Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1007698 in Books
• Published on: 2003-03
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 176 pages

Customer Reviews

Light to the Darkness
Browne tells us that all knowledge is transcient, that it constantly enveloped, surrounded, inhibited by darkness. With echoes of Socrates' "all I know is that I know nothing" he believes that all we perceive are isolated lights in the abyss of ignorance. We study things, he adds, because we incapable of grasping their innermost essence- yet once you have read this book you will realise that your world has changed, and waves of comprehension will wash upon the shores of your consciousness; this easy to use modern collection is a necessary classic edition to philosophers, both amateur and academic.

Overrated
Sir Thomas Browne's writing strikes me as one the ultimate examples of the valuing of style over content. The prose is dense, difficult to read, sometimes lovely, but mostly boring, and the content is often fairly trite. It doesn't seem worth expending the energy and concentration required to read him when there are so many other equally difficult writers around who are just as fine and more rewarding to read. If you feel like reading some English Literature from the rennaissance read Shakespeare, or Milton, or Richard Burton, or Francis Bacon, or John Donne, but give this a miss. I was mislead by Thomas De Quincy, Virginia Woolf and Jorge Luis Borges' love for him.