Good intro to philosophy
340397
I don't know a whole lot about philosophy, but after reading this book I feel that I have at least a basic grasp of philosophical concepts.  I enjoy reading the Harry Potter books a lot and I find this book to be quite educational and interesting. So I would recommend any HP fan who wants to learn something about philosophy to read this book.

If you enjoy reading this book, then you might also want to try "Batman and Philosophy: The Dark Knight of the Soul". That's also a pretty good book, and it complements this book well.

P.S. I do wonder how the author/publisher got permission to use D. Radcliffe's image on the cover.
4752206
Allain de Botton interweaves a little bit of the biography and some of the work of a few key philosophers in this book. It's great if you're interested in Philosophy and don't know where to start. Sometimes it feels a little bit like a self-help book, but it can be a wonderful read.
1862219
This is a book for those who love the classics in philosophy and theology; I do not think I could enjoy it as much if I was a newbie to philosophical theology. It is a bit dry at times, and takes things for granted that do not necessarily follow. However, in his conversational book, Anselm is developing the importance of several doctrines that cannot be taken for granted, and I am glad to have found this book for that reason.
1799831
This is a good compilation of philosophical works. Many of the writings are by famous philosophers and the editors did a pretty good job of putting it all together. It's a textbook, plain and simple.
1066611
"Applying Moral Theories," by C.E. Harris, is a short introduction to ethics that does an adequate job of giving a brief overview of the various approaches to moral philosophy. Included are brief discussions of subjectivism, objectivism, the ethics of self-interest (egoism), natural law theories, utilitarianism, the ethics of respect for persons (Kantianism), and virtue ethics. In addition to an overview of these approaches, each chapter includes several "case studies" that are analyzed from the perspective of the theory discussed in the chapter.

In a book of little more than 200 printed pages, none of this can be covered in detail, nor is this the intention of the authors. However, because so little space is devoted to each approach, oversimplifications creep in. For example, the discussion of act and rule utilitarianism was quite inadequate to get at the heart of the distinction between these two approaches to decision making.

There are definitely better books on the market.
2694921
I don't have any background knowledge about philosophy, and I picked this up to begin studying philosophy. The book covers history of philosophy from Plato to modern philosophers. Some reviewers complain of lack of detail of the each philosophers' major works. They should had read the product description more carefully before they ordered this book. The structure of this book bascially consists of  dialogues between a mature philosopher and a teenager. This book is not for serious college level philosophy majors, but it is definitely a great book to start with for who want to learn about philosophy for the first time.

I dived in Plato's the Republic since I finished the book. If you abandoned the notion that philosophy is boring and found even more serious book about philosophy after you completed this book, I think that book has done its job very well.
1282444
This book is definitely geared toward the general reader. It is simple, short, organized, and accessible. After presenting a short bio of each philosopher and describing his thought, Johnston poses a few questions for the reader to ponder, interacting with the philosopher and his philosophy. It is a better book for someone with little or no exposure to philosophy than for one with previous study in the area. Overall, though, it's just not that great of an intro to philosophy, in my opinion.

So as not to leave you without recourse however, if I were suggesting an excellent basic summarization of influential western philosophers, I would point folks to The Journey of Discovery by William Lawhead. Since the 3rd edition is much cheaper than the fourth, I'll link to it, but it's only available used:&nbsp;<a data-hook="product-link-linked" class="a-link-normal" href="/The-Voyage-of-Discovery-A-Historical-Introduction-to-Philosophy-Thomson-Advantage-Books/dp/0495127795/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_rvw_txt?ie=UTF8">The Voyage of Discovery: A Historical Introduction to Philosophy (Thomson Advantage Books)</a>. There's a link to the newer edition on that page. The only difference is that Lawhead's book is a basic textbook-- it's longer and covers many more philosophers. However, I have never encountered anyone or anything that distills robust philosophy down to a few accessible pages and makes more connections among the projects of various philosophers than does Lawhead. Even if you picked the same philosophers from Lawhead's book as Johnston covers, I think your time would be much better spent, and more enjoyably spent as well.

ok, back to Johnston's book. In response to some other reviewers' queries, I can assure you that Marx and Derrida are philosophers and influential ones at that. Yes, Marx has had immeasurable impact on economic and political theory and praxis, which most philosophers have not. However, philosophy has shaped most political thought, and political philosophy is a sub-area. Derrida is certainly a well-known literary critic, famous in what is known as "continental" (often French and German) philosophy. However, because of their far-reaching impact throughout philosophy, both of these men are fine contributions to this book given its scope and purpose.

I'm actually a bit more surprised he chose to include Spinoza, but it's probably due to the unique though of Spinoza and Johnston's attempt at diversity. And of course Hegel is noticeably absent, but he inspired Marx's thought, and perhaps Johnston discusses Hegel some in the chapter on Marx. I don't recall specifically at this point. If Johnston delved more into 20th century philosophy, he would probably begin to include women, but given the history of western philosophy, women are not featured previous to the 20th century. And this very clearly is a history of western philosophy -- perhaps that would have been a more appropriate title.
2381686
This is a fairly decent book. As a long time researcher into philosophy and initiatory systems i have often found it difficult to find helpful literature. The outline of thos book serves well to help guide someone onto the path of looking into a deeper understanding of certain principles.
514700
D.E. Wittkower has created an approachable introduction to the use of philosophy for answering life's questions.  Clever and fun, this is a self help book for people who like to think and a quick survey of many important philosophers.
748558
Although this was intended as a textbook I read it for pleasure and enjoyed it.  The author pulls arguments from a many different philosophers and uses plenty of modern examples.
2290353
"The Good Life: Options in Ethics," by Burton Porter, is a valiant attempt to present a complete introductory text in philosophy without becoming too long or pedantic. In a text of approximately 230 pages (exclusive of glossary, notes, and index) Porter discusses relativism, freedom and determinism, hedonism, self-realization, Kantianism, utilitarianism, religious ethics, virtue ethics (with a section on feminist virtue ethics), and existentialist ethics. Along the way he also attempts to present in a nutshell some of the more important ethical concepts found in philosophers as diverse as Plato, Aristotle, Bentham and Mill, Emerson, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Sartre, and others. This is certainly a worthy endeavor.

However, the advantage of having so much diverse material compacted into a short amount of space is also the drawback of this book, for although much is covered, nothing is covered in depth. As a result, much of what is said remains superficial and does not delve deeply into any issue. Moreover, such a plethora of theories and philosophers is guaranteed to make the collective heads of the students in a typical introductory class swim. As it stands, this is a good book, but it falls short of being excellent.

One definite advantage, however, is the price. The paperback retails for about $40, which is far more reasonable than are many introductory textbooks.

I might also note that previous editions of this book had a different subtitle. They were called "The Good Life: Alternatives in Ethics." The current edition contains a fairly extensive rearranging of the material of the previous editions.
4261741
I bought the book for class and found the various bits of works from philosophers very interesting. It also had enough space for me to make my own notes about the works during class which was very helpful.
2063239
A nice introduction to a large body of philosophy.  Many of the big questions were presented and predictably the answers were left up to the reader to provide.
2783099
This is a good introduction for anyone wanting to learn more about libertarianism.  It's nice and short and only tackles the principles of libertarianism rather than taking a lot of time to focus on the "mechanics" of making it work.  I would recommend it to anyone libertarians, liberals, communists) who wants to learn about different ideologies. There are plenty of books that focus on how a libertarian society could be established, so read those if you're looking for a "how to" book.  Read this book if you want to get to know libertarianism a bit more.
3197244
This text provides a fairly accessible introduction to the classic problems Analytic Philosophers have traditionally worried about. The text is divided into  5 parts, Philosophy of Language, Metaphysics, Epistemology, philosophy of Mind and Ethics. Hale does a decent job of introducing each section topically, and then providing a brief synopsis of each paper in the section.

Key authors included in this collection are: Quine, Strawson, Frege, Carnap, Russell, Gettier, Rawls, Place, and Brentano.

Original bibliographies, are of course, included at the end of each paper. The only drawback is that there is no bibliography of more accessible secondary sources for novices trying to comprehend the issues at hand.
4752260
Anybody interested in Philosophy 101 should read this book.  It is written in a very concise manner.  No more than about four pages is devoted to each philosopher.
969961
I got this book for a philosophy class, but I'm going to keep at as reference.  It doesn't get in-depth into anything, but it serves as an excellent, if cursory, introduction to the field of philosophy.  It doesn't get dry as no one part seems to get rambling or long, and if you use the ideas discussed in this book to have debates or real-life discussions about the philosophical issues discussed, you'll never get bored or tired of reading it.

Then again, maybe I'm just a huge nerd.

I gave it a four because at some points, it just seems to simplify certain issues or cuts off just when things are getting really interesting.  I feel that a few ideas are also misrepresented in the slightest ways (or perhaps it's my fault for thinking of things differently than the author does).  But this was a perfectly good read... would recommend with limited reservations to anyone interested in philosophy.