| REVIEWS
A selection of the best from recent issues of the Philosopher
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Philosophy:
The Basics |
| The Philosopher's verdict: Eminently managable |
Philosophy: The Basics (Second Edition) by Nigel Warburton London, Routledge, 1997. xi + 172 pages. pb £7.99 ISBN 0-415-12496-4 |
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Nigel Warburton deserves much congratulation: he has produced an absolutely ideal guide for anyone who is about to start, or has recently started, formal or informal study in philosophy. Devoting chapters to a wide range of central philosophical topics (ethics, aesthetics, epistemology etc.), the book is written with a remarkable lucidity, enhanced by exemplary presentation of arguments and a thoroughly engaging style. Warburton offers a balanced account of all the issues he touches upon, encouraging the reader to think deeply and to reach his or her own conclusions. Well-informed suggestions for further reading are provided at the end of each chapter. The work is of an eminently manageable length, even with an extra chapter on political philosophy added in this second edition. The text is not, it must be said, completely without flaws. The reader encounters unfortunate inaccuracies in the account of Kantian ethics, a clumsy and misleading definition of Goodman's 'bent' predicate 'grue', and a conflation of the 'fact-value' and 'is-ought' gaps (surely G.E. Moore would have held that there are (non-natural) facts about what one ought to do). Nonetheless, the overall excellence of the book overshadows such criticisms, conferring on thorn the appearance of minor quibbles. In short, this is quite possibly the best book of its type that the reviewer has come across. Reviewed by Ashley Frank |
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Never mind what The Philosopher says - Take me to the bookshop! |
