Paul Strathern

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Marx: Philosophy in an Hour

Paul Strathern

Marx: Philosophy in an Hour

Philosophy for busy people. Read a succinct account of the philosophy of Karl Marx in just one hour.Karl Marx's philosophical critique of capitalism and his solution of communism directly led to the formation of the communist state in the Soviet Union. Whilst this great venture has now all but completely failed, Marx’s philosophy has proved to be arguably the most influential of the twentieth century; the influence of Marxism can be seen in subjects as diverse as the infamous policies of Joseph...

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Paul Strathern

Kierkegaard: Philosophy in an Hour

Paul Strathern

Kierkegaard: Philosophy in an Hour

Philosophy for busy people. Read a succinct account of the philosophy of Kierkegaard in just one hour.Although Kierkegaard was not a philosopher in the academic sense, he produced what many people expect of philosophy. He didn’t write about the world, he wrote about life – how we live and how we choose to live, particularly focussing on the individual and the notion of his (or her) existence. Kierkegaard was one of the founders of existentialism, regarding the ‘existing being’ as a purely...

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Paul Strathern

Hume: Philosophy in an Hour

Paul Strathern

Hume: Philosophy in an Hour

Philosophy for busy people. Read a succinct account of the philosophy of Hume in just one hour.Hume reduced philosophy to ruins, denying the existence of everything except our actual perceptions themselves. The world is nothing more than part of my consciousness. Yet we know the world remains, and we go on as before. What Hume expressed was the status of our knowledge about the world – a world in which neither religion nor science is certain.Here is a concise, expert account of Hume’s life and...

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Paul Strathern

Leibniz: Philosophy in an Hour

Paul Strathern

Leibniz: Philosophy in an Hour

Leibniz was the first great German philosopher to produce an all-embracing philosophical system. He came to the remarkable conclusion that space and time do not exist – they are mere superstitious assumptions. Only things exist and only God is able to see things as they truly are – from a perspectiveless viewpoint. Yet the infinite of ultimate objects that make up the world (‘monads’) are not material: they are metaphysical and thus not subject to the laws of cause and effect. Their apparent...

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Paul Strathern

Berkeley: Philosophy in an Hour

Paul Strathern

Berkeley: Philosophy in an Hour

Philosophy for busy people. Read a succinct account of the philosophy of Berkeley in just one hour.Berkeley’s philosophy denies the existence of matter. According to his work, there is no material world, only our own experience. So when you don’t see something, it isn’t there. Then how does the world persist? Because it is supported by the continuous perception of an all-seeing God. Berkeley’s ideas appear to take empiricism to a ludicrous extreme. But is this quite so absurd as it seems? We are...

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Paul Strathern

J.S. Mill: Philosophy in an Hour

Paul Strathern

J.S. Mill: Philosophy in an Hour

Philosophy for busy people. Read a succinct account of the philosophy of J.S. Mill in just one hour.John Stuart Mill is remembered today as the leading exponent of Utilitarianism, arguing that our aim in life must be the attainment of pleasure and the minimizing of pain for the majority of people. The principle that lies at the heart of Utilitarianism is ‘the greatest benefit of the greatest number’ – an idea that perhaps seems self-evident today but one that was seen as radical within Mill’s...

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Paul Strathern

Hegel: Philosophy in an Hour

Paul Strathern

Hegel: Philosophy in an Hour

Philosophy for busy people. Read a succinct account of the philosophy of Hegel in just one hour.With Hegel philosophy became very difficult indeed – even the great man himself conceded that ‘only one man understands me, and even he does not.’ His dialectical method produced the most grandiose metaphysical system known to humanity, and included absolutely everything, its most vital element being the dialectic of the thesis, antithesis and synthesis. This method arose from Hegel’s ambition to...

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Paul Strathern

Schopenhauer: Philosophy in an Hour

Paul Strathern

Schopenhauer: Philosophy in an Hour

Philosophy for busy people. Read a succinct account of the philosophy of Schopenhauer in just one hour.Arthur Schopenhauer, the ‘philosopher of pessimism,’ makes it clear that he regards the world and our life in it as a bad joke. However, if the world is indifferent to our fate it doesn’t thwart us deliberately – its façade is supported by what Schopenhauer calls the universal Will. He saw this as a force that is blind and without purpose, bringing on all our misery and suffering. Schopenhauer...

