class. However, the presentation is so densely packed with raw information that the bias I discern here may simply be my own.

I'll reproduce the table of contents below so that you can get a good idea of the book's scope, but I'd like to single out a couple of areas for explicit praise:

1) Osborne does not neglect Christian philosophers. This choice is an important one given that for over a thousand years in the West, philosophical explorations detached from the Judeo-Christian tradition were suppressed. So a lot of thinkers spent a lot of time thinking about God. All the same, just how far afield many medieval philosophers managed to range from what is regarded as Church dogma today is impressive.

2) Osborne gives some attention to Frege, Russell, Wittgenstein, and (briefly) Gödel. (I actually was unaware of Frege as a precursor to Russell until reading this book). Since I am personally tempted to think that any real progress in philosophical thought lies in either mathematics or the sciences, I appreciate the springboard the author provides here.

Many histories of philosophy have been written. This is one that the general reader may actually be able to start and finish. Recommended.

Contents:

1. What is philosophy?
2. Greece: Thales; Anaximander; Pythagoras; Heraclitus; Empedocles; the Atomists; the Sophists; Socrates; Plato; Aristotle; the Alexandrian School; Skepticism
3. Rome: Stoicism; Epicurus; Lucretius; Seneca; Epictetus; Marcus Aurelius
4. Early Christianity: Philo; Origen; Plotinus; Neo-Platonism; Hypatia; Church Fathers; St. Augustine; Bœthius
5. Medieval Religious Philosophy: Holy Roman Empire; John the Scot; Avicenna; Averroës; Maimonides; Abelard; St. Anselm; St. Thomas Aquinas; Roger Bacon; Duns Scotus; William of Occam; John Wycliffe
6. The Renaissance: Machiavelli; Erasmus; Thomas More
7. Reformation and Counter-Reformation: Martin Luther; Calvin; Zwingli; St. Ignatius Loyola
8. Enlightenment: Copernicus; Montaigne; Galileo; Gilbert, Kepler, Harvey; Francis Bacon; Newton; Boyle; Hooke; Hobbes; Descartes; Spinoza; Leibnitz; Vico; Locke; Berkeley; Hume; Montesquieu; Voltaire; Burke; Paine; Wollstonecraft; Adam Smith; Rousseau; Wolff; Lessing; Herder; Göthe; Kant
9. Idealism: Fichte; Schelling; Schiller; de Staël; Hegel
10. Romantic Reaction: Schopenhauer; Kierkegaard
11. Materialism: Feuerbach; Marx
12. Sui Generis: Nietzsche
13. Utilitarianism: Bentham; Mill
14. Positivism: Comte
15. Eclecticism: Spencer; Darwin
16. American Philosophy: Pierce; James; Dewey; Quine; Rawls; Rorty
17. The Irrational: Bergson; Freud
18. Logic: Frege; Russell; Whitehead; Gödel
19. Language: Wittgenstein; the Vienna Circle
20. Phenomenology and Existentialism: Husserl; Heidegger; Sartre; Camus; de Beauvoir; Fanon; Merleau-Ponty
21. Marxists: Luxemburg; Lukacs; Gramsci; Croce; the Frankfurt School; Althusser
22. Linguistics, Semiology, Structuralism: Saussure; Lévi-Strauss; Lacan; Barthes; Foucault; Derrida

[Yalinda Carames · Rating 3 out of 5]

La verdad es que disfrute muchísimo este libro, es toda una fuente de argumentos y conocimientos.

Como todos sabemos la filosofía tiene una historia de más de 2,500 años que viaja desde la antigua Grecia hasta nuestros días, lo interesante del tema es que las ramas y los problemas que componen la filosofía han variado y seguirán variando a través de los siglos…. Yo Solo sé que no sé nada

Yali Carames :)

[Onaar Rolnexon · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant overview of the themes and types of philosophy as they have come and gone. A book that gives lots of further reading ideas and makes you want to get involved.

