by Richard Osborne, illustrated by Ralph Edney
1992 • Writers and Readers Publishing
192 pages / ISBN 086316157X (paperback)
Students and those with interests in the humanities may be well aware of the Writers and Readers series that has filled bookshelves over the past four decades. This best-selling educational series comes from an unlikely source in Glenn Thompson, a Harlem-born publisher who overcame an unstable childhood and illiteracy that lasted until the age of twelve. Mostly self-taught as a reader and writer, Thompson devoted his life to promoting education in low-income areas and encouraging the young through his publishing labels.
After worldwide travel and involvement with social programs during the 1960s, Thompson opened a bookstore and publishing cooperative in the Hackney section of London before working at Penguin Books. The Writers and Readers series began just after Thompson left Penguin and aimed to give the public a basic understanding of complex academic topics. The series, another of his collective projects, has been a major success and is still in circulation under the For Beginners imprint of Danbury, Connecticut.Students (including myself) have often turned to the Writers and Readers series whenever beginning a topic they are unfamiliar with. Writers and Readers' success lies in showing topics as well as explaining them. The series is a comprehensive, often light-hearted review of historical, sociological, and scientific areas that combines mature synopses with cartoons and illustrations. Each volume gives a complete, sure-handed overview of the topic and aims to build the reader's interest.
While you can't expect to learn everything about philosophy from Writers and Readers' Philosophy for Beginners, this volume does equip you with a basic timeline of western philosophical history. The study plan is laid out by Richard Osborne, an experienced philosophy writer who now teaches at the University of the Arts in London. Accompanying him throughout is the drawing pen of Ralph Edney, whose background includes political cartoons and work in mathematics.
Philosophy for Beginners deals with the main issues of philosophy - namely, why philosophy is important to the Western World and why ordinary people should care about it. Osborne covers some 2,500 years of philosophical thought and draws connections between theory and practice. He makes important links between great thinkers and western history, confirming that philosophy has been a motivating force in social development, politics, war, and religion.
Osborne's survey begins with ancient Greece, particularly the work of Thales in 580s BC. We are treated to familiar Greek names like Aristotle, Plato, Democritus, Socrates, and Heraclitus, who supplied prototypes for later philosophical inquiry. After the limited achievements of Rome, the book hustles through medieval scholasticism, Renaissance figures such as Machiavelli, Bacon, and Hobbes, and the Enlightenment world of Locke, Voltaire, and Kant.
It is from the nineteenth century onward, following the rise of Darwinism, Marxism, and nihilism, when Osborne's text gets sticky. As Man's view of himself and Woman's view of herself considerably shifted, philosophical thought became more diverse and often more convoluted. Osborne, however, continuously gives an update on where we stand along the philosophical timeline. Edney's drawings also give a shoulder-poke on how complicated matters are becoming via Marx, Nietzsche, Bergson, Wittgenstein, and Sartre.
Osborne's descriptive history is complemented by Edney's smile-inducing cartoons. Every page is filled with illustrations and truly alive. Edney often includes philosophical and historical figures from different eras in the same cartoon, as if we're in a humanities romper room. The cartoons also help to illustrate logic and philosophical systems instead of leaving us to grapple with words.
Philosophy for Beginners is a great resource, though it doesn't look 100% professional. One unfortunate problem is that the text wasn't proofread enough. Names are sometimes misspelled, punctuation is overlooked, and sentences become long-winded as Osborne explains the finer points. While typos and run-ons can be annoying, none of this hurts the overall attractiveness of the book. These flaws are comparatively minor and there is plenty of good information waiting to be read.
Anyone wanting to learn a new subject should consider the For Beginners series or 'Writers and Readers series' as the books appeared in earlier printings. The books can be easily found at stores, libraries, and on the Web in new and used copies. Philosophy for Beginners in its 1992 printing was volume 48 of the Writers and Readers series. Its 2007 printing in the For Beginners series is volume 29; both versions are 192 pages.
