Rating: 
Summary: Just not enough
Review: After reading The Discoverers and The Creators, The Seekers may disappoint you with its lack of depth. What's written is a joy to consume (Mr. Boorstin has a tremendous may with the English language), but the deep analysis found in the first two installments of the trilogy is absent here. How surprising, considering Mr. Boorstin's obvious intellect and professed interest in the subject! To put it quite simply, I was left wanting more. I don't regret buying the book, but I do wish the author had spent more time writing it.
Rating: 
Summary: The journey is the reward
Review: Boorstin is a master story teller. I felt like I was sitting with a friend by a comfortable fire, being challenged to think, but regularly regaled with irony, satire and laughter. The motto of the book might be "The road is always better than the end." Another theme is that seeking brings us together, that fulfills us. The people who think they have found the final answer are the menace to our humanity, because there is no answer to find. Of course, this is the puzzle. How can one maintain their interest in 'seeking' if they realize the danger of 'finding'? Boorstin doesn't provide simple answers. Boorstin starts with the Biblical conversations with God recorded by the Jewish tradition. To summarize these discussion, Boorstin spends a fair amount of time with the story of Job and the omnipresent fact that bad things happen to innocent people. He concludes that the ancient Hebrews taught their children that no one knows what God knows, so the innocent must push on, must keep the faith. With this said, he poses the same question (do you know what God knows?) to the Greek tradition, starting with Socrates. Socrates became famous for demonstrating much the same point, interviewing those who claim to know truth, then proving their knowledge was an illusion. Plato, Socrates admirer and evangelist, tried to answer Socrates with his utopian Republic. In Plato's view, no one but philosophers knew the 'truth.' Showing no respect for his elders, Aristotle, a student of Socrates and Plato, chose something of a middle road: scientists know a few things that are true. In this triad of forceful personalities, the rest of the book finds it's structure. Following Gibbon's outline of history, Boorstin then builds a bridge (Part II) between the ancient and modern world, quickly reviewing 1000 years of dialog between empiricists (the scientists who know at least one thing) and fundamentalists (those that know what God knows). This bridge involves Greek, then Christian evangelists, scholars and reformers until about 1500, when Hobbes, St. Thomas More and Descartes renew the Socratic debate. Boorstin makes a case for the pivotal role Descartes plays, bridging the intuition and empiricist in his famous 'I think therefore I [know I] exist'. Descartes is followed by the evangelists of this synthesis: Voltaire (the civilized know) and Rousseau (the uncivilized know). The section on Rousseau is hilarious and well worth the price of the book (The section on Kirkegaard is equally funny.) Avoiding the temptation to side with any particular advocate, Part III describes a variety of utopian enthusiasts. For a while, I thought the title should have been the 'utopians'. In these utopias, the old question about "God allowing bad thing to happen to innocent people" is solved by banishing suffering. In Utopia, society is so perfected that nothing can upset the universal joy. The luminaries for this post 1800 era include Marx (historians know how to accomplish this), Kierkegaard (we will regret knowing), Lord Acton (joy through revolutionary discontinuities) and William James (knowledge is a river, impossible to divide). The last three personalities Boorstin mentions, Malraux, Bergson and Einstein seem to be Boorstin's personal favorites. They were all active during and after World War I & II and probably had an impact on his life. Only Voltaire gets similar approval. Boorstin's favorable review of materialists like Voltaire, Marx and Malraux was a bit hard to swallow.. . He ignores the Scottish Enlightenment and Hume, where his hero Voltaire got the ideas which made him famous. Additionally, he tersely dismisses the contributions of Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist and Confucian philosophers, all of whom greatly enriched Europe. It would have been better to ignore the subject. But, the story telling is wonderful. Maybe a logical 'whole' isn't all that important.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful introduction to Western philosophy
Review: Boorstin's research and meticulous care have made this a classic introduction to Western ways of thinking. Although his preference for the atheist philosophy of Bertrand Russell is noticeable, Boorstin thankfully does not take any specific philosophical position. Dogma, especially repressive dogma, is the only position which is cast negatively. Toleration is essential in any history of ideas, especially an introductory history of philosophy such as this, and this toleration is maintained quite well in The Seekers. In addition, biographical details are presented in such a way that they add to the meaning of the documentation of the ideas without explaining the ideas away as the results of the life experiences detailed. Since reading this book, I have begun to study philosophy on a deeper level, and have found that Boorstin slightly misinterprets Kierkegaard's book Either/Or (the first part of Either/Or, which Mr. Boorstin quotes extensively, is Kierkegaard's view of the aesthetic life, which Kierkegaard disapproves of; but Boorstin uses these quotations to represent the substance of Kierkegaard's philosophy). There may be similar errors which I have not noticed in the explanations of the ideas of other philosophers whom I have not studied extensively, but overall this is an excellent book and I would definitely recommend it to all.
