Newspaper Article

Review: Books: PHILOSOPHY: The thinking man's guide to great thinkers: Nigel Warburton's bite-size guide to philosophy will appeal to smart children and curious adults alike, writes Julian Baggini: A Little History of Philosophy Nigel Warburton Yale University Press pounds 14.99, pp288

Baggini, Julian

2011

Overview

Perhaps the problem is that publishers and producers don't know how to make the best of philosophy's most prized asset: ideas. For in the right hands, aren't ideas the most interesting, if not the sexiest, things of all? It's something of a travesty that in the desire to make philosophy more palatable, too many people want to sugar the pill so much that all the flavour and nutrition is lost in whatever gimmicky sweet coating has been applied. [Nigel Warburton]'s latest is one of those books for children that adults will probably read more. It's modelled on EH Gombrich's 1935 A Little History of the World, which was published in English for the first time only six years ago by the same publisher. Both contain 40 short chapters arranged in more or less chronological order. Warburton runs from Socrates to Peter Singer, with most philosophers getting a chapter to themselves, a few sharing the berth and Kant getting the solitary accolade of two to himself. I have no idea whether the youth of today will go for his avuncular approach, but I suspect it's irrelevant. Even given Warburton's gifts, I'm sure that only the brightest children will be capable of the complex thinking the ideas stimulate. But with its complete absence of condescension, the book is bound to find a readership among older teenagers and adults who still don't have that many options open to them if they want a readable and wide-ranging introduction to philosophy.

• Publisher: Guardian News & Media Limited
• Subject: Cox, Brian / Warburton, Nigel