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A review by bookshelfmystic
Think: A Compelling Introduction to Philosophy by Simon Blackburn
4.0
Think was exactly what I was looking for when I Googled "introductory philosophy books" and found this one.
This book will not necessarily convince you of anything, and that is not its aim. Blackburn sets out to give readers a crash course in the major philosophical problems that can broadly be categorized as "the meaning of life". He discusses knowledge, free will, God, reason, and other similar topics that have the potential to radically reshape how we see the world, and takes the reader through the historical thought to the modern. He is careful to poke at holes in arguments without pushing any alternative agenda. I did find his section on God to lean a little more on one side of an argument than he does in his other chapters - but he does warn you at the beginning of the chapter that he doesn't find any argument for the existence of God particularly convincing.
I found the book to be a challenging read, but not because of any lack of explanatory value. These are complex ideas that Blackburn is trying to distill down to a basic level. He introduces philosophical notions like the idea of valid vs sound arguments while taking you through the arguments in a way I found mostly natural. The chapter on reasoning, which turned into a textbook-style lecture on formal logic and probability, was a little out-of-place in the middle of the book, since he doesn't use much of the ideas he's explained there after that chapter is through. Still, I was glad of it, because I'd never learned about formal logic before and I found it really interesting.
Blackburn does a great job at assuming you know nothing, yet giving you the benefit of the doubt that you can follow the arguments and figure it out as you go. I found it to be a welcoming entry into the world of philosophy.
This book will not necessarily convince you of anything, and that is not its aim. Blackburn sets out to give readers a crash course in the major philosophical problems that can broadly be categorized as "the meaning of life". He discusses knowledge, free will, God, reason, and other similar topics that have the potential to radically reshape how we see the world, and takes the reader through the historical thought to the modern. He is careful to poke at holes in arguments without pushing any alternative agenda. I did find his section on God to lean a little more on one side of an argument than he does in his other chapters - but he does warn you at the beginning of the chapter that he doesn't find any argument for the existence of God particularly convincing.
I found the book to be a challenging read, but not because of any lack of explanatory value. These are complex ideas that Blackburn is trying to distill down to a basic level. He introduces philosophical notions like the idea of valid vs sound arguments while taking you through the arguments in a way I found mostly natural. The chapter on reasoning, which turned into a textbook-style lecture on formal logic and probability, was a little out-of-place in the middle of the book, since he doesn't use much of the ideas he's explained there after that chapter is through. Still, I was glad of it, because I'd never learned about formal logic before and I found it really interesting.
Blackburn does a great job at assuming you know nothing, yet giving you the benefit of the doubt that you can follow the arguments and figure it out as you go. I found it to be a welcoming entry into the world of philosophy.