Philosophy for Dummies by Tom Morris

Philosophy for Dummies Reviews

• 
  Rachel

  Basically, the author ignores all of his previous arguments in the last four chapters and concludes that all atheists are nihilists and you must believe in a Christian God (he mentions Christian religions, but no others) to lead a fulfilling life. RAGE.
  
  The author is obviously theistic. He provides good evidence for the view of theism (in asking whether there is a god, life after death, etc.) by itself. However, he will always provide evidence against the atheistic or naturalistic theories or views, which by itself I do not find to be compelling in most cases. He also does not ever offer an explanation that can potentially disprove theism to the degree that he attempts to disprove the theory of atheism.
  
  In such a regard, I give this book three stars because it has taught me some basic things to understand about philosophy, and some basic arguments (that I feel I can better argue myself than he can in some cases) on "either side" of philosophical approach.
  
  However, because of the bias, I feel like I've been cheated. I understand that it is difficult for some theists to accept one not being or wanting to be theistic, but I feel, for the sake of philosophical argument, atheistic argument should have been given the same weight as the theistic arguments. So I give it one star for SO BIASED.
  
  I'm not lying when I say that this book enraged me. I think it would greatly be improved if an atheistic philosopher were to co-author to provide possible evidence and examples for atheistic arguments. I feel like this book ultimately sought to tell me what to believe, not to help me make an informed decision on philosophy and life's questions. It did provide me with tools — simply not well-crafted tools. I would like to be offered enough to make my own decisions.
  
  Now I need to turn this book back into the school library before I burn it.
• 
  Ruby

  So incredibly frustrated with the book. I suppose one of the problems is that I've done philosophy at school - at a much higher level than this book - and this approach didn't work for me: I would have prefered more original texts, more about the philosophers, more depth. And it's okay that the book doesn't offer this.
  
  The reason I stopped reading this - and why I almost threw the book in a corner - is that Mr. Morris is incredibly biased. He gives counterarguments for all the ideas he doesn't like and basically declares them pointless. These arguments are missing for the theories he does approve of - even though one could also make objections for them!
  
  And the point is: I suppose that most of the people who read this don't even know this, because knowledge of philosophy isn't required. There is no room for personal opinions at all.
• 
  CL

  This is not so much an introduction to the basics of philosophy as it is an attempt at religious indoctrination.
  
  Show us the basics of philosophy, its uses and abuses (of which this book is a prime example); show us how to construct and break down a philosophical argument for ourselves. But don't try to persuade us to convert to your religious view point under the guise of teaching us about philosophy!
  
  
• 
  MarkoPDX

  I was pretty disappointed in this book. I was hoping for a good survey of philosophy and philosophers. I was hoping to get a basis of philosophic thought that I could apply in thinking about things myself. Instead, the author used the opportunity to tell you what was right and what was wrong, and not give you a real basis for working through that yourself. He had a bias, and he wanted to be sure to debunk the theories he thought were wrong.
• 
  Blue Caeruleus

  This book should be retitled, "Apologetics for Dummies." because that's the bulk of what the author talks about throughout. There isn't so much philosophy as there is subtle (and sometimes not so subtle) proselatizing.
• 
  Jay Arpin

  My perspective- A weak argument for theism in disguise as a "general knowledge philosophy" book.
  
  ...Scarcely a mention of Friedrich Nietzsche, but a chapter dedicated to an expansion of Pascal's Wager. Hm.
  Oh there's more--- lots more.
  The "straw-manning" of atheist perspectives was... (ugh) ...just eye-rolling.
  
  I'm not exactly what you'd call an educated and learned philosopher, (to say the least!) –but the holes and gaps were, by far, too numerous to ignore.
  
  I've renamed this book in my mind --
  'My Shallow Wade Along the Shores of Philosophy Toward a Personal, "Beach Ball" God'
• 
  Larry Chambers

  [I wrote this review for amazon.com in late 2001 after reading Philosophy for Dummies® for the first time]
  
  Take the Title Literally
  
  I was a bit disappointed in Tom Morris’s Philosophy for Dummies®. I expected it to be an intelligent offering of some difficult but rewarding thoughts of the best minds of the last 3,000 years, presented in layman’s terms. Well, I was partly right. The layman’s terms are there. Or maybe layboy or laybaby would be a more accurate word. Dr. Morris went overboard in his attempt to present a difficult subject to the average Joe, and he wound up patronizing and talking down to us (albeit unintentionally). The book is 346 pages long and could easily have been edited to quite a bit less than half that length if Dr. Morris had not belabored every single detail. Invariably, he introduces an idea with a brief description of its main points, then expands on each point in a separate two-page section, giving endless examples, anecdotes, and quotes to support it. In most cases, the brief description is sufficient.
  
  The author’s attempt to make his presentation more interesting with the use of humor is admirable. Unfortunately, Tony Kornheiser he ain’t. His jokes are corny, and he never fails to follow each outrageous comment or claim with, “Just kidding.” I felt like I was reading a penpal letter written by a juvenile. He used that particular two-word sentence an astounding 1,742 times, an average of five times per page! (Just kidding. I didn’t really count, but it sure seemed like that many.)
  
  Most of the ideas presented in Philosophy for Dummies® are basic enough that the majority of readers who have done any thinking whatsoever on their own will have already “discovered” these simple concepts themselves. If it was Dr. Morris’s intention to make us feel as smart as the greatest thinkers of all time — Socrates, Plato (whose name, the author so helpfully informs us, is pronounced “Play-toe”), Aristotle, Kierkegaard — he was nearly successful. I suspect, however, that Dr. Morris had an entirely different audience in mind when he penned this book: not the average Joe, but the average sitcom-watching mushbrain. Unfortunately, one of those gentle souls isn’t likely to pick up a book unless it has full-color panels and the text appears in little balloons above the characters’ heads. Don’t let the title mislead you. It means exactly what it says.
  
