About Philosophy (8th Edition)

Rating:
Summary: Student from NY
Review: I give such a high rating to cancel out the overly critical opinions of the two other reviews. This book is fine introduction to Western Philosophy with all of the major topics discussed in detail in a way that is very approachable to the beginner with good citations of the major work of each philosopher where appropriate. The others reviewing might suggest their own idea for a text book since they understand so much better than the auther the proper way to teach philosophy to the beginner.

Rating:
Summary: Student from NY
Review: This is the philosophy textbook that we're using in my Philosophy 101 class... and it's driving me nuts. The author finds a 'favorite philosopher' for each chapter, which is completely annoying if you wish to have any opinion of your own about western philosophy. The information might be complete, but it's extremely difficult trying to cut through the author's views in order to get to that information. The completely unsubtle partiality makes it difficult to learn anything concrete from this book.

Rating:
Summary: The author is way too opinionated to get anything across.
Review: This is the philosophy textbook that we're using in my Philosophy 101 class... and it's driving me nuts. The author finds a 'favorite philosopher' for each chapter, which is completely annoying if you wish to have any opinion of your own about western philosophy. The information might be complete, but it's extremely difficult trying to cut through the author's views in order to get to that information. The completely unsubtle partiality makes it difficult to learn anything concrete from this book.

Rating:
Summary: A Professor's Perspective
Review: Wolff's perennial textbook, now in its eighth edition, has faults. This is a given for any book or other work in the print medium, and, for that matter, for any human artifact. Nevertheless, after teaching philosophy for thirty-six years using everything from classic sources to newspapers to novels as texts, I have settled on Wolff's About Philosophy as the best means for introducting the most diverse of all academic disciplines.
Naturally, the book reflects the author's interests and preferences, although these are never presented as truths above debate. In fact, Wolff reveals his willingness to revise his own traditional, Western preferences for rationality-based theoretical constructs devised (virtually solely) by those of the male gender. Objectivity, too, comes up for careful scrutiny and, ultimately, rejection as an appropriate property of an acceptable philosophical theory.
In the end, About Philosophy is both a highly personal, and yet, a highly accurate documentation of 2500 years of philosophical speculation and research. Its faults may include that, in spite of its thoroughness and clarity, it does not summarize the views of every philosopher and movement in the Western tradition. No volume, introductory or not, could accomplish this, but the ideas selected by Wolff are clearly among the
germinal springboards for the entirety of Western Civilization.