Philosophy 101: From Plato and Socrates to Ethics and Metaphysics, an Essential Primer on the History of Thought (Adams 101) Kindle Edition

Basically, the book is exactly what it’s cover claims it is – a crash course in philosophy. It does make the strange decision to not present its material in any kind of order, which makes it harder to see the connections between different schools of thought and how different ideas developed. I think by having the whole book be sort of random, it also makes it more difficult to retain some of the information presented.I found the book at its best in two areas 1. when presenting short, three to five page chapters on certain philosophers and their main ideas and 2. the short chapters that clearly explained specific thought problems and paradoxes, such as the trolley problem or Plato’s cave.On the negative side, I would say, so much info is presented is such a brief fashion, sometimes just a couple sentence introduction to a complex idea, that some concepts are pretty difficult to grasp, and not clearly enough explained (for me). Scattered throughout the book, there are also at least several obvious errors, maybe due to lax or rushed proofreading (such as a sentence in the chapter on Bertrand Russell, that as written seems to say he was opposed to nuclear disarmament, when the opposite was true - in fact he was the original president of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament)… which obviously makes me wonder what else the book may have got wrong.Overall though, the book was basically what I hoped it would be, a mostly clear, concise run through the major philosopher’s biographies and philosophical concepts in less than three hundred pages.

I should have read the description closer. This is a very small book. Due to the size of the print it is hard to read for me. The information, however, it on point. A decent purchase.

For class, we’ve been studying the Unbearable Lightness of Being (IB HL English Student). I found Kundera’s explanations of Nietzsche’s “Eternal return” confusing and frustrating. This inhibited writing well about the book. Philosophy 101 completely changed that. I now understand! It simplified to a level that made it understandable for me and worked as an official source for my defining “Eternal Return”.

Soooooo, I'm not an academic. Somehow I managed to get three college degrees without ever taking a Philosophy course because, well, frankly, I just wasn't interested. Fast forward 20 years -- why is this now my FAVORITE book? After 8 years of college and 5 years in public policy, reading for pleasure was all but a distant memory. Learning the principles and concepts in this book -- in bite sized pieces that's not overwhelming -- is just what I needed to get my intellectual curiosity stimulated again. Once I get through the entire book, I'll probably read a couple of more detailed books on subjects that I found the most interesting.Plato's Cave? Tripartite beings? Yep, I'm all about it.

Very easy reading, explains 4500+ years of philosophy.

As a part of the description, it is definitely a crash course. I still use this book to help me do the research that I need to do and to revise my own research when and if need be.

I took a few philosophy classes and judging by the way this book is written, it doesn't really make important philosophers like Socrates interesting enough. The writing is very brief and sometimes it could get unnecessarily complex. I recommend this book for people who want a rough outline of philosophy.

There were a few topics missing that I wished were there, and I think Mr. Kleinman almost OVER-simplified some of the topics discussed. But, overall, I really enjoyed reading this cover-to-cover. Really great job of taking some complex ideas and breaking them down into digestible parts.

Book is mini and I had expected a bigger annual style one, however it’s very cute and full of information. My sister loved them as a gift - great stocking fillers

Very very nice book with concise information

Great reed for lovers of philosophy. Great condition

interesting and enlightening

In 'loo' of a good education!