• 
  Tekin

  This is a proselytizing book for Christianity behind the cover of an introduction to philosophy; suffice it to say that the discipline the writer tries to introduce (i.e. philosophy) started with a man (Socrates) who was sentenced to death for questioning religion. Philosophy started as the practice of questioning traditional answers to fundamental questions by undermining them through logic and reason. Most of the famous Atheists and more importantly Anti-theist thinkers of history have been philosophers (Kazimierz Łyszczyński, Denis Diderot, David Hume, Jeremy Bentham, John Dewey, John Stuart Mill, Bertrand Russell to name a few and not to mention those who were fiercely critical of the institution of religion but didn't call themselves atheist, obviously for reasons that Socrates and Łyszczyński knew very well). Philosophy as a discipline is at stark and fundamental opposition to religion since it does not recognize any authority or tradition. Philosophers have the highest percentage of Atheists among them of any other academic discipline.
• 
  Moira McPartlin

  Having already taken a few online Philosophy courses I thought this book would be good to consolidate the learning and maybe fill in the gaps where I missed something. At first it did just that. It covered all the big areas of philosophy although I would have preferred more about the main philosophers, who argued what, and a little of their history. Apart from some quotes this was missing. There was one exception and that was a whole chapter on Pascal which leads me to the main problem with this book. It is heavily bias towards theism and while as a philosophy that is fine but in a ...For Dummies book I would have thought a broader argument should be available.
• 
  Alex Kartelias

  Tom Morris- who holds a Ph.D in both philosophy and religious studies- gives an overview of the main concerns of philosophy- knowledge, skepticism, happiness, morality/ethics, free- will/ determinism, body/soul, death, god, and the meaning/ purpose of life. Using clear and comprehensible language- and with frequent humor- this book introduces the wide, challenging, confrontational and life changing activity that is philosophy.
• 
  Piotr Wegert

  Well, I don't expect a lot from the "For Dummies" series, but this book is unbelievably biased. To the point where it makes me wonder if the author's motives were to teach anyone anything or just preach.
• 
  Mark Pedigo

  Philosophy is all great and stuff, but really, just keep your Christian POV and go with that. What a strange message from a philosophy overview.
• 
  Connor+Lindy

  Fun read, encompasses a lot of interesting questions
  
  I won’t weigh in on where I stand on any of them, but will just say that my ‘me’ dissolved a few years ago and life lacks stress now. Philosophy is fun to read and discuss and the coverage is good and well presented in this book.
• 
  Rue Koegel

  Author is heavily biased, but if read with intent one can learn a bit about old philosophers and various basic philosophical ideas. The book can be both entertaining and education, but it's also heavily tainted by the authors biases.
• 
  Yigit Gundogmus

  It was not a bad start for the ones interested in learning more about philosophy, however, I would say we need a little more details. Still, start here, you're gonna find your way. Would't read again though.
• 
  Rafe

  I love the questions he is try to bring up
  - what is knowledge - how do we know anything ?
  - are we free ?
  - is there free will ?
  - who we are ? what is a person ?
  - what is good life ? what is happiness ? what is success ?
  - does god exist ?
  - is there anything beyond death - or live it's just one time oportunity ?
  - what is the meaning of life ?
  
  those are fundamntal questions that barely anyone try to answer in current shallow society - no wonder we are not moving ahead
  
  Unfortunetly I feel like I would have hard time being a friend of an author and his style.
  I expected from him to be rather unbiased messenger who presents ideas and different opinons, but he did that quite poorly
  He colors the world with his view world and belifes.
  
  I see lack of deep thinking, shallow thinking all over across the book
  jumping to illogical quick conqlusions, contradcting to what have been presented a moment before,
  often making not understandable assumpotions for me.
  And I guess assumptions are what philosophy try to avoid.
  
  so yeah those questions are just introduction
  but true philosophers need to find answear for themself,
  regardless to what have been said in that book.
  
  I give 4 stars just for the fundamental questions - which cannot be underrated.
• 
  Lady Drinkwell

  I didn't really get what I wanted from this book. I had expected a short easy course about the history of philosophy and different philosophers. Instead this is philosophy book written by the author about his personal philosophy. I rather liked his personal philosophy but I think the book should have been more neutral. It brings up various philosophical arguments and questions and has lots of quotes from different philosophers, but I found it very confusing. I would have preferred a chapter on Aristotle, Nietzche etc rather than chapters on the problem of evil etc. At the end of the book there were notes on ten important philosophers. I particularly objected to this bit as there were lots of funny stories but not much about their particular theories. I know one of them tried to dig to Australia but I can't remember which.
• 
  R J Royer

  The problem with moving as much as my soon to be ex-wife made us is that when she put stuff in boxes it took forever to find anything again and she always said that it never mattered because it would turn up. It took two years to find this book and finally finish it. Mind you it was really well written and very helpful I just hate that it took two years to find it.
• 
  Kaktus Sandro-Maria

  For a complete newbie for sure a nice overview, as it's for dummies, I'm missing some philosophists in there though.
  Also it's not an unbiased view on some questions, there should be a more neutral view on it.
• 
  Frances

  Do you want to know who believed what and why? Do you want to read through the arguments about Meaning and believes about life, death, success and happiness? This is what this book is about.