Hume In 90 Minutes

Rating:
Summary: A History lesson on Hume
Review: The sole purpose of the "90 minute" book seris is to give the reader a firm understanding of the subject at hand. Hume was a philospher so I was expecting "Hume in 90 minutes" to deal soley with Hume's philopshy. This was not always the case. The book reads more as a history lesson of Hume's life and the world around him, namly Britian in the eighteenth-century. I found the most informarive part of the book (where Hume's philosphy is discussed) is the last section where there contains excerpts of what Hume wrote about concerning different subjects and topics. Strathern does a good job in showing the reader WHO Hume has influenced and HOW they have been influenced by him. The way Strathern shows the effects that Hume has had on modern scienece is also very successful. Overall, "Hume in 90 minutes" is a good way of learning about Hume's life but it lacks the philosopical insight that I was hoping to find before I read the book. The book is an enjoyable read and I recommend the "90 minute" seris to anyway that wants to learn more about the lives and times of differnt philosophers.

Rating:
Summary: Plenty of gossip; little information
Review: Well, Strathern is certainly entertaining, if not informative. He gives us the dirt on each philosopher, tells us who was overweight, cheap, pushed people around, etc. This would be great if we were reading about movie stars or politicians but I bought these books in order to understand something about what these philosophers thought. He does reserve a few pages at the end of each volume to tells us one or two of their ideas and gives us a handful of quotes. A total waste of money unless you hate your philosophy classes so much that you want to hear how awful the personal lives of the philosophers were. A new low in publishing.