50 Philosophy Ideas You Really Need to Know (50 Ideas) Hardcover – June 1, 2007

Others have described the contents of the book quite well. I was impressed by how the author nicely grouped the fifty ideas into the basic themes of philosophy. He only devotes four pages to each idea, but packs each one with much profundity. Sidelight information is boxed off as footnotes which can be distracting, and I'd suggest reading straight through the article and then read the boxed-off footnotes afterwards. Mr. Dupre discusses relevant and fascinating real life aspects of the ideas which the reader will not encounter in any other basic primer. For example, he discusses in idea 50 the "Lifeboat Earth" concept and in one section contrasts it with "Spaceship Earth". What a thought provoking article!Since Ben Dupre's background includes publishing children's literature, I suppose he understands the importance of using concrete examples profusely throughout the book which is beneficial regardless of the age of the intended readership. Unlike many philosophical authors, he has the superb ability to move up or down the ladder of abstraction to enlighten the reader. It's my opinion that this book might qualify as a college level intro text and the fifty ideas would launch many spirited discussions, Each chapter is each of the 50 ideas and could be read independently of each other, but I read through the book from beginning to end.I especially like how Mr. Dupre makes frequent reference to related thoughts discussed in different chapters instead "atomizing" each idea as independent to each other. In other words he doesn't forget or ignore related ideas but instead builds upon previously discussed concepts and examples for the reader. The book is delightfully different from other treatments of philosophy.

Great book! Very fun read and insightful. A few of the chapters are sloppy and the authors bias can clearly show. Certain philosophical concepts and written lazily and with weak arguments to support it, likely due to the authors bias. It’s disappointing because as a professional he had a job to do and he dropped the ball on a few chapters. But aside from that, the majority of it was written very well. Easy to follow. One of the best books in this series.

Dupré’s 50 Philosophy Ideas was amongst my initial forays into philosophical space that started in my 50’s. I got immediately bogged down in confusion with wonderings of definitions, biographies and the history of western philosophy. After a few years of off and on philosophy education in the digital world, and now in my 60’s, I felt more confident in reading this book again. I see this book now as a great pulling together of important philosophical thought. It gets to the main goal of the philosophy in that it does not answer questions as much as improve the understandings of simplifying questions.

Super, simple, and wants you to go on to more physics.

This is a good read if you want to get your feet wet in the world of Philosophy. I also recommend Sophie's World: A Novel about the History of Philosophy. The topics are presented quickly and clearly and will get you thinking.The section on religion, however, leaves much to be desired. The author is obviously a liberal atheist with no sympathy for religious faith. This would be ok (different points of view are welcome), except when one's strong bias wrongly dismisses the arguments of the other side or, worse, is not even consistent with itself. An example is his idea #41 about the problem of evil; he argues that the existence of evil is strong proof that God does not exist or, if He exists, He's not worthy of worship and praise. Now, this is debatable, and the theist has strong philosophical arguments in support of his thesis (see the Does God Exist? 2009 debate between Craig and Hitchens, where Dr. Craig, in the second DVD presents a good intellectual argument for the compatibility of evil and a loving God, to the point where even Hitchens looked impressed).But aside from that, the author of this book is not even consistent with his own point of view; when, in fact, he then moves on to idea #44 about positive and negative freedoms, he argues that the concept of positive freedom might encourage a tyrannical government, where a wiser leader might force less wise subjects to follow his will, thus exercising tyranny over the subjects' will. (Incidentally, that was the point presented by Hitchens in the above debate, where he describes God's government as a sort of eternal North Korea from which you cannot escape). The author even quotes the man that came up with the concepts of negative and positive freedoms, 20th century philosopher Isaiah Berlin, who wrote, "To manipulate men, to propel them towards goals which you -- the social reformer -- see, but they may not, is to deny their human essence, to treat them as objects without wills of their own, and therefore to degrade them."But, if God exists and is the God accused by the author under idea #41, isn't that exactly what God is allowing men to do? Isn't He respecting their will (thus denying Hitchen's North Korea accusation, at least on this planet) by withholding His positive freedom and allowing them to do what they want? And if He's doing so, doesn't that at least provide a theoretical, intellectual answer to the author's own question about moral evil in idea #41? Isn't He allowing them (and the rest of the universe) to freely reach His conclusion that He's right and they're wrong, using this planet's own history as a universal schoolmaster?This is one example of many, in the religious section of the book, where the author proceeds to trample religion far too quickly (the most objectionable idea being #43 on faith and reason).The book is still worth reading as an introduction to philosophy, albeit with a grain of salt. As always, do your research, read the best arguments from both sides and reach an intellectually honest conclusion.

Even if you already know the 50 ideas, this neat little book makes for a fun read. It's a great book to share with your less philosophical friends and family or at least challenge them with the ethical dilemmas within.I bought two of the other books in the series (maths & physics)but they were too dumbed down to be interesting to someone who already knows the material. This one hit the spot exactly.

A great introduction to some philosophy basics. A good reference for all.

Great read if you are interested in philosophy & it makes a great gift as well.

This whole series of books is brilliant at giving one a broad idea of many important subjects.They are written in such a way to educate you on the ‘key’ aspects of a subject. For example, when learning languages, experts will advise ‘you only need 90 words to learn *****’; well, these books are sort of like that: you only need 50 ideas to (broadly) learn about a topic. And it works (for me, anyway).This is money well spent. They tend to go through phases of lowering the prices, so if you keep an eye out you can build your collection. Also, this is something both adults and the young can make great use of. The beauty is the subjects are broken down very well, if you want to learn say, ‘Quantum’, using these books & doing a little extra on the side yourself with either search engine or AI, you can teach yourself anything in their series - anything. Think about that. These books are self-education in the 21c - go for it & life long learning!

As a tutor, it enriches my teaching and adds a different dimension .

To be honest, I expected it to be an amazing read, and it had. Books like these show you how knowledge can be coupled with fun. Extremely lucid, nicely designed chapters, fleshed out figures of some of the greatest thinkers are situated in their historical contexts, providing a lense to how the ideas came into being the way they had, and a biography attached at the end of each chapter of the person it dealt with. The book enlists another 50 great philosophy works attributing one or two lines to each. Hope those texts will be dealt with in another installment of this same series.

It took my ages to finish this book, but it was a great experience. I learned a lot and gained insight into main philosophical debates and ideas. It also has an excellent reference section, and I will definitely do some more reading on some of the theories. Great book to broaden your general knowledge.

En la línea de divulgación generalista , es sencillo y legible.Sin pretensiones pero ameno. Proporciona una cultura general sobre la Filosofía del lenguaje.