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 | | The Oxford Companion to Philosophy by Ted Honderich (Editor) ISBN-10: 9780198661320 ISBN-10: 0-19-866132-0 ISBN-13: 9780198661320 ISBN-13: 978-0-19-866132-0 Paperback 1995-08-31 Oxford University Press, USA Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description Philosophy can be intriguing--and at times baffling. It deals with the central problems of the human condition--with important questions of free will, morality, life after death, the limits of logic and reason--though often in rather esoteric terms. Now, in The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, readers have the most authoritative and engaging one-volume reference work on philosophy available, offering clear and reliable guidance to the ideas of all notable philosophers from antiquity to the present day, and to the major philosophical systems around the globe, from Confucianism to phenomenology. Here is indeed a world of thought, with entries on idealism and empiricism, ethics and aesthetics, epicureanism and stoicism, deism and pantheism, liberalism and conservativism, logical positivism and existentialism--over two thousand entries in all. The contributors represent a veritable who's who of modern philosophy, including such eminent figures as Isaiah Berlin, Sissela Bok, Ronald Dworkin, John Searle, Michael Walzer, and W. V. Quine. We read Paul Feyerabend on the history of the philosophy of science, Peter Singer on Hegel, Anthony Kenny on Frege, and Anthony Quinton on philosophy itself. We meet the great thinkers--from Aristotle and Plato, to Augustine and Aquinas, to Descartes and Kant, to Nietzsche and Schopenhauer, right up to contemporary thinkers such as Richard Rorty, Jacques Derrida, Luce Iragaray, and Noam Chomsky (over 150 living philosophers are profiled). There are short entries on key concepts such as personal identity and the mind-body problem, major doctrines from utilitarianism to Marxism, schools of thought such as the Heidelberg School or the Vienna Circle, and contentious public issues such as abortion, capital punishment, and welfare. In addition, the book offers short explanations of philosophical terms (qualia, supervenience, iff), puzzles (the Achilles paradox, the prisoner's dilemma), and curiosities (the philosopher's stone, slime). Almost every entry is accompanied by suggestions for further reading, and the book includes both a chronological chart of the history of philosophy and a gallery of portraits of eighty eminent philosophers, from Pythagoras and Confucius to Rudolf Carnap and G.E. Moore. And finally, as in all Oxford Companions, the contributors also explore lighter or more curious aspects of the subject, such as "Deaths of Philosophers" (quite a few were executed, including Socrates, Boethius, Giordano Bruno, and Thomas More) or "Nothing so Absurd" (referring to Cicero's remark that "There is nothing so absurd but some philosopher has said it"). Thus the Companion is both informative and a pleasure to browse in, providing quick answers to any question, and much intriguing reading for a Sunday afternoon. An indispensable guide and a constant source of stimulation and enlightenment, The Oxford Companion to Philosophy with appeal to everyone interested in abstract thought, the eternal questions, and the foundations of human understanding. | ||
Reviews | ||
Comprehensive, but... My first observation is that the binding (hardcover) is poor quality. It seems that a lot of my recent Oxford Press purchases have been lower quality than one would expect. But hey, the price is what it is. The second problem I have with the Oxford Companion is that of editorializing. Of course some editorial bias is to be expected, but in certain entries it seems to step over the line. Now with those two gripes out of the way, I can say that the comprehensiveness is impressive. I wouldn't have expected this much coverage of the various lesser known thinkers in a single volume. Commendable. The font is easy to read, not too small. The language and explanations of different concepts are very readable, easily understood. Very close to 5 stars. | ||
