Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy 1st Edition by Simon Blackburn (PDF)

Description

This is a book about the big questions in life: knowledge, consciousness, fate, God, truth, goodness, justice. It is for anyone who believes there are big questions out there, but does not know how to approach them. Think sets out to explain what they are and why they are important.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. Each chapter explains a major issue, and gives the reader a self-contained guide through the problems that philosophers have studied. The large scope of topics covered range from scepticism, the self, mond and body, and freedom to ethics and thearguments surrounding the existence of God.Lively and approachable, this book is ideal for all those who want to learn how the basic techniques of thinking shape our existence.

User’s Reviews

Reviews from Amazon users which were colected at the time this book was published on the website:

⭐When trying to understand more about ourselves and the world, the study of philosophy presents itself as a reasonable approach. This can be tackled in a couple of ways. The great works of philosophical inquiry can be digested chronologically, like an ongoing discussion of ideas progressing through the ages, or one can look at specific topics such as free will, the problem of how we really know anything, or what is ultimately real in the world, and see what other thinkers have to say about them.Standout examples of the later approach include the short books Think, and Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction by Edward Craig, a volume in the excellent Oxford Press series of Very Short Introductions. Longer, more comprehensive books taking this approach include An Introduction to Philosophical Analysis by Edward Hospers and Modern Philosophy by Roger Scruton. Aside from just sitting down and chronologically plowing through the canonical works of philosophy one by one, several chronological surveys of philosophy (mostly western philosophy) exist, including History of Western Philosophy by Bertrand Russell, The Story of Philosophy by Will Durant, the multi-volume series History of Philosophy by Frederick Copleston, and the more populist The Dream of Reason by Anthony Gottlieb.As someone who has been devoting a good amount of time over the past ten years to the bullheaded, brute force approach and progressing with a glacial pace from the pre-Socratic thinkers in ancient Greece to now the early nineteenth century, I can comment on the refreshing clarity with which Simon Blackburn fences with some of the larger problems of human thought. Whether you have dipped into philosophy previously or not, the problem based approach has much to recommend it. The approach serves as an excellent introduction and guide to possible further topics and thinkers to investigate. For those with more extensive background, books such as this can provide an opportunity to draw back, examine a specific question using the resources of thousands of years of thinkers. The opportunity to compare, contrast, and hopefully integrate thoughts from a wide array of thinkers is a highlight of such an approach. The short format of this book requires a sharp focus on the essential elements, which lends a degree of lucidity to the arguments.The book is divided into discussions of eight philosophic problems:1. Knowledge: Given the problem of scepticism, the problem that our sensory input might be faulty, how can we establish a basis for gaining true knowledge about the world and our self?2. Mind: Is there a part of the brain which integrates sensory information and does the thinking, creates volitional acts, is the source of our volition? Is there a soul? Does my mind work the same as the way as the minds of others? Is my perception of reality the same as other people’s?3. Free Will: Is our sense of freedom of thought and action illusory, or is it just a complex but ultimately predictable result of cause and effect?4. The Self: To what extent do we possess continuity as a constant self over time?5. God: Is there one?6. Reasoning: A relatively painless introduction to logic and rules of rational thought.7. The World: What is the nature of reality? Does a material world really exist outside of our own mind?8. What To Do: An investigation into the nature of human motivations and actions. How should we act?Limitations include a somewhat obscure section on “the mind” and an idiosyncratic section on ethics which seems to bring less of the resources of the philosophic canon to bear on the problem than other sections of the book. Overall, however, I recommend this as a good introduction or an opportunity to synthesize the thoughts of thinkers throughout the western tradition.

