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Classics of Philosophy
Incorporating the insights of new coeditor Lewis Vaughn, Classics of Philosophy, Third Edition, is the most comprehensive anthology of writings in Western philosophy in print. Spanning 2,500 years of thought, it is ideal for introduction to philosophy and history of philosophy courses. It features more than seventy selections by forty philosophers--along with fragments from the Pre-Socratics--offering students and instructors an extensive and economical collection of the major works of the Western tradition. This volume contains the most important writings from Thales to Rawls; twenty of these are complete works, while the others are judiciously abridged so that little of value to the student is lost. A lucid introduction, including a brief biographical sketch, accompanies each of the featured philosophers.
NEW TO THE THIRD EDITION:
* Selections from philosophers who were not included in the previous edition--Maimonides (Guide for the Perplexed) and Schopenhauer (The World as Will and Representation)--along with Kant's Critique of Pure Reason
* Expanded readings: Aristotle's Posterior Analytics, On the Soul, Metaphysics, and Nicomachean Ethics; Berkeley's Of the Principles of Human Knowledge; and Hume's Treatise on Human Nature
* Review questions for each chapter and illustrated portraits of many philosophers
* A Companion Website at www.oup.com/us/pojman featuring resources for students (self-quizzes, flash cards, chapter review questions, a timeline, and helpful web links) and instructors (brief reading summaries, essay questions, test questions, and PowerPoint-based lecture slides)
Classics of Philosophy, Third Edition, provides students with an extensive view of the major stages of growth in Western philosophy--including its birth with the Pre-Socratics and its contemporary developments--in an accessible format and at an affordable price.
NEW TO THE THIRD EDITION:
* Selections from philosophers who were not included in the previous edition--Maimonides (Guide for the Perplexed) and Schopenhauer (The World as Will and Representation)--along with Kant's Critique of Pure Reason
* Expanded readings: Aristotle's Posterior Analytics, On the Soul, Metaphysics, and Nicomachean Ethics; Berkeley's Of the Principles of Human Knowledge; and Hume's Treatise on Human Nature
* Review questions for each chapter and illustrated portraits of many philosophers
* A Companion Website at www.oup.com/us/pojman featuring resources for students (self-quizzes, flash cards, chapter review questions, a timeline, and helpful web links) and instructors (brief reading summaries, essay questions, test questions, and PowerPoint-based lecture slides)
Classics of Philosophy, Third Edition, provides students with an extensive view of the major stages of growth in Western philosophy--including its birth with the Pre-Socratics and its contemporary developments--in an accessible format and at an affordable price.
1312 pages, Paperback
First published October 2, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 23, 2020
A Nearly Flawless Introduction to Western Philosophy
I picked up this book on a whim at a used book store about six and a half years ago. The book was priced at about $8.00 or so and I thought I might as well buy it for such a low price. At the time, I was new to philosophy and thought this might be a good book for learning more about the subject. Little did I realize that this would be the most useful $8.00 worth of money that I have ever spent. At 1272 pages of reading material, this book has quite a bit of useful information for only $8.00! During the past six and a half years I have read this book on and off, sometimes not even reading the book at all for over a year. But within the past month, I began dutifully taking notes and studying this material in depth. Thus, the latter half of this book I finally finished within the past 30 days or so.
I should stress that this is a great book for general western philosophy, but not for eastern philosophy or more particular branches of philosophy such as epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, or philosophy of religion. However, it will give any student of philosophy a good background knowledge of most fields within philosophy (with the notable exception of eastern philosophy).
So why is this textbook so great? Well for starters the sheer volume of the book is impressive. A solid textbook on philosophy must be quite large in order to adequately encompass the teachings of the great philosophers of the past 2500 years. But not only was the size of this book sufficient for such a task, but the selection was great. It began with snippets of various Pre-Socratic philosophers and then fairly quickly jumped headlong into Plato and Aristotle. Sometimes this textbook would only include excerpts from philosophers while at other times it would include entire works of certain philosophers. Plato’s Euthyphro, The Apology, and Crito were all included in their entirety. The selection on Plato’s Republic included about 80% of the original book. Huge selections of Aristotle were also included. In total, substantial selections from 41 philosophers were given. Entire books were included such as Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy, Leibniz’s Discourse on Metaphysics and his Monadology, Hume’s An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Kant’s Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics and his Foundation for the Metaphysics of Morals, and John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianism.
But is wasn’t just the size of the excerpts and the number of the philosophers included that made this textbook great, but the superb selection of philosophers and the chronological order in which they were included is what made this book really shine. Philosophy builds upon itself and thus arranging the philosophers in chronological order was a great decision. As I read through the book I became increasingly thankful for reading Plato before I read Rene Descartes, Descartes before I read Spinoza, Hume before I read Kant, Kant before I read Hegel, John Stuart Mill before I read John Rawls, Wittgenstein before I read Heidegger, etc. The author of this textbook, Louis P. Pojman, did an excellent job selecting important philosophers. And not only that, but he was wise enough to leave out certain philosophers that we could easily skip over. For instance, he did not include Jeremy Bentham, which I initially believed to be a mistake, for I was familiar with Bentham’s pivotal role in establishing utilitarianism. But replacing him with John Stuart Mill turned out to be a wise choice, for Mill’s version of utilitarianism is much more refined than Bentham’s. Why waste time on inferior renditions of ideas when you can go right ahead to the best arguments?
