Category: Text

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‘Kant in 90 Minutes’ by Paul Strathern, Ivan R. Dee

‘Kant in 90 Minutes’ by Paul Strathern is an very very short introduction to Kant. This book is a very short, brief and amusing guide book to Kant’s philosophy. The main content ‘Kant’s Life & Works’ is a biographical description of Kant’s life along with works and philosophy. Biographical description composes from Kant’s family roots, student day, his academic career (private teacher, lecturer of natural philosophy), his modest monotonous private life style and rigid routine, his stoic and abstinent characteristics, and Kant’s late in life. Philosophical description composes the philosophical and scientific state in Europa in Kant’s era, influences by Newton, Hume and Rousseau, how Kant created his critique philosophy and brief and to the point commentary to series of his ‘Critiques’, ‘Critique of Pure Reason’ (metaphysical part of Kantian system), ‘Critique of Practical Reason’ (ethical part of Kantian system), ‘Critique of Judgement’ (Kant’s consideration on aesthetic judgement and theology). Main account of this book is commentary on Kant’s three critiques, especially metaphysics of ‘Critique of Pure Reason’.
In ‘A Dialogue on Kant and Metaphysics’ Strathern comments mean of metaphysics, historical transition of metaphysics Aristotle, Hume to modern philosophy, how Kant think knowledge and judgement in his metaphysics. And author explains Kant’s peculiar ‘a priori concepts of our understanding’ like below. ‘The way Kant saw them, the “forms of our understanding” (space and time), as well as the “categories of our understanding” (including existence, necessity and so on), are undeniably metaphysical. We may consider space and existence to be “out there” in the physics of our experience, but Kant did not. So his argument against metaphysics applies equally to them. We can make no synthetic a priori statements about them. They are not scientific, they are not analytic, and they are not logically necessary: they are metaphysical. And if, on the other hand they are “out there” in our experience, they certainly cannot be a priori concepts of our understanding.’ Finally he added Kant’s link of metaphysical perception and moral.

The biological description of this book is clear and amusing. And the commentary to Kant’s critique philosophy is essential but brief and short. So I recommend this book as a first book to beginners in Kant and Philosophy.

Kant in 90 Minutes (Philosophers in 90 Minutes Series)
Paul Strathern
Ivan R. Dee, Chicago, September 1 1996
95 pages $9.95
ISBN: 978-1-56663-123-5
Contents:
Introduction
Kant’s Life and Works
A Dialogue on Kant and Metaphysics
From Kant’s Writing
Chronology of Significant Philosophical Dates
Chronology of Kant’s Life
Chronology of Kant’s Era
Recommended Reading
Index

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‘Wittgenstein in 90 Minutes’ by Paul Strathern, Ivan R. Dee

‘Wittgenstein in 90 Minutes’ by Paul Strathern is an very very short introduction to Wittgenstein. This book is a very short, brief and amusing guide book to Wittgenstein’s philosophy. The main content ‘Wittgenstein’s Life & Works’ is a biographical description of Wittgenstein’s life along with works and philosophy. Biographical description composes from Wittgenstein’s family circumstances and his student days, through the encounter to mathematical logic and Bertrand Russell, his concentration on Philosophy at a hut in Norway, serving in the army during the World War Ⅰ and publishing ‘Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus’, to his roaming of way of life (became a teacher, designed Haus Wittgenstein and returned to Cambridge), later philosophy of ‘Philosophical Investigations’ and the rest of his life. The description includes historical and cultural contexts, his unique characteristics of isolation, insanity and holiness. Strathern emphasis influence of Christianity to Wittgenstein and his peculiar religious viewpoint and stance. Similarly, Strathern mentions unique standpoint and stance to philosophy of Wittgenstein. In Wittgenstein religion, way of life, logic and philosophy (how to use language) were connected by his peculiar ascetic manner of thinking. For example ‘Even Wittgenstein’s religion had to assume a logical force and clarity.’ ‘There was something problematic about the world, and this we called its meaning. But this meaning did not lie within the world, it lay outside it. “The meaning of Life, i.e., the meaning of the world we can call God.” According to Wittgenstein, to pray was to think about the meaning of life.’

In this book Strathern is successful in wrote Wittgenstein’s peculiar ascetic and ethical stance and manner of philosophy. And commentary of ‘Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus’ is essential and great. Wittgenstein thought ‘The limit of language are the limits of thought, because this too cannot be illogical. We cannot go beyond language, for do so would be to go beyond the limits of logical possibility’.
But I think it’s pity, philosophical commentaries of this book is not many. And description of Wittgenstein’s later philosophy in ‘Philosophical Investigations’ is very concise and describe almost only the comparison to philosophy of ‘Tractatus’. Because the author may not regard it as important.
This book is a brief interesting biography and just only a mere introduction to Wittgenstein.

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‘Descartes in 90 Minutes’ by Paul Strathern, Ivan R. Dee

‘Descartes in 90 Minutes’ by Paul Strathern is an very very short introduction to Descartes. This book is a very easy, short, brief and amusing guide book to Descartes. The main content ‘Descartes’s Life & Works’ is a biographical description of Descartes’s life along with works and thoughts. It includes Descartes’s divided characteristics of ‘solitude and travel’, his personal and philosophical inclination, health weakness and refined fashion. And Strathern explains philosophical background of the era (influences of Scholasticism, Catholicism and Renaissance). Then he writes how Descartes changed and advanced the philosophical and scientific view in the Europe. ‘Afterword’ describes influences of, criticism to, failure of Descartes’s philosophy, especially his dichotomy of mind and matter, and mechanical view of universe. Even today, his argument and thinking are important and controversial in philosophy and science.

This book is an excellent interesting digest of Descartes’s total biography, but disappointingly philosophical commentary is few. But there are some right to point commentaries to Descartes’s philosophy. I’ll quote one of them. Descartes ‘had conceived of a universal science capable of embracing all human knowledge. This would arrive at truth by the use of reason. But this was much more than just a revolutionary new method. — Descartes had conceived of a system that would not only include all knowledge but also unite it. This system would be based on certainly alone. It would start from basic principles, which were themselves self-evident, and would build from there.’

Descartes in 90 Minutes (Philosophers in 90 Minutes Series)
Paul Strathern
Ivan R. Dee, Chicago, September 1 1996
91 pages $7.95
ISBN: 978-1-56663-129-7
Contents:
Introduction
Descartes’s Life and Works
Afterword
From Descartes’s Writing
Chronology of Significant Philosophical Dates
Chronology of Descartes’s Life
Chronology of Descartes’s Era
Recommended Reading
Index