The Examined Life: Readings from Western Philosophers from Plato to Kant

This volume is a very well curated overview of the history of Western Philosophy prior to the 20th century.

For those of us who have read and studied the (nearly) complete works of all of these philosophers, though, this book feels a bit hollow. Philosophy is full of nuance, the exploration of detail, and the evolution of ideas. You simply can't capture the ideas of a philosopher with only a few readings of their works. Many of these philosophers changed their ideas over time - or expounded on them at such length throughout their careers as to completely alter our understanding of them - and I'm left too aware of how much this book leaves out, and how the philosophies are pared down to such a degree as to almost misrepresent them.

But show more this is the challenge of all general histories of philosophy. This book does better than most. Any disappointments are mine for buying a general history when I didn't really need one. show less

This book is a collection of works from various authors that demonstrate major themes in philosophy. The book is split into six main parts with each part concentrating on a main theme of philosophy. These parts are as follows;

Part One: Social and Political Philosophy
Part Two: Philosophy of Religion
Part Three: Philosophy of Art and Culture
Part Four: Metaphysics
Part Five: Epistemology
Part Six: Philosophy of Science.

Each part contains an introduction by a doctorate toting professor meant to increase your understanding and provide a framework to the general ideas. For instance, in Part Two, we are introduced by William Desmond, and the first work is a selection from the Confessions of St. Augustine of Hippo.

With thirty-six selections of show more philosophers from Plato to Nietzsche to Kant to Kierkegaard, you are bound to find a pretty good introduction to Western Philosophy between these pages.

My only real complaint is that the book takes a great many works from Plato, which only shows how influential Plato was in the Western Canon. Of the thirty-six works, five of them are from Plato. Now that I am counting though, Aristotle has four of the thirty-six, so...

In any case, this was a good introduction. It also has a guide to overarching themes, so if you are into that then check this one out I guess. show less