About Philosophy [With CDROM]

Book was in great condition, and got to me very quickly. Very pleased with seller, and would recommend.

Great condition and fast shipping! Would strongly recommend anyone else to buy from this seller.

Wolff's perennial textbook, now in its eighth edition, has faults. This is a given for any book or other work in the print medium, and, for that matter, for any human artifact. Nevertheless, after teaching philosophy for thirty-six years using everything from classic sources to newspapers to novels as texts, I have settled on Wolff's About Philosophy as the best means for introducting the most diverse of all academic disciplines.Naturally, the book reflects the author's interests and preferences, although these are never presented as truths above debate. In fact, Wolff reveals his willingness to revise his own traditional, Western preferences for rationality-based theoretical constructs devised (virtually solely) by those of the male gender. Objectivity, too, comes up for careful scrutiny and, ultimately, rejection as an appropriate property of an acceptable philosophical theory.In the end, About Philosophy is both a highly personal, and yet, a highly accurate documentation of 2500 years of philosophical speculation and research. Its faults may include that, in spite of its thoroughness and clarity, it does not summarize the views of every philosopher and movement in the Western tradition. No volume, introductory or not, could accomplish this, but the ideas selected by Wolff are clearly among the germinal springboards for the entirety of Western Civilization.

I give such a high rating to cancel out the overly critical opinions of the two other reviews. This book is fine introduction to Western Philosophy with all of the major topics discussed in detail in a way that is very approachable to the beginner with good citations of the major work of each philosopher where appropriate. The others reviewing might suggest their own idea for a text book since they understand so much better than the auther the proper way to teach philosophy to the beginner.