Philosophy: General Selection
(this list is still under construction, more books will be added)
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1. General Works
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Confusions and Clarifications : An
Introduction to Philosophy for the Twenty-First Century.
By Centore, Floyd F.
Lanham, MD: Univ. of America, 1997. |
Order in the US with Amazon US for $ 34.50 (Paperback) |
| Order in the UK with Amazon UK for £ 20.72 (Paperback) |
Difficulty: 2 (popular) |
- written with a thomistic perspective, this books excels in making serious philosophy
very accessible and exciting by interacting with modern culture (ethics, politics, films,
TV, natural science, etc.) and contemporaries philosophers and philosophies, as well as
older ones.
- an impressive communication achievement (relating abstract and difficult issues to
the (post)modern minds)
- the best introduction to philosophy?
- also very usefull for apologetics
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Contents; review |
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Looking at philosophy: the Unbearable
Heaviness of Philosophy made Lighter.
By Donald Palmer.
2nd ed.
Mountain View, CA: Mayfield, 1994. |
Order in the US with Amazon US for $ x.x: you save $x.x (x%)
(Paperback) |
| Order in the UK with Amazon UK for £ 11.32: you save £ 1.26 (10%)
(Paperback) |
Difficulty: 2 (popular) |
- A historal introduction to philosophy with many funny illustration
- written by a postmodern, yet acceptably balanced
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Contents; review |
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Modern Thomistic Philosophy: an Explanation for
Students.
By Richard P. Phillips.
2 vols.
London: Burns Oates & Washbourne, 1934. |
Out of print: may be ordered at bibliofind |
Difficulty: 3 (academic) |
- These two volumes provide the best basis for apologetics
- somewhat old, yet still excellent
- do no cover ethics nor aesthetics
|
Contents; review |
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Introduction to philosophy : A Christian
Perspective.
By Norman Geisler & Paul Feinberg.
Grand Rapids: Baker, 1980. |
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Difficulty: 4 (difficult) |
- Introductory exposition and analysis of all the alternatives for the major philosophical
issues
- So fundamental that every serious person should study it at some point.
- very condensed and not always easy to follow
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Contents; review by Bruno Gedressac |
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Come, let us reason: An Introduction to
Logical Thinking. .
By Norman L. Geisler & Ronald M. Brooks.
Grand Rapids: Baker, 1990. |
Order in the US with Amazon US for $ 10.39: you save $2.60 (20%)
(Paperback) |
| Order in the UK with Amazon UK for £ 7.02: you save £ 0.78 (10%)
(Paperback) |
Difficulty: 3 (academic) |
- fundamental and accessible book for learning to think logically
- deals clearly with formal & informal logic, fallacies...
- contains exercises
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Contents; review by Bruno Gedressac |
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Summa of the Summa : The Essential
Philosophical Passages of St. Thomas Aquinas' Summa Theologica Edited and Explained for
Beginners.
By Peter Kreeft.
San Francisco: Ignatius, 1990. |
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(Paperback) |
| Order in the UK with Amazon UK for £ 13.49: you save £ 1.50 (10%)
(Paperback) |
Difficulty: 3 (academic) |
- translation (into modern English), copious notes and diagrams..: The best book for first
time readers of the Summa!
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Contents; review |
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Thomism and Modern Thought..
By Harry R. Klocker.
New York: Apple-Century-Crofts, 1962. |
Order in the US with Amazon US for $ 32.50 (Hardback) |
Difficulty: 3 (academic) |
- exposes (also with selected readings) the views of the modern thinkers from Kant to
Sartre, and refutes their mistakes
- contains also a short part about recent thomists (esp. Gilson)
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Contents; review
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Christian Philosophy : Greek, Medieval,
Contemporary Reflections.
By Leo Sweeney.
New York: Peter Lang, 1997. |
Order in the US with Amazon US for $ 55.95 (Hardback) |
| Order in the UK with Amazon UK for £ 33.61 (Hardback) |
Difficulty: 5 (research) |
- studies how Christian philosophy has been through the centuries and how it should be:
the most detailled and up-todate study (and the best one?)
- ends by showing how Christian philosophy is the answer to (neo)Kantian idealism,
postmodernism, etc.