A superb reference with some surprising omissions..... I honestly believe this is one of Oxford's best Companions, covering the field of philosophy from the beginning of time to the present, from entries on philosophers, to ideas, theories and definitions, and everything in between. This is a surprisingly accessible reference book and yet could also easily serve the needs of those in academia. It was surprising however, to see that one of the most prominent 20th Century philosophers is listed, yet his mentor, who heavily influenced him and his entire life, is not listed at all. A mentor who put out much in the way of philosophical writings in the second half of his life. When Mohandas Gandhi began a philosophical life of absolute non-violence as a way to the truth, few realize that most of the ideas which steered him in this direction came from Leo Tolstoy's religious and spiritual writings. While oversights can be forgiven, they can also bring into question the integrity of a work such as this. In Gandhi's entry in the Companion, Tolstoy is not even listed (nor does Tolstoy have his own entry), and this is the person who started him on the path of absolutist non-violence. And the author of Tractacus Logico, Ludwig Wittgenstein, carried Tolstoy's works around with him while he was a soldier in World War I, yet nary a mention of that in Wittgenstein's entry. I do not believe Tolstoy's influence can be overstated as his works touched and influenced many people, and yet he does not even garner a short entry. An excellent reference notwithstanding. **** ½ stars. | ||
Great Reference Book Philosophy professors generally tend to stay away from teaching, and act more like guides. While this is ideal since I do not want to be influenced by anyone else's bias, it makes navigating Philosophy a little difficult. You will find that studying Philosophy is not like any other conventional learning. This is a great go-to book for definitions of philosophical terms and ideas. Many different viewpoints are almost always included. I recommend this to any student of Philosophy | ||
Great Companion I love this book. It's basically an abriged encyclopedia of philosophy, full of concise explanations about philosophers and philosophical themes. It's not perfect. Each entry is written by a different author, all of them university professors, many of them noted philosophers such as Searle, Singer, or MacIntyre. This necessarily means some entries are better written than others, and from time to time authorial bias seeps through and slants the way a theme or philosopher is presented. Nonetheless, almost every entry I've read has been at least interesting, and many have provided crisp, keen insights in a microscopic amount of space. It has enormous bookshelf value, and I keep it right next to my desk. Kudos to the publishers. | ||
Cambridge Whips Oxford in this Field. This work is comparable in many ways to the Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy: both are modeled on the dictionary format, both are multi-authored, both are very popular, both are in second edition. I have spent many happy hours with both. Each has its excellent and useful entries and each has its mediocre or useless entries. For many purposes they are interchangeable. However, Cambridge charges a little over half of what Oxford wants but the latter is definitely no better. In fact,the logic entries in the Cambridge are uniformly better. The Cambridge entry "Church's thesis" is written by Wilfried Sieg, an accomplished and respected expert in the field. The Oxford entry is by Stewart Shapiro an equally qualified expert. Both imply correctly that Church's thesis is not a proposition admitting of mathematical proof or disproof in the usual sense: it is a proposal to "identify" the pre-theoretic intuitive concept of "effectively caculable function" with the mathematically precise number-theoretic property "recursiveness". But, the Cambridge entry is several times as long the Oxford and it is much more informative concerning the historical and philosophical importance of Church's thesis. A somewhat different comparision applies to the entries titled "Church Alonzo". Again the Cambridge entry a much longer and much more informative than the Oxford. The Cambridge entry is by John Corcoran, one of the editors of the journal HISTORY AND PHILOSOPHY OF LOGIC, whereas the Oxford entry is by Gregory Mellema, who does not have much of a track record in the field. Both entries are flawed. Toward the end of Corcoran's otherwise accurate piece there is a confusing typographical error: 'Church's thesis' is printed where 'Church's theorem' is clearly meant. Mellema's murky and overly elliptical piece does not make it clear that Church's thesis has not been and cannot be be proved in the usual sense; it even suggests the opposite by referring to it as a "result"--a word widely used as a synonym for 'theorem'. The Cambridge victory is far from being a shutout. Oxford deserves some points for its two appendixes: one presents a set of "Maps of Philosophy", which are well worth looking at even if you ultimately think you could have done better yourself, and a useful if somewhat subjective "Chronological Table of Philosophy". I recommend buying the Cambridge but looking at the Oxford in your library's Reference Room. | ||
 | | The Oxford Companion To Philosophy by Ted Honderich ISBN-10: 9780198661320 ISBN-10: 0-19-866132-0 ISBN-13: 9780198661320 ISBN-13: 978-0-19-866132-0 Hardcover 1995 Oxford University Press Find Lowest Price |