[Antti Sorri · Rating 3 out of 5]

Alunperin brittiläistä perua olevan For beginners -sarjakuvasarjan filosofiaa käsittelevä osuus. Lähestymisnäkökulmaksi on otettu länsimaisen filosofian historia. Toimii ajattelijoiden ja käsitteiden esittelyssä, mutta ehkä syvempi merkitys, miksi filosofiaa harrastetaan, tai miksi sen harrastaminen on ihmisyydelle keskeistä, jää tässä osittain avoimeksi.

Ei tyylipuhdas sarjakuva, sillä runsaasti tekstilaatikoita, mutta muutoin kelpo teos. Sopii hyvin lukion filosofian kurssien laajuuden sisäistäneelle.

Tarkempi arvio Filosofia aloittelijoille -sarjakuvasta luettavissa blogistani: https://anttisorri.wordpress.com/2020...

[Arfan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Menurut saya kekuatan buku ini terletak pada niat sang pengarang, Richard Osborne, untuk benar-benar memperkenalkan filsafat terutama pada orang awam samasekali. Seluruh aspek yang bisa dikaji dari sebuah bahasan filsafat, dipaparkan dalam kerangka 5W+1H (who, what, where, when, why + how), dengan kemasan menarik dan informatif. Yang saya maksud adalah, bagaimana sebuah sejarah panjang benturan pemikiran-pemikiran kritis selama peradaban manusia disajikan dalam potongan-potongan stripping komikal. Begitu pula dengan jargon-jargon penting dunia filsafat, disajikan lewat balon-balon percakapan antara karikatur tokoh, khas komik. Pula tersaji berbagai infografis mengenai perkembangan ilmu nalar ini, masih dalam sajian komikal. Secara umum pembaca akan digiring untuk mengenal jalan panjang filsafat, mulai dari masa klasik, renaissance, sampai

Buku ini bisa jadi sebuah gerbang populer untuk masyarakat awam yang punya seberkas niat memasuki dunia 'antah berantah' yang dinamai filsafat.

[Nick A.B. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed it and found it very informative about all types of philosophy. I recommend to people who want to learn more about what philosophy really is.

[Mimi · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es un buen libro, es una lectura relativamente rápida ya que el texto está bien distribuído entre las páginas y hay muchos dibujos. Aunque, hay que decir que para poder entender el contenido, hay que leer con atención, porque a pesar de que el título contenga la palabra "principiantes", no hay que olvidar que la filosofía es un tema muy amplio y dónde hay mucha información.
El libro me gustó, algunas cosas las sabía porque las estudié, y otras las conocí gracias a él. Me ayudó a expandir mí conocimiento en el campo de la filosofía.

English version:
It's a good book, it is a relatively quick read, as the text is well distributed through the pages and there's a lot of drawings. However, we have to say that to understand the content, we have to read carefully, because even though the title has the word "beginners" on it, we can't forget that Philosophy is such a large topic and where there's a lot of information.
I liked the book, I knew about some things because I've studied them before, and I learned others thanks to this book. It helped me expand my knowledge on Philosophy.
Gracias por leer/Thanks for reading.

[Jordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great overview, every page interconnected to the next

[Miru · Rating 5 out of 5]

fun little book with an entertaining comic strip style! nice refresher for those who haven't touched a philosophy book since they graduated years ago

[Miguel Soto · Rating 3 out of 5]

No me deja mucho que decir, creo que es un buen recorrido inicial, pero tal vez haya mejores introducciones.

[Alex Quinonez · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a fun and quick read about the general history of philosophy. It wasn’t super hard or complicated and it did lead me to some other books by many of the people featured in this book. A good stepping stone towards learning more in depth. 3/5

[Matias · Rating 5 out of 5]

Filosofía (I)
Desde Grecia (s. VI aC.) al Liberalismo (s. XVII)
PARA PRINCIPIANTES
Richard Osborne - Ralph Edney

Este libro cumple su propósito, te da una introducción a lo que es la filosofía y punto. Lo hace de una manera muy amena y fácil de entender. Si el libro fuera más sencillo y fácil de entender seria ridiculo, seria tan simple que se convertiría en un libro aburrido. El libro mantiene una postura neutral; ofrece de una manera muy resumida los pensamientos de los filósofos que mencionan sin dar ninguna otra opinion aparte. Dicen lo que el filósofo dijo. Es una guia simple a través de la historia de la filosofía, muy concisa y entretenida. Por estas y otras razones le doy a este libro cinco estrellas.