Rating:
Summary: Seeking the Elusive Makes A Grand Hunt
Review: Boorstin's third book of his trilogy follows a chronological format on man's search for the reasons of life. "We are all seekers," he writes. "We all want to know why." The book follows three grand epics of seeking. The first begins with Hebrew prophets and Greek philosophers. The former seeking from a higher authority, and the latter seeking from within. He moves on to the formation of communal experiences of the early church and the Reformation. The last epic is the age of the social sciences. Many stories of many exceptional men are told: their complexities, their understanding of past seekers, and their mistakes made mostly due to being ruled by history. From the prophets and matchless Grecian trilogy seeking understanding of man's place; to Thomas Moore and Machiavelli pursuing the civil, liberal spirit; to Marx, Spengler, Emerson and Einstein who hone in on their own specialized areas of seeking, The Seekers captures the meaning of its namesake: the ever-elusive definition of life. If the book has a short-coming, it would be Boorstin's inability to retrieve and contain the many more Seekers of modern thought. However, to include modern-day theorists, philosophers and other seekers would add chapters, getting us nowhere closer to our most coveted definition.
Rating:
Summary: liberal and communist ideology
Review: Despite Boorstin's obvious admiration of and preference for the philosophy of Bertrand Russell, the book maintains a neutral position in presenting ideas. Information about the background and lives of the various thinkers is presented in a way which adds to the exposition of the ideas rather than detracting via the all-too-common habit of using such information to try to explain the ideas away as only products of the situation of their conception. All in all, this is a good and very accessible introduction to a score of Western philosophers.
Rating:
Summary: the weakest of this set
Review: i loved discoverers, liked creators, got bored by seekers.
a rela let down.
still, it is a good book and there is great stuff here but, i expected a lot more.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Introduction to Thought
Review: Marvelous. Boorstin hits his mark with this effort. I have enjoyed two other Boorstin books and always recommend his work. I'm a slow reader and Boorstin always writes in a style allowing me to put the book down and pick it up again and still be involved. This is my first "philosophy" book. I appreciated the author's effort to tie the fellings of ancient society to people of today. I enjoyed the excerpts from actual writings of the historians and philosophers from the past. I expected this book to entertain and inform. I was very pleased.
Rating:
Summary: Lopsided Seeking
Review: The book is interesting but notable for its omission of women. Indicating Socrates' wife was a shrew does not qualify as anything but biased reporting. I might not be too crazy either about a spouse who hangs out talking in the square all day.
Seriously, the problem with this book, is that the contribution of half of humanity is not even considered. A strange text in todays' times, and no inspiration for young women finding their way in the world. Incredible.
Rating:
Summary: A Spectacular Conclusion to The Knowledge Trilogy
Review: The Knowledge Trilogy is my own name for the three books - the DISCOVERERS, the THINKERS and now the SEEKERS. With each succeeding volume Boorstin delves deeper into the heart of what it means to be human. From Concrete to Theoretical to Conceptual I have avidly followed these books, reading them several times. The scholarship is stunning, the writing fluid, witty and always captivating, and his viewpoint (Western, Eurocentric) is refreshing in this day and age of presenting all cultures as morally equal. SEEKERS paints a broad stripe from the dawn of history to the modern age. The usual fine biographies (reminescent of Paul Johnson in his histories) are the icing on the cake. Also pleasing are the little plums of new historical facts presented here for - at least, for me - the first time. Read all three books!
Rating: 
Summary: Mostly an Introduction
Review: This book by Daniel J. Boorstin is interesting because it tells about the men that have had lasting impressions on this society. The book reads in a chronological order and it was enjoyable to see the development of mankind throughout the years. It is disappointing to see that the author varies the length of the chapters. Often, the chapters are too short and it only served as an introduction to me. Man's goal in this book was to search for an understanding of humans and their purpose on earth. It was interesting to see how men worked to achieve this goal and how their beliefs were shaped along the way. It was helpful that Boorstin used actual quotes from the seekers that he was discussing. He was able to give me a feel of what was going on in the minds of the men during this time period. Overall, this book was enjoyable, but the author presents the ideas in a way that illustrates to me that he did not spend as much time writing it, as he should have. Although he uses primary sources, I believe that there is a strong possibility that he is leaving out details about the subject.
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