The Truth about Everything: An Irreverent History of Philosophy: With Illustrations

by Matthew Stewart

Book Overview

No Marketing Blurb This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1573921106
• ISBN13: 9781573921107
• Release Date: January 1997
• Publisher: Prometheus Books
• Length: 482 Pages
• Weight: 0.05 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 6.0" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

You can't have it all, but you can have fun

This book works on two levels. On one, as a good reminder of Western philosophy (although the author insists that there is no such thing as Western thought, I disagree). If you have never read philosphy, of course, this won't be enough and you'll probably be lost. But if you have, and not necessarily all of the philosophers cited, it will be a very good and quick trip through the fascinating chain of successive explanations given about... well, about everything. On the other level, it is a demythification of the great philosophers and their complex, sometimes absurd, but always frutiful elucidations (for good and bad). The explicit purpose of the author is to demonstrate that all philosophy is ultimately wrong, for the simple reason that there can be no explanation, once and for all, for everything. There is no system of thought that engulfs absolute answers to every question humanity has posed throughout history. Truth, if it exists, has to be revealed bit by bit, through every discovery, idea, and experience, and we're still very far from absolute truths, if we get there one day. Which, by the way, would be the beginning of total boredom. Stewart achieves the goal of writing a book at the same time serious, profound and professional, as well as easy to read, funny, mocking and direct. Philosophers are presented as ambitious, jealous, seriously interested in finding the truth, but also in dethroning predecessors and rivals, and in being the new Supreme Priests of thought. Nevertheless, along the pages, between joke and joke, we discover an admirable and sustained cultural enterprise, a systematic and reasonably organized effort to understand every phenomenon, from Time, Being and Nothing, to Cosmos, Soul, Ethics, Science, Art and Human Knowledge. Of course, the history of philosophy is the history of a collective failure. But mistake after mistake, mankind has been learning to think, elucidate, and understand. Maybe the answers lie today not so much in philosophy as in science: stars, genes, memes, have opened for us doors to awesome but also disturbing places. What we know today points to unsuspected possibilities, but it also may give you the creeps. Is there still a role for philosophy in the understanding and resolution of the many implications brought about by artifical intelligence, genetic determinism, the relativity of time, global violence, the resilience of stupid ideas, family disintegration, or virtual communities (and sex)? Gues we'll have to wait and see.

Interesting reading that makes you think

I like to read about various subjects, philosophy is one of them. This book is funny, and at the same time critical. At times I think it's too critical, it's not fair when the one being criticized is not there to defend his ideas or himself (note: himself, some ad hominem attacks are being stated). The title is too ambitious and pretentious, but then again, so is philosophy as a whole. This book certainly is not for beginners, though it doesn't cover all important philosophers in depth, it is still not the best read if this is your first or second philosophy book. I enjoy the book from start to finish, and recommend it to anyone interested in a critical not to deep philosophy book (but only if you too are a critical reader).

Magnificent

Well, this might not be the greatest book of philosophy, but it sure gives you a whole new idea behind the subject. Didn't Nietzsche say sckepticals were the only acceptable kind of humans? Well this book has a great sckeptical idology behind it, with a wisp of humor, of course, not adequate for Americans. Though the author is American, he's clearly what Nietzsche defined as a free spirit.If you wish to understand philosophy and haven't quite withstood the ideas behind plato or find most books to institutional, you should read this book. Zarathustra was different before and after this book, this is how far it goes into explaining the ideas behind each philosopher, destroying it with the same Nietzschean hammer. (Read the epilogue also).

Flawed, but nearly unique

While Stewart's book is certainly neither exhaustive or perfect in its portrayl of every significant philosopher, it certainly is a rather unique entry into worthwhile philosophy reads. For one its rather humourous, and two, it attempts to be critical. While most introductions to the subject tend to be far to pious and pedantic, Stewart can point out an obvious flaw or two in nearly anyones favorite philosopher (unless your favorite is David Hume). This book is probably a better read for the novice rather than the newbie, but all the same it pokes much needed holes in the rather pompous tradition of the History of Philosophy.

The "sophists" as just "consultants" of their time.

Did you ever think of a history of philosophy that was not just interesting but funny? This is that book. Prepare to laugh and to find chapters like "Descartes : I drink therefore I am" and "Sartre : Being-in-the-Cafe". But, in my opinion, this most unusual adjective for a philosophy book --funny-- is not the principal one that I can say of it. Oddly as it may seem, at the end of the book, the adjectives that came to my mind (or body?) were : saddening, shocking, distressful. Because it woke me up from my dogmatic dream : that philosophy was important and useful. This book imposes a dramatic change of view about philosophy and the great philosophers. For example, after reading the chapter on the sophists, I got the impression that they were just "consultants" of their time. If this is true, they contributed much more to the welfare of their society than the lazy Socrates. Of course, nobody is saying that this book contains THE truth about philosophy, but it contains ENOUGH truth for me to unhesitatingly make the decision NOT to read any other philosophy book in my life. Besides, I've already read more philosophy books than I want to remember. If you are an amateur philosophy fan as I WAS, don't miss this book, it might be your last. P.S. : Whatever you do, don't skip the chapter "Heidegger : Much Ado about Being"