The Philosophy Book (DK Big Ideas)

I first found this philosophy book at the Khon Kaen University library in Thailand. With the famous quotes from big thinkers displayed as a cover, this book would make readers interested in philosophy want to open it and learn more about these concepts. While reading you can discover what philosophical ideas correspond to your life, your current situations and which ones are your most favorites. I first borrowed this book from the library. Then I wanted to have this one as one of my favorite books so I decided to buy this book on Amazon to arrive before my birthday. This book is special and I still use and look at this nowadays when I study other philosophy books. Recommended for beginners who want to master philosophy and study further about philosophical concepts and big thinkers. Helpful philosophy reference book for quick revision

Although I can’t speak to the nature of the e-book on any device, The Philosophy Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained is a very entertaining introduction to various historically significant philosophical minds. It includes images as well as a light amount of biographical information which is important for gathering the context through which these people were developing their thoughts. The intention of the book is be an overview of an entire subject since its inception in ancient times, so personally I find it difficult to fault for being brief considering how much content it aims to tackle. The segregation of time from section to section is fine given, once again, what a large time-span the book seeks to cover. In addition, this book is tailored to be appealing to youths who probably aren’t yet enabled to take a formalized philosophy course so there’s little cause to make it hyper-informative of individuals or get into the weeds of specific time periods. It is not a history book after all. If someone wants to learn more about a specific philosopher’s ideas this book provides a litany of paths to go down and without a publishing like this, it’s hard to have a significant awareness of the breadth of what is out there. However, there are some things it seems like the book could benefit from. Dedicated passages describing concepts of empiricism and rationalism would be a big plus since a lot of philosophers consider themselves to be decidedly one or the other. Without defining these terms the book’s intended audience, being people who are potentially reading their first book about philosophy, might come to feel like they were in the dark if they learn these things later. As well as this a page or two dedicated to the various formations of logic-based arguments you can make would have been instructive since that is where most meaningful philosophical dialogue is derived from. One more thing that may have been worthwhile would be a page indicating the various ethical theories in brief definition and who was able to first formally publish works regarding them such as utilitarianism, feminism, Kantian ethics, etc. It also needs to detail that although science does explain many things about the universe it cannot begin to explain everything, such as life after death or the nature of “God”. This is especially relevant to any of the stoic philosophers since their conception of God was pantheistic and radically different to any sort of self-centered human looking creation that many people today are inclined to conceptualize it as. All things considered the book is highly informative and more than intriguing enough to get someone more interested in the original subject. It could use more expansive discussion of what many of the cornerstones of basic philosophy courses are. It also quite crudely brushes by conceptions of “God” and takes no time describing the basics of forming an argument. I still am giving it the highest rating just because the interest it generates overwhelms all other deficiencies in it, especially given most people don’t receive a philosophy class in high-school and in terms of daily life it’s definitely critical to be able to contemplate things on a deeper level.

This book gives a brief, but informative summary of philosophers and their philosophy. It describes what influenced them, and how they influenced others. It goes in chronological order, but makes it easy to skip around if you have something specific you want to read about...each philosopher has a brief description at the beginning of their section. I couldn't put this book down! It was so interesting to see how philosophy has developed over time.

This sweeping overview of philosophy walks us through history in chronological order, dedicating a couple pages to our most influential thinkers. It’s an ideal starting point for anyone interested in the topic. The lucid prose spares us from impenetrable academic jargon of the Stanford Encyclopedia; the illustrations and quotes add visual appeal to compensate for what might be considered dry topics; and each section contains a philosopher biography as well as historical context to help orient us to their work. The authors provide adequate synopsis to explain key principles—just enough to map the field and pique interest. This is Philosophy 101. It’s extremely clear and succinct, yet it still captures the essence of a host of meaningful ideas. After reading it, I had a pretty good idea where to focus my future dives into philosophy.

So far, there are 146 reviews with an average rating of 4.5 stars. That tells you that this is a quality book which appeals to a large audience. Count me as another person who likes the book. Though I've explored Western and non-Western philosophy for more than three decades - sometimes with a lot of intensity - I still find this book useful as a means to brush up on many things, and learn some new things as well. The format of the book is quite user-friendly, with write-ups which span 1 to 6 pages for each philosopher, and the writing is clear. Equally or more important, to the extent that I can judge, the key ideas of each philosopher are captured well in this book, though of course you can't expect too much depth at this level of brevity. The range of philosophers included is also quite broad, with pretty much all of the philosophers you've likely heard of, and probably many you haven't heard of also. And while Western philosophers are most prominent, there are plenty of Eastern and Arab philosophers as well. Reading the book from cover to cover, in sequence, would likely be mentally quite taxing for readers relatively new to considering philosophical questions, but that should be doable if readers pace themselves and allow plenty of time to get through the book - despite the friendly format, this isn't light reading! For readers like me who are already fairly familiar with this landscape, it's a good book to dip into randomly here and there, to remain exposed to viewpoints which serve as alternatives to the current conventional thinking of the masses.

This book is a great primer for anyone interested in delving into philosophy. I've read a fair amount of classic philosophical texts but realize it's often hard to understand the terminology or references that philosophers make. This book is great because it succinctly explains basic concepts of many thinkers and traditions and explains how they fit in the timeline of ideas, making things much more accessible. A friend told me he was interested in philosophy but didn't know where to start so I gave him this book. He got through it relatively quickly and said it greatly strengthened his base understanding of the philosophical tradition. It's really a great resource for getting an overview before diving into deeper concepts. I have more confidence now that someday I'll successfully tackle Hegel to impress a dinner party: the ultimate goal of philosophy.

The book is amazing as I expected. The speed of delivery is fine. The protection of the book is awful. I buy a new book! Maybe I cannot receive a perfect one, but this is unacceptable. The back of the book has a pretty big irretrievable fold in the upper left-hand corner.

I'm really enjoying DK's surveys of topics that I'd generally consider beyond me. This book, in particular, went way beyond just laying out facts and gave me a lot to think about. While the book focused on the people it provided enough interesting ideas to cause me to explore other sources and ideas. The biggest impact for me has been an understanding that, while I may disagree with a philosophical concept, I can respect the ideas, how they might have developed over time and how the might explain an idea I might have previously rejected without thought. A fun and interesting read.

The Philosophy Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained I got this for a 3rd year Philosophy student. I don't think it has anything she hasn't studied already but it's a great quick reference companion. I has lots of charts and pictures, and I love charts. The new gen doesn't seem to have a non digital book culture like I did back in the day. Still I'm sure she'll put this one to good use. The quality of the book construction is also very good.

très bien fait, simple à lire et à comprendre, surtout pour des personnes comme moi toujours pris par le temps (boulot et enfant) - et avec le confinement en ce moment je prend le temps de bien le lire, y compris la notice de ma TV.

Este libro es un buen compendio en inglés de la historia de la filosofía. Es sintético, claro y viene muy bien para tener una idea genérica de los principales pensadores occidentales y orientales también. No se necesita tener un nivel muy alto de inglés para entenderlo y tampoco de filosofía. Ideal para docentes y alumnos no universitarios y para toda aquella persona que esté interesada en tener un primer contacto con nuestra historia del pensamiento.

Very nice. For beginners

Book is great, looks appealing yet has a school / manual kind of feel. The book was to be a present but came bent. What is more, it squished the small box it was packed with so I had to restick seals and reinsert contents - that was a completely different order and meant for a different child. Box and book were not packed with foresight, either by seller or repacking facility. They both ended up smashed around corners and in an embarrassing state