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Paul Strathern

Wittgenstein: Philosophy in an Hour

Paul Strathern

Wittgenstein: Philosophy in an Hour

Philosophy for busy people. Read a succinct account of the philosophy of Wittgenstein in just one hour.Ludwig Wittgenstein saw himself as ‘the last philosopher’. In his view, philosophy in the traditional sense was finished. A superb logician, Wittgenstein distrusted language and sought to solve the problems of philosophy by reducing them to the purest form of logic. Everything else – metaphysics, aesthetics, ethics, finally even philosophy itself – was excluded. He famously stated, ‘of that...

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Paul Strathern

Aristotle: Philosophy in an Hour

Paul Strathern

Aristotle: Philosophy in an Hour

Philosophy for busy people. Read a succinct account of the philosophy of Aristotle in just one hour.The philosophy of Aristotle dominated Western thought for over a thousand years. He had a mind that mastered all disciplines from mathematics to politics and had a continuing impact on every sphere of knowledge he touched. Above all, Aristotle is credited with the founding of logic. He divided human knowledge into separate categories, and enabled our understanding of the world to develop in a...

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Paul Strathern

Foucault: Philosophy in an Hour

Paul Strathern

Foucault: Philosophy in an Hour

Philosophy for busy people. Read a succinct account of the philosophy of Foucault in just one hour.The French philosopher Michel Foucault set about his task rather like a historian. After painstaking research, he concluded that knowledge and power were intimately related throughout history. He illustrated this central idea of his philosophy through studies of madness, sexuality, and discipline and punishment, arguing that there is no such thing as absolute truth, only different truths about...

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Paul Strathern

Heidegger: Philosophy in an Hour

Paul Strathern

Heidegger: Philosophy in an Hour

One of the two major philosophical traditions of the twentieth century was linguistic analysis, derived largely from Wittgenstein. The other, diametrically opposed, came from Heidegger, and its fundamental question was: ‘What is the meaning of existence?’ For Heidegger, this was not a query that could simply be ‘analysed away’ – it was beyond the reach of logic or reason. This was the primary ‘given’ of every individual life. To confront it, Heidegger needed to develop an entirely new form of...

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Paul Strathern

Nietzsche: Philosophy in an Hour

Paul Strathern

Nietzsche: Philosophy in an Hour

Philosophy for busy people. Read a succinct account of the philosophy of Neitzsche in just one hour.Philosophy has always been dangerous for philosophers; Friedrich Nietzsche made it dangerous for everyone. His ideas presaged a collective madness which was to ravage Europe throughout the first half of the twentieth century, drawing a chilling parallel with the insanity that gripped Nietzsche towards the end of his life. His philosophy is one of aphorisms and penetrating psychological insights,...

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Paul Strathern

Kant: Philosophy in an Hour

Paul Strathern

Kant: Philosophy in an Hour

Philosophy for busy people. Read a succinct account of the philosophy of Kant in just one hour.Immanuel Kant taught and wrote prolifically about physical geography yet never travelled farther than forty miles from his home in Königsberg. Appropriately, his philosophy strenuously denies that all knowledge is derived from experience, insisting instead that all experience must conform to knowledge. Kant’s aim was to restore metaphysics. According to Kant, space and time are subjective; along with...

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Paul Strathern

Plato: Philosophy in an Hour

Paul Strathern

Plato: Philosophy in an Hour

Philosophy for busy people. Read a succinct account of the philosophy of Plato in just one hour.Plato is still seen by many as the greatest of all philosophers, inspiring many of the finest thinkers through the ages. Indeed, many see all later philosophy as nothing but attempts to answer the questions he raised. He founded the Academy, the world’s first university, in 387 BC and taught that the physical world is not reality but rather a reproduction of the true source.Plato: Philosophy in an...

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Paul Strathern