The Oxford Companion to Philosophy

by Ted Honderich

Book Overview

Offering clear and reliable guidance to the ideas of philosophers from antiquity to the present day and to the major philosophical systems around the globe, The Oxford Companion to Philosophy is the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0198661320
• Release Date: August 1995
• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Length: 1040 Pages
• Weight: 3.19 lbs.
• Dimensions: 6.3" x 2.1" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

An impressive achievement

This extraordinary book is an exemplar of the "weighty tome" so beloved by lovers of knowledge; and that is certainly appropriate since it is billed as a "companion to philosophy." A "companion," as editor Ted Honderich notes in his preface, "is not only a book for diligent readers, to be studied and perhaps labored over..."; nor is it merely "a complete reference book. It is more amiable than that. It diverts. It suits a Sunday morning." Well, maybe, but that would be a Sunday morning for logical positivists, Wittgenstein linguists, Kierkegaard intellectuals, professional logicians and perhaps child prodigies bored with their deferential calculus homework. There are 249 contributors, contemporary philosophers, most holding academic positions at prestigious institutions of higher learning throughout the world, who wrote the 2,230 entries arranged alphabetically from "abandonment" (a term used by existential philosophers) to Zoroastrianism (the ancient Persian religion). In-between, the entries range from the whimsical to the esoteric to the downright impenetrable. An example of the whimsical might be "cat, Schrodinger's" from quantum mechanics. An example of the esoteric (as least to my mind) could be the entry on "corpuscularianism"--which I won't attempt to define. As for the downright impenetrable, how about, "logical theory," which, according to Christopher Kirwan of the University of Oxford who wrote the entry, "is best seen as a vaguely delimited and shifting group of problems." (All the entries are signed with the initials of the author who wrote the entry. These contributors are listed near the beginning of the book.) Or if that isn't enough how about the various entries entitled on the "history of the philosophy of" which includes "language, history of the philosophy of"; "law, history of the philosophy of"; "mind, history of the philosophy of," etc. There are entries on the philosophers themselves of course. All the great Western philosophers, Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Hobbes, Descartes, "the blessed Hume" (p. vii) (I agree with Honderich's exalted designation!), Kant, Hegel, etc. appear in lengthy entries. There is also a smattering of greats from the non-Western world, Buddha, Lao Tzu and others in shorter entries. Clearly the emphasis is on Western philosophy, but Eastern philosophy, I am happy to say, is not neglected. Also not neglected is religious philosophy. While there is no entry on Christian philosophy as such, many of the great Christian philosophers have entries. There are entries on "Hindu philosophy" and "Buddhist philosophy" and even an entry on Jainism. National philosophies, in so far as such a thing can be discerned or identified, are presented, including entries on "Japanese philosophy," "Russian philosophy," "American philosophy," etc. Additionally there are entries on the ideas and problems of philosophy such as "universals"; the "problem of evil"; "scepticism" and many others. Many of the f

I wouldn't leave home without it

Having gotten tired of going to the campus library to meticulously look up concepts, idealogies, philosophers and terms, I broke down and bought the new edition of the "Oxford Companion to Philosophy." I must say that it has helped me many times to better understand concepts and ideas of many philosophers and has subsequently helped to reduce the time I spent looking things up online or in other books. The entries are very detailed and very well written to explain and elaborate on the details that a student or any person may need clarification on. Since this edition is around 40 dollars I wouldn't buy this book just to have it on your bookshelf but if you are like me and sick of going to the library at night then get this book. It will not only provide a soilid definition but is a great place to start when researching.

Best General Book on Philosophy, with a qualification

If there's one volume on philosophy to own, it is this one. Its entries on the canonical philosophers are in-depth and first-rate distillations. All the most famous thought experiments are summarized, and many of the more esoteric philosophical concepts explained. It is heavy on logical concepts; indeed, there's a decided Anglo-American Analytic bent.Which leads to my one problem with it. One thing for which the volume can be criticized is the lack of strong representation of contemporary Continental (post-structuralist or deconstructionist) thought. When it does appear, it is sometimes given a dressing-down of sorts. Thinkers like Foucault, Derrida, Jameson, Deleuze, Chomsky, Irigaray, etc. are given short shrift--and I myself am rather partisan to the analytic-pragmatic tradition, but I see no reason to virtually ignore these very important developments in critical fields.

Excellent if occasionally dense

This is my first source for philosophical questions. Exhaustive and discriminating at the same time; it includes a nice paragraph on utilitarian Peter Singer while properly ignoring crack-pot philosophical wannabe Ayn Rand. My only complaint is that the writing can be uneven. Some article authors lose themselves (and me) in excessively dense philosophical prose. This is only an occasional fault; most authors are clear, concise, and very informative. The short bibliographies after most articles are also nice.

The Best

This is the best single volume philosophy reference in the English language. Any serious student of philosophy would benefit in using it. It has plenty of in-depth articles on major philosophers and major philosophical ideas. In addition the text has some pleasant quirks: articles are written with a point of view, some topics are off the wall (but fun). Any comparison with the new Routledge Concise Encyclopedia of Philosophy leaves the Routledge in the dust. I own and use both, but I greatly prefer my Companion. The major fault of the Oxford Companion is the less than full treatment of non-Western phil. Overall a very scholarly text.