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Contents; review |
History of Philosophy
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Intellectuals.
By Johnson, Paul..
San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988. |
Order in the US with Amazon US for $ 85.95: you save
(Audiocassette) |
| Order in the US with Amazon US for $ 12.80: you save $3.20 (20%)
(Paperback) |
| Order in the UK with Amazon UK for £ 16.95 (Hardback) |
| Order in the UK with Amazon UK for £ 7.99: you save £ 2.00 (20%)
(Paperback) |
Difficulty: 1 (Fun) |
- historic account of the life of many influential people such as Marx, Sartre, B.
Russell, Rousseau, etc. whose life was dark (hypocrisy, absurdity, perversity, etc.)
- great fun
- New York Times besteller
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Contents; review |
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A History of Philosophy.
By Frederick C. Copleston.
Image, 1993. |
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Difficulty: 3 |
- Copleston's abridged history of philosophy: the one-volume history of
philosophy
|
Contents; review |
All 9 volumes of A History of Philosophy by
Frederick Copleston.
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A History of Philosophy, vol. 1 : Greece and Rome.
By Frederick C. Copleston.
Paulist, 1946. |
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|
Difficulty: 3 |
- the best history of philosophy ever written
|
Contents; review |
| |
History of Philosophy, vol. 2 : Augustine to Scotus .
By Frederick C. Copleston.
Paulist, 1950. |
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|
Difficulty: 3 |
- the best history of philosophy ever written
|
Contents; review |
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History of Philosophy, vol. 3: Late Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy.
By Frederick C. Copleston.
Paulist, 19532.
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Difficulty: 3 |
- the best history of philosophy ever written
|
Contents; review |
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History of Philosophy, vol. 4 : Modern Philosophy, from Descartes to Leibnitz.
By Frederick C. Copleston.
Paulist, 1957.
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Order the Paperback version with:
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Difficulty: 3 |
- the best history of philosophy ever written
|
Contents; review |
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History of Philosophy, vol. 5 : Modern Philosophy, The British Philosophers from Hobbes to Hume.
By Frederick C. Copleston.
Paulist, 1957.
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Order the Paperback version with:
|
Difficulty: 3 |
- the best history of philosophy ever written
|
Contents; review |
| |
History of Philosophy, vol. 6 : : Modern Philosophy : From the French Enlightenment to Kant.
By Frederick C. Copleston.
Paulist, 1960.
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Order the Paperback version with:
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Difficulty: 3 |
- the best history of philosophy ever written
|
Contents; review |
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History of Philosophy,vol. 7 : Modern Philosophy : From Fichte to Nietzsche.
By Frederick C. Copleston.
Paulist, 1963.
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Difficulty: 3 |
- the best history of philosophy ever written
|
Contents; review |
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History of Philosophy, vol. 8 : Modern Philosophy : : Empiricism, Idealism, and Pragmatism in Britain and America.
By Frederick C. Copleston.
Paulist, 1976.
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Order the Paperback version with:
|
Difficulty: 3 |
- the best history of philosophy ever written
|
Contents; review |
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A History of Philosophy, vol. 9 : Modern Philosophy from the French Revolution to Sartre, Camus, and Levi-Strauss.
By Frederick Copleston.
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Order the Paperback version with:
|
Difficulty: 3 |
- the best history of philosophy ever written
|
Contents; review |
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History of Philosophy : volumes 1, 2, 3 .
By Frederick C. Copleston.
Paulist, 1976. |
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Difficulty: 3 |
- the best history of philosophy ever written
|
Contents; review |
| |
History of Philosophy : Volumes 4, 5, 6 .
By Frederick C. Copleston.
Paulist, 1976. |
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|
Difficulty: 3 |
- the best history of philosophy ever written
|
Contents; review |
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Cartesian Nightmare: An Introduction to
Transcendental Sophistry.
By Peter Redpath.
Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1997. |
Order in the US with Amazon US for $ 63.00 (Hardback) |
| Order in the US with Amazon US for $ 16.00 (Paperback) |
| Order in the UK with Amazon UK for £ 40.00 (Hardback) |
| Order in the UK with Amazon UK for £ 12.00 (Paperback) |
Difficulty: 3 (academic) |
- A study and evaluation of Descartes, showing him to be more a rhetorician than a
philosopher
- shows the terrible consequences of Descartes' thought
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Contents; review |
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Wisdom's Odyssey. From Philosophy to
Transcendental Sophistry.
