The Oxford Companion to Philosophy New Edition 2nd Edition

Philosophy professors generally tend to stay away from teaching, and act more like guides. While this is ideal since I do not want to be influenced by anyone else's bias, it makes navigating Philosophy a little difficult. You will find that studying Philosophy is not like any other conventional learning. This is a great go-to book for definitions of philosophical terms and ideas. Many different viewpoints are almost always included. I recommend this to any student of Philosophy

Wonderful book, has almost everything you need. It's a fantastic tool for studying.

Excellent book and a great seller.

A lot of helpful content, from a conservative, professional point of view. I was impressed by the amount of historical background and depth of knowledge on many subjects. I continue to find usefulness for this text after years of ownership. And the book has not worn down very much.I suggest more content on fallacies and paradoxes of western or eastern tradition to good effect, otherwise informative especially to highly erudite undergraduates or part-time students; portions lacked connectivity in my thinking to an integrative approach to knowledge.A book of paradoxes or book of fallacies would be more useful to my frame of mind. I give it one less star than the Philosopher's Toolkit by Baggini and Fosl, because Fosl and Baggini's book covers more practical territory on average. However, I did find this piece to be invaluable for filling me in on the dusty corners of Western Thought.

A massive and comprehensive achievement.

Like the old Latin dictionary; another thing you need for the shelf. Funny how some understandings change over the years.

This extraordinary book is an exemplar of the "weighty tome" so beloved by lovers of knowledge; and that is certainly appropriate since it is billed as a "companion to philosophy." A "companion," as editor Ted Honderich notes in his preface, "is not only a book for diligent readers, to be studied and perhaps labored over..."; nor is it merely "a complete reference book. It is more amiable than that. It diverts. It suits a Sunday morning."Well, maybe, but that would be a Sunday morning for logical positivists, Wittgenstein linguists, Kierkegaard intellectuals, professional logicians and perhaps child prodigies bored with their deferential calculus homework.There are 249 contributors, contemporary philosophers, most holding academic positions at prestigious institutions of higher learning throughout the world, who wrote the 2,230 entries arranged alphabetically from "abandonment" (a term used by existential philosophers) to Zoroastrianism (the ancient Persian religion). In-between, the entries range from the whimsical to the esoteric to the downright impenetrable. An example of the whimsical might be "cat, Schrodinger's" from quantum mechanics. An example of the esoteric (as least to my mind) could be the entry on "corpuscularianism"--which I won't attempt to define. As for the downright impenetrable, how about, "logical theory," which, according to Christopher Kirwan of the University of Oxford who wrote the entry, "is best seen as a vaguely delimited and shifting group of problems." (All the entries are signed with the initials of the author who wrote the entry. These contributors are listed near the beginning of the book.) Or if that isn't enough how about the various entries entitled on the "history of the philosophy of" which includes "language, history of the philosophy of"; "law, history of the philosophy of"; "mind, history of the philosophy of," etc.There are entries on the philosophers themselves of course. All the great Western philosophers, Plato, Aristotle, Aquinas, Hobbes, Descartes, "the blessed Hume" (p. vii) (I agree with Honderich's exalted designation!), Kant, Hegel, etc. appear in lengthy entries. There is also a smattering of greats from the non-Western world, Buddha, Lao Tzu and others in shorter entries. Clearly the emphasis is on Western philosophy, but Eastern philosophy, I am happy to say, is not neglected. Also not neglected is religious philosophy. While there is no entry on Christian philosophy as such, many of the great Christian philosophers have entries. There are entries on "Hindu philosophy" and "Buddhist philosophy" and even an entry on Jainism. National philosophies, in so far as such a thing can be discerned or identified, are presented, including entries on "Japanese philosophy," "Russian philosophy," "American philosophy," etc.Additionally there are entries on the ideas and problems of philosophy such as "universals"; the "problem of evil"; "scepticism" and many others. Many of the fallacies of philosophy such as the "undistributed middle" or "denying the antecedent" appear with (sometimes difficult) explanations. There are entries on the history of various ideas, such as "epistemology, history of"; "metaphysics, history of," etc. There are even black and white photos of various philosophers, or in the case of the ancients, photos of statues of the philosophers.I have only one problem with this book. Many of the entries assume too much knowledge and understanding on the part of the general reader. This is because the book is "directed partly to general readers for whom philosophy has a fascination greater than, or at least as great as, any other part of our intellectual and cultural existence," and partly "to those who study and practise the subject, and are scrupulous about their guides." (p. viii) In other words, this is a book aimed at professionals or the nearly so. As such it is a challenging book both to read and to understand. At least it was for me.There are three appendices, one on logical symbols; another on "Maps of Philosophy," which presents groups or categories of philosophic ideas in pictorial or schematic form; and a third, "A Chronological Table of Philosophy" lists philosophers and important philosophic events alongside other historical people and events beginning with the "First flourishing of Greek philosophy" about 2600 years ago and the birth of Zoroaster to moral philosopher T. M. Scanlon's publication of "What We Owe to Each Other" and (ironically, it would appear) the slaughter of Rwandans in the 1990s.Bottom line: a must for the professional academic philosopher and for the dedicated amateur, but decidedly not for dilettantes.

