Product Description

This classic textbook emphasises the philosophy of science and problems of personal identity. Each chapter concludes with exercises and selected readings.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #64241 in Books
• Published on: 1997-01-23
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 288 pages

From the Back Cover
John Hospers' Introduction to Philosophical Analysis has sold over 150,000 copies since its first publication. This new edition ensures that its success will continue into the twenty-first century. It remains the most accessible and authoritative introduction to philosophy available using the full power of the problem-based approach to the area to ensure that philosophy is not simply taught to students but practised by them.
The most significant change to this edition is to respond to criticisms regarding the omission in the third edition of the famous opening chapter. A brand new chapter, Words and the World, replaces this in the fourth edition - which now features a large number of examples and illustrative dialogues. The rest of the text has been thoroughly revised and updated to take account of recent developments in some areas of philosophy.

Customer Reviews

Excellant introduction to philosophy
I bought this book as I started a philosophy course at school, I found it incredible helpful as a beginner as it dealt with major philosophical ideas at a level that the novice can understand. The book covers all major topics and problems in philosophy conveying different views and illustrating points with examples. Hospers style makes the text readable but concise, very clear, this book will open your mind to the problems of philosophy.

Not the best introduction
I purchased the book as it was reccomended by my philosophy tutors during my alevels. I found that it was easy to understand, and I thought that the exercises at the end made you think over the content that was covered within the chapter. Also he would have a dialogue as to showing different arguments that there are to the subject. He also covered the different fields in philosophy. But Hospers did have the habit of often rambling on, at times he would loose the thread by compeletly going in circles or mentioning issues that did not appear to be relevant to what he was trying to cover. Throughout the dialogue of opposing views I often was wondering who was more confused, him or myself as it would seem that the characters would end up swapping sides which either showed lack of consistency or confidendence within the arguements. Did not seem that he thought about the logic of dialogue in particular. Also the book seemed to make poor references to important people who influences a particular field of study. E.g. When covering philosophy of science how could have Hospers missed to mention Karl Popper who introduced the validation of a scientific theory on the basis of it being confirmed or falsified, not to mention Lakatos, Thomas Kuhn's theory of paradigms? I became so frustrated I have not finished the book
I would be very hesitant to recommend this book to a novic who is interested in taking up philosophy seriously, there are far better books to start off with, one of them ironically being fiction.