Creo que tu, si tu, el que está leyendo esto, debería leer ese libro. Personalmente, me dio una idea general de cómo la filosofía fue evolucionando a través del tiempo. Hubieron muchos nombres de filósofos que me llamaron la atención y que definitivamente voy a investigar en el futuro. Creo que este libro es totalmente capaz de despertar un interés por la filosofía en ti. ¿Por qué no estarías interesado en algo que te puede ayudar a vivir mejor?

No creo que tenga una frace favorita en el libro, es un libro de Filosofía, hay tantas que creo que cualquiera podría ser mi favorita. Pero si tengo que reconocer que una de las frases que me motivó más a investigar más allá del libro fue una que dijo Platón. Realmente no es una frase, es una teoría y se llama la teoría de las ideas: Platón afirmaba que la palabra “caballo” no se refería a un caballo en particular sino a cualquiera. De alguna manera, existe un caballo ideal fuera del espacio y del tiempo. La idea es real, lo particular es solo aparente.

Definitivamente este libro me ha despertado un interés más detallado y profundo por la filosofía. Yo siempre estuve interesado en la filosofía pero de una manera distante, nunca realmente me interese e investigue. No tenía un verdadero interés pero ahora, la historia continua: Filosofia (II) Para Principiantes.

[Edy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Filsafat dalam bahasa Yunani berarti “Cinta akan kebijaksanaan”. Meski demikian pengertian filsafat sendiri masih simpang siur dan berbedabeda antara satu pakar dengan pakar lainnya.

Buku ini memuat sejarah perjalanan filsafat dalam kehidupan manusia, mulai dari jaman Yunani, jaman Romawi, jaman Kristianitas awal, Jaman Pencerahan, sampai dengan filsafat abad 20. Beberapa filosof yang banyak dikupas di buku ini antara lain Plato, Aristoteles, Thomas Aquinas, Descartes, Hegel, Immanuel Kant,dll. Aliran filsafat yang dibahas dalam ini juga beragam seperti Stoa, empirisme, rasionalisme, Eklektisme, Strukturalisme, Eksistensialisme, Materialisme, Utilitarianisme, Pragmatisme, Positivisme dll.,

Jika filsafat pada awalnya banyak berkaitan dengan matematika, astronomi, agama maupun etika, dalam perkembangannya filsafat juga merasuk ke dunia politik. Kalau filsafat politik Yunani menekankan manusia sebagai mahluk komunal dalam negara, filsafat abad pertengahan menekankan pada peranan negara dan sintesis Kristiani dan filsafat modern menekankan pada invidu dan negara.

Bagi saya, buku ini menarik meski ada beberapa kelemahan yakni (1) bahasa yang dipergunakan agak kaku. Saya tidak tahu, kekakuan ini muncul karena sifatnya buku terjemahan dari bahasa Inggris ataukah karena buku ini buku filsafat sehingga bahasanya cenderung berbelit-belit dan agak sulit dipahami (2)alur pikir dan pendapat dari masing-masing tokoh seringkali sulit dipahami karena penjelasan yang terbatas,(3)sulit untuk mengidentifikasi ciri-ciri masing-masing aliran filsafat termasuk keterkaitan masing-masing aliran karena penjelasan yang minim, (4) filsafat ini lebih banyak berbicara filsafat di eropa, padahal perkembangan filsafat di daerah lain sangat menarik untuk dikaji seperti filsafat yang berkembang di Asia Timur yang memiliki peradaban tersendiri.

[Tyler · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mixed bag. The edition I purchased may be at fault, but the book I read was riddled with grammatical errors, missing or misplaced punctuation, run-on sentences, etc. This is a shame since many parts of the book are helpful for beginners. Many parts are of five-star quality. The errors themselves brought the rating down to a two, but I bumped it up to three stars due to the content. Be sure to check what edition you purchase.

