Downsides: lack of a further reading list is irritating. Blackburn also ignores pretty much everything thats happened since 1900 (except Wittgenstein and Russell) and avoids much continental philosophy since Kant. The quotes and works of Hume are given a disproportionate regard, given his influence. This may be seen as conservatism from Blackburn, but it does allow him to give the book a brevity which is excellent. However it should be pointed out that Blackburn is intellectually conservative and this sometimes come through in the writing.

This is best read as an introduction to philosophical thinking (as opposed to the history of philosophy) and at the very least, the reader should be able to ask the right question if not come up with the answer.

Please can we have something similar about modern philosophy?


Lives up to it's title - certainly makes you think.   January 2, 2002
 10 out of 36 found this review helpful

The book is great in that yes, it certainly does make you think long and hard about the subjects at hand. However, rather disturbingly for a book written by a Professor at Cambridge, in one case in particular it made me think that Simon Blackburn had got it wrong. The analysis that Blackburn gives on the nature of interpretation of colour and light is seriously flawed, in that his example of scattering dust on a window to highlight the differences between someone that sees monochromatically as we might (whatever that is!!!) and someone who sees in exact negative does not tally.

His argument that scattering dust would make the image for someone that sees in negative sharper and more detailed is patently wrong, since if the dust is dark, someone seeing it in negative will see it as white and vice versa. How such a mistake occurred in a book that is otherwise well researched is beyond me, but is something that is made note worthy by the fact it is so out of character with the rest of the book.


A good introduction   December 12, 2001
 19 out of 19 found this review helpful

This is a good accessible introduction. I would recommend it to anyone approaching the subject for the first time. Unfortunately I was looking for a bit more depth but this is not the fault of the book.


Good Introduction   September 27, 2001
 9 out of 12 found this review helpful

This book is well written, and covers most of the important themes in an interesting way. I'd reccomed that you read it in conjuction with another introduction to the subject, in order to gain a more balanced view. My only major problem with this book is it's lack of a 'Further Reading' section.