Invitation to Philosophy

by Martin Hollis

Book by Hollis, Martin

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

179 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1985

Reviews

[Jakob · Rating 5 out of 5]

Getting into the world of philosophy can be a daunting task. There are so many great thinkers, schools of thought, and ways of approaching the subject, so knowing where to start is not easy. Thankfully there are some magnificent introductory books that give a clear overview of the problems of philosophy.

This book by Martin Hollis, is one of those. Amongst the topics he discusses are logic/reasoning, ethics, philosophy of society, theory of knowledge, and the problem of free will. As one can see, it is quite broad in its scope, especially considering the books' short length. However, it does not focus much on the history of philosophy; instead it references the theories of some historical philosophers when relevant. Plato and his allegory of the cave is aptly used as a starting point for the discussion on theory of knowledge, as is Descartes. Hobbes' thoughts shed light on political philosophy, and Mill and Kant are central to ethics.
All in all this is a good starting point for someone who is not so experienced in the field of philosophy, or those who just want to brush up on the subject. The book also includes splendid suggestions for further readings.

[Marc · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a wonderful introduction to philosophy. I read it from the perspective of one with an interest in the field, who aspires to study a course involving philosophy at university. To that end, I found this book brilliant. It manages to serve as an introduction (or rather, invitation) to philosophy that both invokes a sense of interest for the subject, and is detailed and rigorous enough to make you think to understand the book’s content.

I think one really needs to understand what the book covers. Invitation to Philosophy is not a whistle-stop tour of the whole field of philosophy, instead it only focuses on a few fundamental concerns of the subject: logic, knowledge of inner and outer worlds, the self, morality and free will vs determinism. Instead of covering each branch of philosophy individually, Hollis brings in relevant aspects of each when tackling these questions, and thus weaves a coherent argument that requires careful reading to stay on top of, but is very informative. Perhaps the subject is best presented this way – in its argumentation.

If you are in a similar situation to me, reading this in preparation for higher education or similar, I recommend reading at a pace slow enough to follow the book’s arguments, and to make notes afterwards; this helped me organise my own thoughts and consolidate my learnings.

This book is less well-known than many other introductory books to philosophy, but it is a great place to start. I would wholly recommend it.

[Daniel Clemence · Rating 3 out of 5]

Martin Hollis’ Invitation to Philosophy is a book which gives an overview of philosophy. The subjects looked at include epistemology, logic and reasoning, ethics, ontology and existence, Descartes and Plato, belief and political philosophy. This book gives an adequate overview of the subject but lacks detail in how it gives references. Some of the points in the book are also not entirely correct; the definition given for a sound argument isn’t correct and more relates to a valid argument. An argument is valid in that it would be impossible for the wrong conclusion to be true; the conclusion must follow from the premises. A sound argument is that the premises are true as well as the conclusion. Overall, though, it gives a good introduction to philosophy

[Niels · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good introduction to philosophy. At times tough for an absolute beginner, but I found that rereading a paragraph a few times at a slow pace helps a lot. The book is also a bit dated, being released in 1985, but then again, philosophy goes back to antiquity, so those 37 years shouldn't matter that much!

[Coco Schoppenboer-Potgieter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very much recommended for people who want to get into Philosophy. Can be hard to get your head round some of the concepts on a first read through, but that's understandable with philosophy.