I can recommend the sections on Plato, Aristotle, Descartes, Locke, Spinoza, Leibniz, Kant, Rousseau, Hegel, Marx, and Nietzsche. Though not comprehensive, they are readable introductions to these philosophers' thought. The book is quite lacking with regard to early Christian thinkers and medieval philosophers, particularly Aquinas and Anselm. The authors displayed some bias against Christian philosophers in places. The sections on Hobbes and Hume also could've used more depth.

The book's discussion of 20th-century philosophy, including existentialism, structuralism, and post-structuralism, lacked clarity, though the obscurity of these ideas may be traceable to the ideas themselves.

The comic style is sometimes helpful in distilling complex ideas into understandable parts, though its success is a bit hit or miss. As someone who rarely reads graphic novels, I found the style to be confusing at times. A much better graphic-novel introduction to modern thought is Steven Nadler's "Heretics!", even if it is more limited in scope.

Overall, I recommend it, though it can be lacking in intellectual rigor, and some sections are more appropriate for older high school students and general readers than undergraduate or graduate students. Just be wary of the editions that may be poorly edited or proofread.

[George Cole · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘Philosophy For Beginners’ by Richard Osborne. Not for the (overly) faint of heart. Perhaps a more accurate title would be ‘A General Overview Of The History Of Philosophical Thought.’ Not for a child or an elementary student, not for an amateur or novice learner, but for the already (reasonably) well-educated student. It is geared I feel towards the student who intends to pursue the subject of philosophy to its bitter end, perhaps to a Master's Degree or even a PhD. Otherwise, why would they be wasting their time with these overall character sketches and studies of philosophy, with its terms highly specific to itself, their meaning very specific also, and not tame or mild, but actually quite intellectually advanced?

The dips into philosophy are a bit abstruse in their terminology and reference what only someone already familiar with the wider world of learning would already know. The delineations are somewhat abstract. Without prior knowledge, one would simply not be able to make sense of it. The outlines really call for connections to fill them in which would come in the form of an understanding already in place, or else further research.

In the former case—which one would presume in the proper order of reading books (one does not normally retroactively seek the information with which to fill in the blanks left by a book; instead a normal book wouldn’t leave any blanks in its presentation that it didn’t suppose the reader couldn’t supply from his current understanding) would have had to have spent significant time with this subject matter.

In conclusion, an inaccurate title. Misleading to call this ‘For Beginners.’ Overall, a fantastic overview of the general subject. But even ‘Introduction’ would have been a misleading title, for I feel that the jokes and references would be lost on someone without previous experience studying, learning, or at least somehow being subjected to this area of culture. Certain words, names, and ideas even I was unfamiliar with as a 41 year old man with a Liberal Arts degree in what basically amounts to philosophy from St John's College. All of this I say in defense of myself to anyone who would accuse me of reading a beginner's book on philosophy, and in a soft attack on the author or editor or arranger or whoever it was who chose this title, for their carelessness.

Jacques Lacan said that to learn new words is The means of acquiring more culture, and this book provides the perfect ground for the intermediate I would say student of the history of philosophy to improve his mettle. The biggest theme I see coming to light here in this book is the need to decide whether philosophical truth is a subjective or an objective thing. Every philosopher seems to have his or her own particular take on this, with the notable exception of Hegel, who manages to reconcile the 2 into 1 with his Synthesis of Thesis and Antithesis—the Subject and the Object, respectively.

It was interesting to read about some lesser known philosophers (for example Willard V O Quine, who apparently carried Ockam's Razor around, slicing up confusion and unnecessary complexity, and who had a great sense of humour) and schools of philosophy (for example feminism, with its revealing of deeper and deeper levels of questioning that seem to have no end, and seem to imply that there are actually more questions than answers, that arrival at intellectual truth will always be deferred by further questions, that to demand certainty is too lofty an ideal that will probably never be fulfilled, the truth seeker to be perpetually disappointed in his or her expectation thereof).

As philosophy matures in this day in age, the philosopher must learn to be satisfied with curious wonder and the unfulfillment of having his or her questions unanswered.

Many great philosophers, many great ideas, many enlightening revelations, and it's easy to see the patterns emerging from how these great thinkers and their ideas influenced each other as this narrative unfolds.

