Zeno and the Tortoise (2007-12-01)
By: Nicholas Fearn
How to Think Like a Philosopher
Page Count: 229
Categories: Philosophy
Critics' Ratings:
- Re-View : 8/10
- Google Rating : /5 ( reviews)
Summary: From the author of The Latest Answers to the Oldest Questions, a philosophical guide that’s “great for sounding cleverer than you really are” (Men’s Health). For those who don’t know the difference between Lucretius’s spear and Hume’s fork, Zeno and the Tortoise explains not just who each philosopher was and what he thought, but exactly how he came to think in the way he did. In a witty and engaging style that incorporates everything from Sting to cell phones to Bill Gates, Fearn demystifies the ways of thought that have shaped and inspired humanity—among many others, the Socratic method, Descartes’s use of doubt, Bentham’s theory of utilitarianism, Rousseau’s social contract, and, of course, the concept of common sense. Along the way, there are fascinating biographical snippets about the philosophers themselves: the story of Thales falling down a well while studying the stars, and of Socrates being told by a face-reader that his was the face of a monster who was capable of any crime. Written in twenty-five short chapters, each readable during the journey to work, Zeno and the Tortoise is the ideal course in intellectual self-defense. Acute, often irreverent, but always authoritative, this is a unique introduction to the ideas that have shaped us all. “A large, crafty bag of brilliant tools . . . an academic arsenal of philosophical weapons that are keen for slicing and stabbing through the slippery profoundities of day-to-day decision-making and right into the middle of dinner-party conversations of which you would have otherwise been left out.” —Philosophy Now
User: Lian
Posted: Sun Oct 10 2021
Rating: 8
Review: If I throw a spear at the end of the universe, only 2 things can occur. It rebounds or it goes through, either way there is substance at the end of the universe. Therefore, the universe is infinite, this is Lucretius' Spear. A chapter in this book covers this, all chapters have similar thought provoking ideas explored.