Irwin Edman (1896–1954)

From p. 62 of my edition: "every one who does not wish to remain uncultured, and ot be numbered with the ignorant and incompetent multitude, must study speculative philosophy." Well, I know what group I want to be in! This is my second time reading this massive, ambiotious & important work. The author recommends reading it twice, but maybe not tw decadeds between readings. Well, I hoppe to read it one more before I die and maybe that'll be OK. Preferably preceeded by some serious Kant. This show more time I followed more of the author's advice and read first his book-length Kantian dissection. That helped. I got a lot more out of the reading this time. First time 5%, this time 11%? I appreciated his even assessment of Hindu and other exotic philosophied and following up with reading Dawkins I see a radical atheism latent in the heaven=ennui and other assessments in the final quarter of Book 3. I wish net time for a edition that offers English translations of the numerous foreign language quotes, generally in Greek or Latin. While reading this I watched The Green Lantern movie and am convinced the Lantern Corps' will as the ultimate energy basis is a Schopenhauer inspiration. show less

I read this in college. One of my roommates strongly (a psychology major who shifted to aging research - at the cellular level) recommended it strongly.

It pairs nicely (but not that effectively) with Philosopher's Holiday (where the philosopher and his wife travel throughout Europe).

I was charmed with how the philosopher's wife was concerned that her husband would change when he assumed national visibility through TV and radio interviews, assuming public positions on many issues that hadn't show more been his specific concerns in the past, and how all that would jeopardize their more rustic small college-town existence.

A lovely read; folks of many sorts and backgrounds could 'read into' this so much of their contrasting lives, since themes are nearly universal. show less