A selection of the best from recent issues of the Philosopher

And, if so, then equally perhaps is the book. Masquerading as active philosophy, it is in fact a fairly passive recipe that is on offer. Masquerading as a radical introduction - in the words of the blurb, as a 'springboard' for those learning how to think - yet, as rapidly becomes evident, it is , although introductory, scarcely radical, and none too springy either. But some of the few invitations to philosophize come in the welcome discussion of thought experiments.

Unfortunately, overall, its efficient but ponderous prose belies its origins. Too often it turns out that 'Think' is closer to 'Think!', an injunction issued to a recalcitrant student by their exasperated lecturer, than it is to any of the above possibilities.

The chapter titles - Knowledge, Mind , Free Will , The Self , God (She doesn't exist), Reasoning The World , 'What to Do', all including - lets be modern about this - a bit of artificial intelligence - belie the book's origins as lecture notes, a pedigree, proudly it seems, Blackburn acknowledges early on. This it appears is the books appeal and rationale - and so always assuming you want to have a professor shouting 'Think!' at you, then nonetheless this is quite a good place to start.