Domā : neatvairāms ievads filozofijā

"Simon Blackburn begins by putting forward a convincing case for the study of philosophy and goes on to give the reader a sense of how the great historical figures such as Descartes, Hume, Kant, and Wittgenstein have approached its central themes."

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LibraryThing member clothingoptional

I bought this book for $1 at a garage sale. While reading the section on Descartes, I had the following thought about Cogito and zen-like state of suburban yard maintenance:

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It is such a lonely place there in the yard when one is left alone with thoughts and little else. Each suburban

yard is its own Cogito, the rock upon which all doubt of existence is tested. The man who works there, whether at his own pace or with forced determination to meet a standard set by some unknown force, must eventually deal with the thoughts that occur in his mind. He may try to drown them out with the humming of 2-cycle engines, but he cannot deny that they exist. They will creep up on him as he falls into the pattern around the maples or the flowerbeds, the same pattern he walked the week before and the week before that. And when his automatic turning and cutting is conducted almost without perception, he will find himself face to face with those thoughts he sought to hide from. It is the same with the Zen masters of archery or sword. This pseudo-agricultural art, this metaphysical horticulture cannot be denied.
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A great introduction to philosophy, but perhaps a bit too thick for beginners. If you're looking for a lighter read, try Consolations of Philosophy by Alain de Botton.

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LibraryThing member Mimicman

An excellent and very interesting read. I can't quite justify five stars, however, as it does not seem to be as geared-up for absolute beginners to the topic as it claims to be. I did appreciate the way that all the philosophical fields that were discussed were arranged with neat - secular titles -

and I have to give Simon Blackburn great credit for his obvious passion and enthusiasm.

It was nice to see an introductory volume that had no other axe to grind than an earnest desire to make an incredibly complex field somewhat more accessible to the lay-person. My only quibble is whether or not it actually succeeded.

Not quite - but an excellent effort.

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LibraryThing member 100yards

He sometimes makes assertions without really examining both pros and cons e.g. the existence (or not) of the soul.

Too often he defends a position rather than examining the evidence.

LibraryThing member TheAmpersand

I was an absolutely awful philosophy student for a couple of years in college, so I've always wanted to see if I could get back on that horse and understand some of those big, abstract thoughts that excited, scared, and mystified me in equal measure as an undergraduate. Simon Blackburn's "Think"

was a pretty decent place to pick up the thread again. It's certainly written for the curious layperson, and Blackburn writes in a personable and straightforward tone on all the Big Questions. Not that I'm clear on everything: even after going over the relevant section various times, the mind/body problem is still frustrates me, but I suppose I might be in good company there. The author, to his credit, admits the problems he's addressing are likely intractable -- though it should probably be noted that he did this in the book's closing pages, not in its introduction. Some qualms: though he's usually careful to label them as such, he inserts his own opinions in the text more than many philosophy professors would, and his take on God -- he considers a theistic God to be something of a non-starter -- might alienate a few Christian readers. Others might complain that the excerpts from the philosophical texts that he includes here could probably have been more extensive. It's not a substitute for four years spent in philosophy lectures or ten years spent in a monastery, but this book's a useful item for readers in search of some new mental framing devices with which to, yah know, think about things.

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LibraryThing member jculkin

I wish I had read this as a teen, when I first got interested in philosophy. A really nice whirlwind tour that leaves me with the sense that I have a good basic overview of the realm of philosophy, despite the countless philosophers, opinions, terms and -isms out there. Upon his suggestion in the

introduction, I read Hume, Descartes and Berkeley alongside, and found the simultaneous reading to balance well. He would select out key passages from these (and other works), rephrase if need be, and based on them weave together a review of a few of the better-known stances on the core concepts. I foound his style comfortable and easy, though it could have been a bit shorter, and unfortunately the whole last chapter felt quite weak and out of place really. A good effort to popularise philosophy.

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LibraryThing member varielle

The subtitle to Think is a Compelling Introduction—a but of a misnomer. This is far from an introduction. The reader needs a thorough grounding in philosophy to comprehend this work. I thought I had such a grounding but apparently my not. I did find it surprising the philosophers are so

argumentative and that so many of them were annoyed with Descartes.

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