English

Philosophy For Beginners

Philosophy for beginners by R Osborne (illustrated by Ralph Edney) The idea of presenting an academic subject in the form of a comic strip may at first appear startling; but on reflection it has a number of merits. To anyone familiar with the academic literature, this book will come as a breath of fresh air: the novelty of seeing normally faceless and obscure thinkers waving their arms in the air while they attempt to explain their philosophies in less than 50 words brings life to what can so easily be a heavy and ponderous subject. For, instead of requiring readers to plough through the pages and pages of featureless, uninterrupted prose that constitute most philosophy books, here the arguments are summarised in a mixture of lively black-and-white sketches, brief commentaries, and diagrams. Moreover for many teenage students comics are a cult, and they too may be attracted by the cartoon illustrations and the laid-back style in this book. (Anyone who has to teach introductory philosophy might find this a useful bonus.) One major advantage of this medium is that cross-references between ideas can be conveyed pictorially, not just by verbal directives. A philosopher expostulating po

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