And lastly, this textbook was amazing for a reason that is usually neglected by most philosophy textbooks: before each selection, Pojman included a brief biography of the philosopher and a summarization of the ideas in the following excerpts. Pojman mostly kept his own bias out of the summaries and presented a fair synopsis of many complex ideas. Including a brief biography of each philosopher helped me to relate with the material. It encouraged me to look up the philosophers between (and during) my reading sessions to learn more about the individual thinkers. This, in turn, enabled me to pair all sorts of ideas with the image and story of the philosopher themselves.
I could hardly have asked for a better introduction to western philosophy. The only flaws I found were the very infrequent typos found here and there. Overall, this was a fantastic book whose size, selection, organization, biographical sketches, and summaries of the material should be mimicked by all subsequent introductions to western philosophy. A true masterpiece!
I picked up this book on a whim at a used book store about six and a half years ago. The book was priced at about $8.00 or so and I thought I might as well buy it for such a low price. At the time, I was new to philosophy and thought this might be a good book for learning more about the subject. Little did I realize that this would be the most useful $8.00 worth of money that I have ever spent. At 1272 pages of reading material, this book has quite a bit of useful information for only $8.00! During the past six and a half years I have read this book on and off, sometimes not even reading the book at all for over a year. But within the past month, I began dutifully taking notes and studying this material in depth. Thus, the latter half of this book I finally finished within the past 30 days or so.
I should stress that this is a great book for general western philosophy, but not for eastern philosophy or more particular branches of philosophy such as epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, or philosophy of religion. However, it will give any student of philosophy a good background knowledge of most fields within philosophy (with the notable exception of eastern philosophy).
So why is this textbook so great? Well for starters the sheer volume of the book is impressive. A solid textbook on philosophy must be quite large in order to adequately encompass the teachings of the great philosophers of the past 2500 years. But not only was the size of this book sufficient for such a task, but the selection was great. It began with snippets of various Pre-Socratic philosophers and then fairly quickly jumped headlong into Plato and Aristotle. Sometimes this textbook would only include excerpts from philosophers while at other times it would include entire works of certain philosophers. Plato’s Euthyphro, The Apology, and Crito were all included in their entirety. The selection on Plato’s Republic included about 80% of the original book. Huge selections of Aristotle were also included. In total, substantial selections from 41 philosophers were given. Entire books were included such as Descartes’ Meditations on First Philosophy, Leibniz’s Discourse on Metaphysics and his Monadology, Hume’s An Inquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Kant’s Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics and his Foundation for the Metaphysics of Morals, and John Stuart Mill’s Utilitarianism.
But is wasn’t just the size of the excerpts and the number of the philosophers included that made this textbook great, but the superb selection of philosophers and the chronological order in which they were included is what made this book really shine. Philosophy builds upon itself and thus arranging the philosophers in chronological order was a great decision. As I read through the book I became increasingly thankful for reading Plato before I read Rene Descartes, Descartes before I read Spinoza, Hume before I read Kant, Kant before I read Hegel, John Stuart Mill before I read John Rawls, Wittgenstein before I read Heidegger, etc. The author of this textbook, Louis P. Pojman, did an excellent job selecting important philosophers. And not only that, but he was wise enough to leave out certain philosophers that we could easily skip over. For instance, he did not include Jeremy Bentham, which I initially believed to be a mistake, for I was familiar with Bentham’s pivotal role in establishing utilitarianism. But replacing him with John Stuart Mill turned out to be a wise choice, for Mill’s version of utilitarianism is much more refined than Bentham’s. Why waste time on inferior renditions of ideas when you can go right ahead to the best arguments?
And lastly, this textbook was amazing for a reason that is usually neglected by most philosophy textbooks: before each selection, Pojman included a brief biography of the philosopher and a summarization of the ideas in the following excerpts. Pojman mostly kept his own bias out of the summaries and presented a fair synopsis of many complex ideas. Including a brief biography of each philosopher helped me to relate with the material. It encouraged me to look up the philosophers between (and during) my reading sessions to learn more about the individual thinkers. This, in turn, enabled me to pair all sorts of ideas with the image and story of the philosopher themselves.
I could hardly have asked for a better introduction to western philosophy. The only flaws I found were the very infrequent typos found here and there. Overall, this was a fantastic book whose size, selection, organization, biographical sketches, and summaries of the material should be mimicked by all subsequent introductions to western philosophy. A true masterpiece!
May 7, 2009
A great book that should be in everyones collection. Its more a reference to philosopher's different works though than a straight read through book.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews