Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy

Last updated

Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy
Think (book).jpg
Cover of the first edition
Author Simon Blackburn
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
Subject Philosophy
Publisher Oxford University Press
Publication date
1999
Media typePrint (hardcover and paperback)
Pages320
ISBN 0-19-285425-9
OCLC 45338378

Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy is a 1999 book by the philosopher Simon Blackburn. It is intended to serve as an introduction to philosophy.

Contents

Summary

Blackburn covers subjects such as epistemology, philosophy of the mind, free will, and philosophy of religion, discussing them on an introductory level. He also defends the value and importance of philosophy. [1]

Publication history

Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy was first published by Oxford University Press in 1999. The book was published as an Oxford University Press Paperback in 2001. [2]

Reception

Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy received a positive review from the philosopher Mark Sainsbury in Mind . Sainsbury described the book as well-written, but criticized Blackburn's discussion of knowledge. [3] The writer Peter Edidin wrote in The New York Times that the book "found a sizable audience", noting that more than 30,000 hardcover copies had been sold and that "Oxford has asked Mr. Blackburn to follow up with Being Good, a guide to the philosophy of ethics". [4] The philosopher Anthony Quinton wrote in 2005 that very short books such as Think form part of a recent new development "in the field of popularization by professionals." [5] Harness your natural curiosity to develop the ability to think more broadly and deeply. [6]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">A. J. Ayer</span> English philosopher (1910–1989)

Sir Alfred Jules "Freddie" Ayer, usually cited as A. J. Ayer, was an English philosopher known for his promotion of logical positivism, particularly in his books Language, Truth, and Logic (1936) and The Problem of Knowledge (1956).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Metaphilosophy</span> Investigation of the nature of philosophy

Metaphilosophy, sometimes called the philosophy of philosophy, is "the investigation of the nature of philosophy". Its subject matter includes the aims of philosophy, the boundaries of philosophy, and its methods. Thus, while philosophy characteristically inquires into the nature of being, the reality of objects, the possibility of knowledge, the nature of truth, and so on, metaphilosophy is the self-reflective inquiry into the nature, aims, and methods of the activity that makes these kinds of inquiries, by asking what is philosophy itself, what sorts of questions it should ask, how it might pose and answer them, and what it can achieve in doing so. It is considered by some to be a subject prior and preparatory to philosophy, while others see it as inherently a part of philosophy, or automatically a part of philosophy while others adopt some combination of these views.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Lakoff</span> American linguist

George Philip Lakoff is an American cognitive linguist and philosopher, best known for his thesis that people's lives are significantly influenced by the conceptual metaphors they use to explain complex phenomena.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Continental philosophy</span> Philosophical traditions from mainland Europe

Continental philosophy is a term used to describe some philosophers and philosophical traditions that do not fall under the umbrella of analytic philosophy. However, there is no academic consensus on the definition of continental philosophy. Prior to the twentieth century, the term "continental" was used broadly to refer to philosophy from continental Europe. A different use of the term originated among English-speaking philosophers in the second half of the 20th century, who used it to refer to a range of thinkers and traditions outside the analytic movement. Continental philosophy includes German idealism, phenomenology, existentialism, hermeneutics, structuralism, post-structuralism, deconstruction, French feminism, psychoanalytic theory, and the critical theory of the Frankfurt School as well as branches of Freudian, Hegelian and Western Marxist views.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon Blackburn</span> English academic philosopher

Simon Blackburn is an English academic philosopher known for his work in metaethics, where he defends quasi-realism, and in the philosophy of language; more recently, he has gained a large general audience from his efforts to popularise philosophy. He has appeared in multiple episodes of the documentary series Closer to Truth. During his long career, he has taught at Oxford University, Cambridge University, and University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

New mysterianism, or commonly just mysterianism, is a philosophical position proposing that the hard problem of consciousness cannot be resolved by humans. The unresolvable problem is how to explain the existence of qualia. In terms of the various schools of philosophy of mind, mysterianism is a form of nonreductive physicalism. Some "mysterians" state their case uncompromisingly ; others believe merely that consciousness is not within the grasp of present human understanding, but may be comprehensible to future advances of science and technology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bryan Magee</span> British philosopher and politician (1930–2019)

Bryan Edgar Magee was a British philosopher, broadcaster, politician and author, best known for bringing philosophy to a popular audience.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert C. Solomon</span> American philosopher

Robert C. Solomon was a philosopher and business ethicist, notable author, and "Distinguished Teaching Professor of Business and Philosophy" at the University of Texas at Austin, where he held a named chair and taught for more than 30 years, authoring The Passions: Emotions and the Meaning of Life (1976) and more than 45 other books and editions. Critical of the narrow focus of Anglo-American analytic philosophy, which he thought denied human nature and abdicated the important questions of life, he instead wrote analytically in response to the continental discourses of phenomenology and existentialism, on sex and love, on business ethics, and on other topics to which he brought an Aristotelian perspective on virtue ethics. He also wrote A Short History of Philosophy and others with his wife, Professor Kathleen Higgins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Antony Flew</span> English analytic and evidentialist philosopher (1923–2010)

