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Rating: 
Summary: Excellent Intro to 19th Century Philosophy
Review: This anthology is a great start for anyone interested in getting a taste of 19th Century philosophy. There are excerpts from all of the major philosophers from that period: Hegel, Schopenhauer, Marx, Kierkegaard, Mill, James and Nietzsche. Plus, for each philosopher there is a brief biography and summary of each of the excerpts useful for placing the excerpts in context and for understanding them.Personally, I hadn't read much of any of these besides from Marx and Mill. But I sure enjoyed discovering these guys. Hegel is barely intelligible as far as I am concerned. But Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and James are impassioned. 19th Century philosophy is often understood as the Romantic Reaction against the overly sterile, mechanical, hyper rational philosophy of the Enlightenment. And I agree. It's worth reading these guys for their critique of rational man, faith in science and progress, and inattention to will, passion, emotion and life as it is really lived by existing, actual human beings. Up until quite recently, I've been pretty much an unquestioning believer in the value of reason, material progress, etc.. But I've had some doubts lately and these guys well articulate some of the reasons for doubting. Greg Feirman (gfire77@yahoo.com)
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Intro to 19th Century Philosophy
Review: This anthology is a great start for anyone interested in getting a taste of 19th Century philosophy. There are excerpts from all of the major philosophers from that period: Hegel, Schopenhauer, Marx, Kierkegaard, Mill, James and Nietzsche. Plus, for each philosopher there is a brief biography and summary of each of the excerpts useful for placing the excerpts in context and for understanding them. Personally, I hadn't read much of any of these besides from Marx and Mill. But I sure enjoyed discovering these guys. Hegel is barely intelligible as far as I am concerned. But Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche and James are impassioned. 19th Century philosophy is often understood as the Romantic Reaction against the overly sterile, mechanical, hyper rational philosophy of the Enlightenment. And I agree. It's worth reading these guys for their critique of rational man, faith in science and progress, and inattention to will, passion, emotion and life as it is really lived by existing, actual human beings. Up until quite recently, I've been pretty much an unquestioning believer in the value of reason, material progress, etc.. But I've had some doubts lately and these guys well articulate some of the reasons for doubting. Greg Feirman (gfire77@yahoo.com)
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