I took two courses in Philosophy in college in the 1980's, as requirement, and then years went by, and lack of discipline, and I will confess, FEAR of the subject, although a man with a Bachelor's in Psychology who was never taught (NEVER were we) by the Psychology department that after all there would be no Psychology without Philosophy in today's world was always circling the subject tentatively, and so in 2000-2002 finally fulfilled my "illusion" of studying at an Ivy League school. That was to be Columbia, and my selection of courses, which at the time were planned with the hope of a Master's (a PHD!) degree in Psychology, were mostly an Introduction to Philosophy as well as Political Science---close enough, starting with Plato and ending with Marx (uugh!). Apart from the fact that "Ivy league" itself, albeit at the age of 40 or so, was a profound loss of those long-held illusions (even Columbia!) and the fact that disappointment soon set in, and I had no need to complete anything to survive, so to speak,perhaps some ridiculous conceit of having "been" to Columbia still opened the door, far more confidently this time, to the study of Philosophy. That was 12-15 years ago, and by now you would hope I was a magnificent debater of KANT, but it was not to be. Partly due to monstrous procrastination, partly to being the type of auto-didact that is always reading 10 books at a time, and still part of the fact, uuumm-------yes, I am old enough to admit it, as I should, that KANT still humbles me deeply (to put it elegantly), I have found myself still unable to compete with a friend whose VAST understanding of the discipline makes me ENVIOUS, angry, and inferior, which he knows and sadistically utters delicate "hints" everytime he can. I counter with Beethoven and WAGNER and----well, equality will never be possible but my poor ego is momentarily quieted. Hahahaha...... Now you know who I am----eh, pretty close to who you are, perhaps?Anyway, I have been reading this now for almost 10 years, and it is a WONDERFUL book. Written by experts in the field (their particular expertise) like any encyclopaedia, I have read it A to Z (well, getting as far as M), as well as chronologically, which I highly recommend since you will get a great grasp of the history and development.A friend tells me that these are all their own biases, and inevitably that will happen with every compendium, but you see the extraordinary editing that took place here (and the editor's wit when he tells us with no hint of the slightest apology that Ms RAND, that witch and FAKE "PHILOSOPHER", as she deemed herself would not have any place in "his" book no matter how much a number of "persons" insisted and even "bribed")----and the fact that the entries are as "democratic" as they could be hoped to be.Again, the major forces, the giants of the discipline throughout history are given very ample space (you might even fake it when trying to impress---but not this writer....ohhh, no......., not he....), and all kinds of "trivia" and fascinating subjects (like death, abortion, ethics in general) are also given very generous attention. Again, if cynical, bibliographies of each subject are right under it, and that has proven invaluable, and more than anything you are dealing with a tome (HEAVY!!! about 1,200 pages, but it feels like 50 pounds!! AND paper that is thick and great to the touch-----MY copy, bought several years ago, so I will not vouch for this "physical" description, unfortunately) that will convince most people, except perhaps some very snotty academics, that this is a truly professionally written and edited work.Whether a dabbler, a student, a professor (I think), and ME and YOU (those who MUST feel cultivated enough in every area of the humanities and the arts) we should all benefit from it. Take a month (wow!) only, or take ten years, most of it will prove timeless to many of us, and "entertaining" enough to go back to it again and again. From here, as well, you can build a wonderful collection of those books that are basically introduced---mainly the actual REAL THING to deal with---- and start at your own pace with whatever areas of the discipline that appeal to you. My great love is ETHICS, which after all just about every philosopher approaches at one time or another, but again, the individual entries for the truly important philosophers are exquisitely all-encompassing essays, some, say 3 pages long-----of type that is small, and closely spaced and at times pretty dense.A work of greatness for most of us, I would think, if you are ambitious enough for "high" culture ----be ambitious enough with this, and leave whatever ambitions for Trigonometry out the door, since inevitably this is work that should expand your thinking, your morals, ultimately given the sensibility, your spirit indeed.Well, I am finally entering the world of FOUCAULT, and I mean after his small entry (?) here, and as recommended his "History of Sexuality" and I am as happy as a kid with his new bike for the fact that he is.... digestible enough.Now, how will I put such a subject to work?........