The Everything Philosophy Book

by James Mannion

Book Overview

If you've always wanted to learn about philosophy but were too intimidated to get past the first word ending in "ism," The Everything Philosophy Book provides simple explanations guaranteed to make philosophic ideas and concepts easy to understand.

This entertaining book offers a broad overview of many diverse schools of thought--from antiquity up through the present day. In plain English, author James Mannion explains all of the great...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1580626440
• ISBN13: 9781580626446
• Release Date: July 2002
• Publisher: Everything
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 1.32 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 8.0" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Nice all around intro!

I was looking for a good general book on Philosophy and thoroughly enjoyed this one! A quick and humorous read, I found it quite intriguing. It touches on so many interesting concepts. Perfect for someone wanting to get a reasonable overview on how people (over the years) have perceived the world we live in. I read it in just over a day (slow reader). It was mentioned of a few mistakes in a previous review (below). After following up with them, I didn't see anything significant to change my mind on the book from a beginner's perspective. My objective was to get the gist of many philsophical concepts rather than getting technical (ie. the definitions of egoism and egotism). Same goes with the Dogma concern. I easily got the point without getting too literal on technicalities. Minor issues for a basic concepts book (I think). A great book to get the juices flowing (Get ya thinkin'). It encouraged me to further my interest in many of the concepts mentioned.

I recommend it to every beginner...

I was'nt aware that there were factual errors in the book, i.e. until i read one of the reviews below. Apart from that, as an ignorant beginner, i was actually ~introduced~ to quite a handful of Philosophical concepts / ideas.The title can be a bit misleading, but neither the Authors foreword nor the size of the book suggest that this book is a encyclopaedia. So this is not actually a '(Covers) Everything' book, unless one decides to go only by the cover.Beginning from the Ancient Greeks, to the 20th century new-agers, the book introduces Great Philosphers and their Ideas in a timeline-like manner. This approach also affords a little historical and scientific perspective to the dominant Philosophies of the time. The information about each topic is kept brief and esoteric and never goes in-depth. I believe that was the intent.It is true that the Author has laid particular emphasis on making the language in the book sound overtly simple, amusing and funny. I believe He succeeds with the trick. The topics covered in the book sound amazingly attractive and colourful through the words of James Mannion and I never ever felt sleepy in the course of reading it! (Presently, i can't say the same about Schopenhauer's 'The World as Will and Idea' which i'm reading...but that's another story... :) )As said earlier, as a absolute beginner with Philosopy, I felt thoroughly entertained after reading this book, and also found myself encouraged to know more about Philosophy. Personally, i would like to say 'Well done!' to the Author.Cheers,FFp.s. I gave it four stars, because the book can still be made better, with maybe a little more information on the topics and suggested readings / books list...and the factual errors need to be taken care of too...

a good intro

Ever wonder what philosophy you live by ?This is the book.Gives a brief explanation to all of them.A good place to start your study of philosophy.

Light Touch Makes This an Excellent Primer

I found this book very rewarding. The subject of philosophy can be very complex at times, but this author has a knack for simplifying it. The book was an entertaining read from cover to cover, and not the more typical didactic approach one usually encounters in discussions of the philosophers throughout history. I thought tackling modern philosophical material, such as Alcoholics Anonymous (AA), was a master stroke. You don't usually see such original material in these kinds of series books, but this title gives you a heaping helping of just that. I really enjoyed this book.

Intelligent, Entertaining, Reader-Friendly Philosophy Book

Most philosophy books are hard to understand. "The Everything Philosophy Book" is different. It's accessible for the ordinary reader. I wanted to get a working knowledge of the history of philosophical thought, and this book furnished it--and then some! The author doesn't take himself too seriously and covers a lot of ground you won't find in other books on similar subject matter--like the philosophy of AA. I didn't expect to find an Everything Book so well written and informative!!!