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ralowe's review against another edition
2.0
there's what may appear to be a distracting typo in the financial crisis of 2008 bestseller service chapter where desserts becomes deserts. in chapter 3, "newer asshole styles." i caused me to mistakenly wonder 'is spellcheck or the publisher the bigger asshole here?' but it fits, strangely. the author mugshot bio claims that aaron james is not an asshole. although he surfs and teaches at stanford. i'm grasping for commentary on acceptable objectionability and the game seems to always be on production, that any data is commodifiable as fetish. still haven't read marx. he's fuzzy around the merits of an acquired entitlement for the socially dead. everything about kanye he says elicits from me a "yeah, but..." i feel like an asshole for taking the time to describe how uncomfortable it is to listen to an economist wax on about gender. i don't believe that he would actually write the letter at the end to the asshole. people will go in for anything.
bogwalker's review against another edition
informative
sad
slow-paced
1.0
Meh. Not really world changing or inspiring. Nothing groundbreaking. Not even interesting.
Content Warnings
Strong language
gryzzlbox's review against another edition
2.0
It's a fine book, but like most people, I don't really like thinking about assholes, and I prefer my nonfic with a touch of humor, which I thought this might have more of. Ended up finishing (audio) regardless, and appreciated that they used the term "assholes" forthright.
jimmacsyr's review against another edition
4.0
I thought this would be a bit of a joke, it found it to be very interesting. The author does a really great job of highlighting some issues and ideas. I enjoyed the book very much.
stephenmeansme's review against another edition
2.0
"Assholes: A Theory" starts off strong, with a careful definition of what we might mean when we call someone an asshole, including what sorts of attitudes and behaviors might characterize an asshole. This is all well and good, a fun yet serious-minded philosophical expedition.
Unfortunately, this is not sustained. The last four chapters (once the asshole taxonomy has been provisionally constructed) steadily degrade in quality. The problem, I think, is precisely that this is a pop philosophy text, and as such the author wasn't obligated to actually attach details and empirical results to his speculations.
So when he attempts to explain why more males than females seem to be assholes, he essentially falls back on left-leaning theories of social constructionism, though at least his reasons for doing so seem plausible.
The next chapter is a meandering speculation on "asshole management" which is even shorter on examples and facts.
Finally, the chapter on "asshole capitalism" constructs an interesting theory with citations of various social and economic models... But shies away from giving any evidence of where things might stand, other than the author's personal sense of where three specific countries are relative to an asshole-capitalism death spiral. One gets the sense that certain citations (especially the obvious ones from Hobbes and Rawls, e.g.) are less for support and more perfunctory, because it's a pop-philosophy book and you have to expose the non-philosophical readership to these background.
Overall, I can't recommend this book in its entirety: it starts off well but bottoms out far too quickly for my liking. A better alternative is to find the episode of the Rationally Speaking podcast where Aaron James (the author) is a guest.
Unfortunately, this is not sustained. The last four chapters (once the asshole taxonomy has been provisionally constructed) steadily degrade in quality. The problem, I think, is precisely that this is a pop philosophy text, and as such the author wasn't obligated to actually attach details and empirical results to his speculations.
So when he attempts to explain why more males than females seem to be assholes, he essentially falls back on left-leaning theories of social constructionism, though at least his reasons for doing so seem plausible.
The next chapter is a meandering speculation on "asshole management" which is even shorter on examples and facts.
Finally, the chapter on "asshole capitalism" constructs an interesting theory with citations of various social and economic models... But shies away from giving any evidence of where things might stand, other than the author's personal sense of where three specific countries are relative to an asshole-capitalism death spiral. One gets the sense that certain citations (especially the obvious ones from Hobbes and Rawls, e.g.) are less for support and more perfunctory, because it's a pop-philosophy book and you have to expose the non-philosophical readership to these background.
Overall, I can't recommend this book in its entirety: it starts off well but bottoms out far too quickly for my liking. A better alternative is to find the episode of the Rationally Speaking podcast where Aaron James (the author) is a guest.
goodverbsonly's review against another edition
3.0
technically, i still have the appendix to read but after reading his “letter to an asshole” at the end, and also due to the fact that it’s about game theory, i need a clear mind going into it:
1. great! a solid philosophical background about what makes an asshole an asshole, and why we don’t like them. very interesting, clear and accessible
2. aj...might just be an asshole himself...definitely has a picture of an asshole in his mind and seems to want to clear himself of moral responsibility for not dealing with them, while also clearing himself of being one and being a “fully cooperative person” who is...not real
3. might be wrong or splitting hairs in the nitty gritty of the definitions when i think an application of kant actually makes his theory both simple and interesting!!!!
4. in some places he is downright condescending!!!! in his writing and his view of people who aren’t like...philosophers, who want to try to change assholes, etc.
1. great! a solid philosophical background about what makes an asshole an asshole, and why we don’t like them. very interesting, clear and accessible
2. aj...might just be an asshole himself...definitely has a picture of an asshole in his mind and seems to want to clear himself of moral responsibility for not dealing with them, while also clearing himself of being one and being a “fully cooperative person” who is...not real
3. might be wrong or splitting hairs in the nitty gritty of the definitions when i think an application of kant actually makes his theory both simple and interesting!!!!
4. in some places he is downright condescending!!!! in his writing and his view of people who aren’t like...philosophers, who want to try to change assholes, etc.
jimbo1023's review against another edition
3.0
For the first few chapters, I legitimately enjoyed this book. It felt like a satire of serious philosophy books. It took a somewhat silly premise ("What is it to be an asshole?"), and dressed it in the language of philosophical treatises. As much as my interpretation made me laugh, the entertainment value gradually fell. The book took itself too seriously for my taste, and reading the remaining majority of the text became a slog.
kerrygibbons's review against another edition
4.0
So this is not just a quick, sardonic little treatise on who assholes are and why they suck. This is a manifesto on how assholes could come to ruin the economy, how they caused the 2008 economic crisis, how spanking could have an influence on the development of assholery, etc. I quite enjoyed it though it is rather dry.