OUR PHILOSOPHICAL HERITAGE

By Andrew Shoedinger and Andrew B. Schoedinger

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• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0787255750
• ISBN13: 9780787255756
• Release Date: October 1998
• Publisher: Kendall Hunt Publishing
• Length: 484 Pages
• Weight: 2.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 10.5" x 1.3" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Highly recommended for an Introductory course in Western Phi

This book is a topically-oriented, historically grounded introduction to Western philosophy. It is topically oriented in the sense that it focuses on certain key ideas that are central to Western philosophy. These include the various kinds of arguments for the existence of God; the nature and justification of political society; the nature of morality; skepticism and the problem of knowledge; and the problem of universals. The book is historically grounded in that it situates each of the topics discussed in its historical context. More specifically, Schoedinger prefaces each selection with a lucid account of the history of the problem to be investigated, the ideas that are central to each issue, and then how philosophers have attempted to grapple with the problem. The preface thus enables the student to engage the selection that follows it. These prefatory comments are collectively the book's strongest virtues, for they do not simply serve as useful discussions to guide students and to focus students' attention on key ideas, but they also serve to unravel the complicated structure of the arguments through which key ideas are presented. In so doing, Schoedinger gets the student to "see" the problem for her/himself. Apropos is Schoedinger's treatment of Anselm's ontological argument for the existence of God (ch.14). I cite this selection because Anselm's argument is one of the most difficult for students to grasp. In any case, it is this process that informs each selection in the text. There are total of 27 chapters in the book, each chapter excerpted from classical and well known sources. In this regard, the book is not unlike many others in the field of Introductory texts. However, what distinguishes this text from many others is the inclusion of material by Wittgenstein ("Ordinary Language Analysis"), Chisholm ("The Adverbial Theory of Perception") and Josef Pieper ("The Philosophical Act"). The selections are unique to Schoedinger's text and are significant because they introduce students to materials by contemporary (in the sense of twentieth century) philosophers in the analytic tradition. It is worth noting that the opening chapter is Pieper's "The Philosophical Act," a selection that in many ways echoes as it endorses Bertrand Russell's view about the value of studying philosophy. Perhaps Schoedinger may wish to supplement the message of this selection with that of Russell so as to reinforce the point about the effect of philosophic contemplation on the subject engaged in the act of contemplation as well as on the object(s) of contemplation. Overall, the book's greatest strengths are the lucid and painstaking commentary that precedes each selection; the page-by-page glossary of terms that explicate key concepts; the study questions at the end of each chapter for students to review the material thay have studied; and, finally, even the very choice of materials included in the text. Schoedi

excellent introductory text for both student and instructor

Our Philosophical Heritage is an introductory text that allows student and instructor alike a sound opportunity to stay on task. Delivered in five parts, and comprising of twenty-seven chapters, this text presents the basic principles of Ethics, Political Theory, Religion, Epistemology, and Metaphysics by drawing upon an agreeable itinerary of some of the dicipline's most widely-recognized selections. Moreover, given the Anglophilic leanings of the editor's current selections, Hume's absence is too obvious. Having been in use for close to ten years, and having gone through the preliminary steps of revision, the soon to be released second edition of Our Philosophical Heritage offers the promise of bringing its current functionality and further polish together. END