The question of progress is raised at the end: ‘Where has progress in this field brought us?’ It’s easy to argue that genuine progress, at least judged from the perspective of the development of the spirit of man, hasn't really brought us anywhere, that the spirit has always been and always will be the same: capable of pain or happiness, responsible for its own condition, capable of growth or complacency, satisfied or unsatisfied, as the case may be, at the same time fixed by logic, but never still or at rest, always moving or changing and dynamic in nature.

I enjoyed learning about some of the lifestyle choices of some of my favorite philosophers.

My favorite philosophers in this collection would include Kierkegaard (a strong individual with a deeply religious character), Hegel (the most intellectually abstruse of all philosophers, admittedly, far removed from the everyday problems of everyday man, as Levi Strauss would say), Kant (defined by his stubborn, insistent, and rigid way of sticking in the groove and staying there, dependable, predictably consistent and reliable) Marcus Aurelius (the famous Roman Emperor obsessed with denouncing fame and holding himself up to an incredibly high standard of character), Derrida (who goes about the task of deconstructing as many traditional philosophical arguments as he can in the hope of revealing their emptiness), Aristotle (the classic philosopher-college professor who organized his knowledge into an impressively massive, coherent system), Heraclitus (the king of change; the joke goes that while he stared at the leaf on the medicinal Hellenic plant, and although to Parmenides or his followers, it would appear not to be changing in any way, Heraclitus never saw the same leaf twice), and finally, Spinoza (an honest, noble, and courteous man marked by a rare intellectual honesty and lack of ambition, he tried to demonstrate mathematically how to lead a good and normal life and basically acted on what he believed).

[Rob · Rating 3 out of 5]

A comprehensive, "cartoony" history of philosophy, this book serves as an approachable introduction for beginners or a fun review for experienced readers of philosophy. Osborne includes historical contexts and many minor figures along the way.


Osborne does not always accurately portray Christian theology. For instance, he claims that Paul the Apostle "saved Christianity from dying out" by combining "it with Greek philosophy" (p. 28). But Paul and early Christianity opposed Greek philosophy; see Acts 17:16-33, 1 Corinthians 1:18-2:16, 1 Corinthians 15, and Colossians 2:8. Later church fathers used Greek philosophy to more clearly express Christian theology from the Bible; but Christianity was no syncretism. Ideas may overlap in multiple worldviews.

[Ronkeli · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tämä oli sarjakuvamuodostaan huolimatta vaikea pala. Monimutkaisia ajatusrakennelmia oli kyllä yritetty pelkistää ja havainnollistaa, mutta kun vedetään koko filosofian historia yhteen sarjakuva-albumiin, henkilöitä on ihan kiitettävän paljon. Joka tapauksessa yleissivistävä katsaus ja monta tuttua nimeä tuli vastaan. Myös Ranskan vallankumouksen ja Yhdysvaltain itsenäistymisen vuodet toivon tämän jälkeen jo muistavani.

[Mina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tarihteki önemli düşünürlerin görüşlerini, felsefenin tarihi ve gidişatını yüzeysel de olsa aydınlatıcı bir biçimde kapsayan, çizgi roman formatında, kısa ve öz bir kitaptı. Çevirisini ise hatalı, kaba ve anlaşılması zor buldum.

[Andrew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very useful, concise, rough beginner's guide (as the title would suggest). Also, you may find it useful as a refresher, like I did.

[Elif Sena Ergin · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't like the duck drawings

[Sezgi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Felsefeyi kolaylaştıran her şeyi seviyorum. Çok güzel hazırlanmış, emek kokan bir kitap. Özellikle ortaokul-lise için felsefeyi sevdirme adına mükemmel. Çizimler ayrı bir güzellik zaten. Okunmalı :D

[Miguel Soto · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bastante mejor la segunda mitad que la primera, este sí que me despertó el interés de retomar algunos autores que tengo desbalagados.

[Twilight O. ☭ · Rating 1 out of 5]

A disappointment through and through. The ...for Beginners series has regularly impressed me, with its books on Lenin and Nietzsche both being genuinely valuable reads in spite of their limited scope. They're a brilliant format for helping get one acquainted with the lay of the land in a new subject, and I was hoping that this book could do for the whole of philosophy what those two books did for their subjects. Unfortunately, it did not.

