Does the Center Hold?: An Introduction to Western Philosophy

A LIFE SAVER!!!! While our current epistemology is founded on classical philosophy...who can read and understand it?!?!?! Donald Palmer's book "Does the Center Hold" is a wonderful addition to any college course's dry text book. The question is why a teacher wouldn't use it as the main text is a mystery to me!!! While philosophy is a difficult subject to master and I am convinced becoming secure in philosopher's and their differences is more than a 3 credit course can offer, this book will help a beginning student through the hair pulling stages of, "WHAT ARE THEY TALKING ABOUT????" Take my word for it....Why? Because I have survived philosophy with the help of this book AND I still have my beautiful pageant hair!!! BUY IT!!!

A handwritten typeface and lots of amusing illustrations by the author make this an unusual book. It's a very light survey with very little source material but it is framed in a very humorous way which might make it more digestible to younger audiences. I read it in the park over a few days in a few 3-4 hour blocks and never really tired of it, in fact I immediately tracked down the authors other book and read that the same way. I think this would be an excellent book for high school students.

I purchased this book for my Philosophy class and I must say it is a very easy text to understand. The illustrations help dirve points that would normally be overlooked. I enjoyed this book a lot.

This topical introduction has hundreds of humorous illustrations drawn by the author. Writing in an engaging conversational style, he presents the issues typically covered in introductory courses, but with unusual clarity. I used the first edition several times as the core text for my Introduction to Philosophy class with great success. Those who have read the first edition will miss the wonderful handwritten script. It has been replaced by a font called Tekton that is, unfortunately, somewhat tiring to read.