By Peter Redpath.
Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1997. |
Order in the US with Amazon US for $ 78.00 (Hardback) |
| Order in the US with Amazon US for $ 18.00(Paperback) |
| Order in the UK with Amazon UK for £ 42.00 (Hardback) |
| Order in the UK with Amazon UK for £ 12.00 (Paperback) |
Difficulty: |
A study from the original Greek philosophical realism to the modern pseudo-philosophy |
Contents; review |
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Masquerade of the Dream Walkers. Prophetic
Theology from the Cartesians to Hegel.
By Peter A. Redpath.
Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1998. |
Order in the US with Amazon US for $ 97 (Hardback) |
| Order in the US with Amazon US for $ 25 (Paperback) |
| Order in the UK with Amazon UK for £ 60 (Hardback) |
| Order in the UK with Amazon UK for £ 15 (Paperback) |
Difficulty: 3 (academic) |
- Redpath's third volume in his Gilsonian analysis of the history of philosophy
- argues that modern philosophy is deconstructed Augustinian theology, with elements of
animism, nominalism, sophistry, spirits of Protagoras and Augustine, Christianized
Heracliteanism
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Contents; review |
| |
.
By .
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(Paperback) |
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(Paperback) |
Difficulty: |
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Contents; review |
Epistemology
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Epistemology : A Contemporary Introduction
to the Theory of Knowledge. .
By Robert Audi.
London: Routledge, 1998. |
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|
Difficulty: 3 (academic) |
- a fresh and detailed introduction to epistemology, from a moderate foundationalist
viewpoint
|
Contents; review |
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Thomistic Papers 4.
Edited by Leonard A. Kennedy.
Houston, TX.: Cener for Thomistic Studies, 1988. |
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|
Difficulty: 4 |
- thomist answer to the Reformed Epistemology of Plantinga, Wolterstoff, etc.
|
Contents; review |
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Thomistic Papers 6.
Edited by John F. X. Knasas.
Notre Dame: U. of Notre Dame, 1994. |
Order in the US with Amazon US for $31.00 (Hardback) |
| Order in the US with Amazon US for $18.50 (Paperback) |
| Order in the UK with Amazon UK for £18.75 (Hardback) |
| Order in the UK with Amazon UK for £11.19 (Paperback) |
Difficulty: 4 |
- offers a critic of the Kantian idealism and of the relativism of the neothomist Jesuit
Gerald McCool
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Contents; review |
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Out of a Kantian Chrysalis?: A Maritainian
Critique of Fr. Maréchal.
By Ronald McCamy.
New York: Peter Lang, 1998. |
Order in the US with Amazon US for $ 24.95 (Paperback) |
Order in the UK with Amazon UK for £ 14.84 (Paperback)
|
Difficulty: 5 (research) |
- a fresh defense of Thomist realism (such as Maritain's) against the Kantian idealism of
the "Neothomists" (such as Maréchal's)
- important contribution to epistemology
- vital contribution for Thomism and its history
|
Contents;
Review |
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Modality, Probability, and Rationality: a Critical
Evaluation of Alvin Plantinga’s Philosophy.
By James Sennet.
American University Studies.
New York: Peter Lang, 1992. |
Order in the US with Amazon US for $ 35 (Hardback) |
Difficulty: 5 (research) |
- this insightful book shows that Plantinga's free will theodicy is vaild, but that his
ontological argument and especially the Reformed epistemology are wrong
- since Reformed epistemology leads to relativism (any idea being "properly
basic") and thus to irrationality, this book is very important because it is a clear
refutation of Reformed epistemology
|
Contents; review |
Metaphysics
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Metaphysics.
By Richard Taylor.
(Prentice-Hall Foundations of Philosophy Series.) 4th edition.