⭐The whole world would benefit from taking a day off from 24 hour news stations, celebrity worship, obsessions with sports, & all the other fruitless endeavors we embark on to read a book like this. This is one of the best introductions out there, Blackburn’s writing style is engaging & interesting. Even after having read several of the most popular introductions to philosophy, I still came away from this book with a much better understanding of the issues, he presents the arguments in a very clear & concise manner & despite what some reviewers claim, is very fair in presenting both sides of a debate on any issue. While he may, after evaluating an issue, suggest that one side may have the advantage over the other, by no means does he ever say that an issue is settled & there is nothing left to say on the subject. I find it funny that those complaining about the objectivity of his chapters on philosophy of religion are the same people that will suggest an adamantly ‘pro-christian’ introduction to philosophy of religion. How can you complain about bias & then suggest something that explicitly states that it is biased? I have read Craig & Moreland’s “Philosophical Foundations for a Christian Worldview”, in no way is it an objective introduction to both sides of the philosophy of religion debate.Complaints about other reviewers aside, this book is great for anyone who wants to start delving into philosophy, & will definitely prime you to enter the contemporary debate on just about any major issue. One could nitpick here or there that a certain ‘philosophy of x’ is not well represented, but this is not meant to be a comprehensive overview of every single subject in philosophy. As he stated in the first chaper on knowledge, it’s ‘just the highlights’, if you want the whole story, you have to watch the whole game.

⭐As promised, the author covers a wide scope of topics in a fairly well-ordered manner. I am just beginning to explore philosophy and found the book fairly digestible though it did feel like the author had put more effort into explaining the concepts in the first few chapters than he did later in the book.In line withe disclaimer the author included in the beginning of the book there are important topics that are not explored in depth. The problem is that the lack of depth impeded my ability to fully understand some other parts of the book. Maybe it was just me. At any rate, this is a minor issue since it has motivated me to more fully explore the topics. And that is clearly the whole point of this book anyway…it is an appetizer intended to wet your appetite.

⭐I was looking for a “primer” on philosophy…who said what, when and so on. Though this wasn’t the book I was looking for, I found it engrossing and interesting.After trying to wade through Durant’s pompous prose in “A Story of Philosophy,” Blackburn’s straightforward style was very refreshing. Like a good novel, I couldn’t put it down and sometimes jumped to the end of the end of a chapter just to peek at the author’s conclusion. Blackburn never really gave definitive answers to life’s great questions, but that made it even more satisfying.For a novice, like myself, the terminology was a little confusing and I’m still not sure who was associated with what school of thought (I wish I had had his dictionary to read along with this), but it left me wanting to know and read more.

⭐If you asked me, “What’s a good intro book for philosophy?”, I’d recommend this book. It’s modern and written in English (U.K) and reads smooth for the most part except the logic and reasoning sections I found myself having to go back and re-read several times. The book presents many concepts of philosophy and should help enlighten the reader to think about what is important in life and what to do. Again, if you’re looking for a good outline of all the basic stuff in Western Philosophy, this book satisfies that.

⭐Great little starter book. But don’t be deceived by this statement. The book delves straight into what you need to be thinking about and how to organise your brain and why studying philosophy is useful and transferable to so many areas of life. It teaches you how to think and gives you insight questions to ponder. I find the smaller format much more achievable to slowly read and then reflect and jouranl on a couple of pages at a time. Highly recommend.

⭐Overall, I feel a better person for reading this book. Some of the chapters genuinely make to stop and think. The logic is so pure it’s a thing of beauty. Others I couldn’t understand and just ended up lost. I might have to go back and re-read some parts.Introduces to the major concepts and gives you a taste of the many roads these arguments can go down.Well worth a read. Everyone will get something out of it.

⭐A great general introduction to some of the most important areas of philosophy. This goes deep enough so that a non-specialist can get a good grasp of the issues – enough to then be able to think and analyze for oneself.The writing style is clear and lively, and the book is well-produced – slightly smaller than average format so you can carry it everywhere.Highly recommended

⭐Good introduction. It skims through the most important philosophical questions and offers basic explanations as to why they are asked and why it is important to ask them.I would recommend if you need an introductory text not if you want to delve deeper into the subject.

⭐Simon Blackburn has a very nice, easy writing style. The book is well written and thought-provoking. This is an easy to understand introduction to the philosophy of the mind and consciousness.

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