Antony Garrard Newton Flew was an English philosopher. Belonging to the analytic and evidentialist schools of thought, Flew worked on the philosophy of religion. During the course of his career he taught philosophy at the universities of Oxford, Aberdeen, Keele, and Reading in the United Kingdom, and at York University in Toronto, Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frank Cameron Jackson</span> Australian philosopher

Frank Cameron JacksonFBA is an Australian analytic philosopher and Emeritus Professor in the School of Philosophy at Australian National University (ANU) where he had spent most of the latter part of his career. His primary research interests include epistemology, metaphysics, meta-ethics and the philosophy of mind. In the latter field he is best known for the "Mary's room" knowledge argument, a thought experiment that is one of the most discussed challenges to physicalism.

<i>A History of Western Philosophy</i> 1946 book by Bertrand Russell

A History of Western Philosophy is a 1946 book by British philosopher Bertrand Russell (1872–1970). A survey of Western philosophy from the pre-Socratic philosophers to the early 20th century, each major division of the book is prefaced by an account of the historical background necessary to understand the currents of thought it describes. When Russell was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950, A History of Western Philosophy was cited as one of the books that won him the award. Its success provided Russell with financial security for the last part of his life. The book was criticised, however, for over-generalizations and omissions, particularly from the post-Cartesian period, but nevertheless became a popular and commercial success, and has remained in print from its first publication.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Quinton</span> British philosopher

Anthony Meredith Quinton, Baron Quinton, FBA was a British political and moral philosopher, metaphysician, and materialist philosopher of mind. He served as President of Trinity College, Oxford from 1978 to 1987; and as chairman of the board of the British Library from 1985 to 1990. He is also remembered as a presenter of the BBC Radio programme, Round Britain Quiz.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Simon Critchley</span> British philosopher

Simon Critchley is an English philosopher and the Hans Jonas Professor of Philosophy at the New School for Social Research in New York, USA.

<i>Mind</i> (journal) Academic journal

MIND is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Mind Association. Having previously published exclusively philosophy in the analytic tradition, it now "aims to take quality to be the sole criterion of publication, with no area of philosophy, no style of philosophy, and no school of philosophy excluded." Its institutional home is shared between the University of Oxford and University College London. It is considered an important resource for studying philosophy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brian Davies (philosopher)</span> British philosopher

Brian Evan Anthony Davies is a British philosopher, Roman Catholic priest, and friar. He is Distinguished Professor of Philosophy, Fordham University, and author of An Introduction to the Philosophy of Religion, now in its fourth English edition, which has been translated into five languages.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Carruthers (philosopher)</span> American philosopher

Peter Carruthers is a British-American philosopher and cognitive scientist working primarily in the area of philosophy of mind, though he has also made contributions to philosophy of language and ethics. He is a professor of philosophy at the University of Maryland, College Park, an associate member of Neuroscience and Cognitive Science Program, and a member of the Committee for Philosophy and the Sciences.

David Edward Cooper is Emeritus Professor of Philosophy at Durham University.

Richard Mark Sainsbury is a British philosopher who is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas, Austin. He is known for his work in philosophical logic, philosophy of language, and on the philosophies of Bertrand Russell and Gottlob Frege.

<i>Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint</i> 1874 book by Franz Brentano

Psychology from an Empirical Standpoint is an 1874 book by the Austrian philosopher Franz Brentano, in which the author argues that the goal of psychology should be to establish exact laws. Brentano's best known book, it established his reputation as a philosopher, helped to establish psychology as a scientific discipline, and influenced Husserlian phenomenology, analytic philosophy, gestalt psychology, and the philosopher Alexius Meinong's theory of objects. It has been called Brentano's greatest work, and it has been compared to the physician Wilhelm Wundt's Grundzüge der physiologischen Psychologie and the Project for a Scientific Psychology of Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis.

<i>Thought and Action</i> 1959 book by Stuart Hampshire

Thought and Action is a 1959 book about action theory by the philosopher Stuart Hampshire. The book has received praise from commentators, and is considered Hampshire's major work.

References

  1. Blackburn 2001, pp. 1–298.
  2. Blackburn 2001, p. iv.
  3. Sainsbury 2001, pp. 430–432.
  4. Edidin 2001.
  5. Quinton 2005, p. 741.
  6. Leslie 2015, p. 151.

Bibliography

Books
Journals
  • Sainsbury, Mark (2001). "Reviewed work: Think. A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy, Simon Blackburn". Mind . 110 (438). JSTOR   2660173.
Online articles