Prentice Hall, 1991. |
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the US with Amazon US for $ 26.25 (about 21.88 euros)
(Paperback) |
Order
in the UK with Amazon UK for £ 15.41 (about 21.78 euros)
(Paperback) |
Difficulty: 2 (popular) |
|
Contents; review by Bruno Gedressac |
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Authentic Metaphysics in an Age of Unreality.
By Leo Sweeney.
2nd ed. New York: Peter Lang, 1993. |
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|
Difficulty: 3 (academic) |
- a solid textbook on the science of metaphysics, written from a Gilsonian thomistic
perpective
- also contrasts sound metaphysics to recent absurdities (empirism/positivism, Sartre,
Derrida, etc.)
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Contents; review |
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Being and God : An Introduction to the
Philosophy of Being and to Natural Theology
By George P. Klubertanz & Maurice R. Holloway.
Irvington: 1979. |
Order in the US with Amazon US for $ 39.50 (Hardback) |
| Order in the UK with Amazon UK for £ 38.99 (Hardback) |
Difficulty: 3 (academic) |
- an excellent work of both high pedagogical and academic value (covers
also alternative views)
|
Contents; review |
Ethics
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The Primacy of Love: An Introduction to the
Ethics of Thomas Aquinas.
By Paul J. Wadell.
Mahwah, NJ: Paulist, 1992. |
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| Order in the UK with Amazon UK for (Paperback) |
Difficulty: 3 (academic) |
|
Contents; review |
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The Question of Christian Ethics.
By Ralph McInerny.
Washington: Catholic U. of America, 1993. |
Order in the US with Amazon US for $ 21.95 (Hardback) |
| Order in the US with Amazon US for $ 10.95 (Paperback) |
| Order in the UK with Amazon UK for £ 19.95 (Hardback) |
| Order in the UK with Amazon UK for £ 6.58: you save £ 2.37 (25%)
(Paperback) |
Difficulty: 3 (academic) |
- a short book finding a balance between those who say that all adequate ethics are
general, philosophical ethics and those who say that it is Christian ethics
- argues that (moral) philosophy is more foundational and is autonomous from revealed
theology, but that it is improved, best practiced with the insights of the true revelation
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Contents; review |
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Christian Ethics.
By Norman L. Geisler.
Add. info
Grand Rapids: Baker, 1989. |
Order in the US with Amazon US for $ 14.39: you save $3.60 (20%)
(Paperback) |
| Order in the UK with Amazon UK for £ 18.99 (Paperback) |
Difficulty: 3 (academic) |
- an inshightful evaluation of the different ethical options and of the arguments
about a small dozen of issues
|
Contents; review |
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The Life and Death Debate: Moral Issues of
our Time.
By Norman L. Geisler and James P. Moreland.
Westport, CN: Praeger, 1990. |
Order in the US with Amazon US for $ 17.95 (Paperback) |
| Order in the UK with Amazon UK for £ 43.95 (Hardback) |
| Order in the UK with Amazon UK for £ 14.95 (Paperback) |
Difficulty: 3 (academic) |
- a well-researched expositions of the different positions and arguments about eight
fundamental issues
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Contents; review |
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Freedom, Justice and the State.
By Ronald H. Nash.
Landam, MD: Univ. of America, 1980. |
Order in the US with Amazon US for $25 (Paperback) |
| Order in the UK with Amazon UK for £18 (Paperback) |
Difficulty: 3 (academic) |
- sound discussion of the issues related to the state, justice, freedom, morality and
economics
|
Contents; review |
Philosophy of Beauty
This excellent book:
- 4 Kovach, Francis J. Philosophy of Beauty. Norman, Okla.: Oklahoma U.,
1974.
is unfortunately out of print (but may be found at bibliofind).
Philosophy of Religion
(see also apologetics)
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Introduction. to the Philosophy of Religion.
By Brian Davies.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1993. |
Order in the US with Amazon US for $ 17.95 (Paperback) |
| Order in the UK with Amazon UK for £ 7.19: you save £ 1.80 (20%)
(Paperback) |
Difficulty: 3 |
- succeeds in making difficult discussions accessible
- usually very good, but weak on epistemology, morality and life after death
|
Contents; review |
4 Grisez, Germain G. Beyond the New Theism: a Philosophy of Religion.
Notre Dame: Notre Dame U., 1975. (out of print)
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