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The Philosophy Bible: The Definitive Guide to the Last 3,000 Years of Thought by Martin Cohen
chris_v8_climber_wow_nice's review
2.0
As a big-time beginner, I appreciated this as a very very quick introduction to many philosophers in the canon but on the (extremely) few topics I was informed about prior to reading this, the author confused me a bit with what he wrote about them. The most glaring example I can think of is the following in reference to Diotima as she appears in Plato's The Symposium:
"This is her insight on love in Plato's The Symposium: 'According to Greek mythology, humans were originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces. Fearing their power, Zeus split them into two separate parts, condemning them to spend their lives in search of their other halves... "Love" is the name for our pursuit of wholeness, for our desire to be complete.'"
If I remember correctly, this was Aristophanes and not Diotima. This seemed like a pretty big issue to me because, again, if I remember correctly, when Diotima spoke last at the end of The Symposium she was effectively representing the culmination and refutation of all the previous speakers; both of their selves and their ideas. Seemed downright misleading to me. Other than that and a few other confusing things, I liked reading through this as an introduction.
"This is her insight on love in Plato's The Symposium: 'According to Greek mythology, humans were originally created with four arms, four legs and a head with two faces. Fearing their power, Zeus split them into two separate parts, condemning them to spend their lives in search of their other halves... "Love" is the name for our pursuit of wholeness, for our desire to be complete.'"
If I remember correctly, this was Aristophanes and not Diotima. This seemed like a pretty big issue to me because, again, if I remember correctly, when Diotima spoke last at the end of The Symposium she was effectively representing the culmination and refutation of all the previous speakers; both of their selves and their ideas. Seemed downright misleading to me. Other than that and a few other confusing things, I liked reading through this as an introduction.
jodie_saint's review
4.0
If you won't a general overview of philosophy, this is the book for you. It was appropriately detailed and comprehensive. I learned a lot from this little book.
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