I've seen it argued that philosophy is too broad a subject to condense into a single work, and I simply don't agree with this. It is difficult, yes, and a prospective author must be very selective in what they choose to cover and omit, but it can be done. I feel as though I can confidently say that now having read Donald Palmer's Does the Center Hold, an excellent textbook introduction to the subject. That book even uses comics just as this one does, so what's the difference?

The difference is that Palmer's book presents the arguments made by philosophers for their various positions, whereas Osbourne's does not. What we are presented in this text are the conclusions of a seemingly endless list of philosophers, conclusions divorced from the context of how their creator's came to them. For example, we're presented the traditional list of Aquinas' five 'proofs' for God's existence. We are not given a single word on why Aquinas believed these proofs to be convincing. Other unimaginably important thinkers like Plato are given this treatment as well and I half suspect that anyone reading this book not already familiar with philosophy would walk away with the impression that philosophers are a bunch of raving madmen who've never once done something useful.

For those who are interested in a fun, relatively light-weight introduction to philosophy, I can't recommend Palmer's book enough. As for this one, I'd say to skip it.

[Richard Robertson · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not good. The only redeeming quality is that is does sufficiently highlight how complicated the topic of philosophy is, and how little this book scratches the surface. 'A Short History of England' by Simon Jenkins covers a vast nearly impossible to summarise amount of information in a very approachable number of pages and does it very well, I loved that book, so I do believe this kind of task is achievable.

Unfortunately this book doesn't teach much at all. I honestly feel like it was a waste of time. Every single thing this book talks about is not given enough wordcount to be explained clearly, resulting in me understanding little to none of any philosopher and philosophy covered. Thanks to additional googling and conversations with friends sparked by my many confusions during reading this, I have been able to absorb a small amount, but none of that is credited to this book.

I originally started reading this so I could have enough basic philosophy knowledge to recreate a scenario of clashing philosophical parties in a D&D game - as low stakes as you can imagine - but I don't feel any closer to that goal of mine than when I started.

[Özer Avcu · Rating 4 out of 5]

Antik yunandan 20. yüzyıla gelen süreçte felsefe akımlarını ve filozofları kısaca tanıtmayı hedeflemiş bir kitap. Bunu yaparken kısa metinlere ek olarak hoş ve eğlenceli çizimler/karikatürler sunmuş.

Bir çeşit felsefe başlangıç kitabı, ortaokul/lise evresindeki gençler için güzel bir rehber olabilir. Muhtemelen bizim eve de benim bu dönemlerinde girmiştir, yıllar sonra evden böyle bir şey çıkınca okuyayım dedim ama bilgi birikimimin altında kaldı. Yine de sıkılmadan bir boş günümü keyiflendirdi diyebilirim.

Kitabın orjinal adı "Philosopy For Beginners", "For Beginners" serisine ait. Yakın zamanda bizde de bol bol türeyen ve tutan mini bilgiler sunan serilerden biriymiş gördüğüm kadarıyla. İsmini de yeni başlayanlar için felsefe olarak çevirseler daha güzel olurmuş. Gerçi kitapta herhangi bir künye sayfası yok, kim basmış kim çevirmiş bunları da bilemediğimiz için takılmamak lazım sanırım :) Muhtemelen son birkaç yılda basılmış daha kaliteli muadilleri mevcuttur kitapçılarımızda. Ama olur da bu kitap elinize geçerse genç bir arkadaş ile yollarını kesiştirebilirsiniz.

[Denise Schlachtaub · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a mixed review, both good and bad. The good is that it's full, and I do mean chock-full, of tons of information on the history of philosophy, so it's a great reference source. The bad is that it's almost TOO full of information on the history of philosophy.
It is a beginner book, in the sense that it does a good and thorough job of summarizing the views of the major players, but for someone who is truly new to the subject, all the names, dates, terminology, the many conflicting arguments, and the sheer scope of the subject matter might cause an information overload. In that case, I'd suggest reading it slowly; for example, start with one time period, one country, or one philosopher at a time.