A grave disservice to thinking dummies
Oh, thank goodness I just read a library copy.Hume? Quoted once or twice. Wittgenstein? Quoted once. Spinoza? Not in the index.Rather than a survey of philosophy, a history of philosophy, or a distillation of philosophy, Morris provides us with a series of anecdotes, a few feeble ripostes to positions he disagrees with, and a lot of flabby writing. Basic objections to his material are ignored: Why, in questions of a god's existence or non-existence, is the Christian god the default position? Why are poorly documented anecdotes considered evidence for anything? Has Morris no understanding of basic statistics probability theory?Morris spends the book in a mawkish effort to a) justify his faith in God, and b) impress us with his broad-mindedness. Ugh.Anyone interested in a well-presented, basic history of philosophy that's entertaining is encouraged to buy Sophie's World instead.If this is philosophy, Chicken Soup for the Soul is literature.