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The Philosopher's Handbook: Essential Readings from Plato to Kant
An ideal introduction for the casual reader and a beneficial reference for the student, The Philosopher's Handbook features the writings of some of the world's most influential philosophers. Based on the premise that all human beings are curious about their existence, Rosen's collection brings together primary excerpts from the works of prominent thinkers such as Plato, Nietzsche, Descartes, Machiavelli, and Kant. Experts in each field have carefully selected the sources and provided brief introductions to help readers gain insight into the readings. Newly revised in order to emphasize its broad appeal, The Philosopher's Handbook is a solid introduction to Western philosophy for all inquiring minds.
628 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 8, 2003
97 people are currently reading
582 people want to read
About the author
Stanley Rosen
66 books33 followersStanley Rosen was Borden Parker Bowne Professor of Philosophy and Professor Emeritus at Boston University. His research and teaching focused on the fundamental questions of philosophy and on the most important figures of its history, from Plato to Heidegger.
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
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May 15, 2012Selections from:
1) Symposium; Plato
2) Gorgias; Plato
3) Republic; Plato
4) Politics; Aristotle
5) The Prince; Machiavelli, Niccolo
6) Leviathan; Hobbes, Thomas
7) The First and Second Discourses; Rousseau, Jean-Jacques
8) Confessions; Augustine
9) Guide for the Perplexed; Maimonides
10) Pensees; Pascal, Blaise
11) Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion; Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich
12) Fear and Trembling; Soren Kieregaard
13) Republic; Plato
14) Poetics; Aristotle
15) On the Aesthetic Education of Man in a Series of Letters; Schiller, Friedrich
16) The Birth of Tragedy; Nietzsche, Friedrich
17) Art as Experience; Dewey, John
18) Aesthetic Theory; Adorno, Theodor
19) Metaphysics; Aristotle
20) Meditations; Descartes, Rene
21) Lectures on the History of Philosophy; Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich
22) Reflections on the Common Concept of Justice; Leibniz, Gottfried William
23) Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics; Kant, Immanuel
24) The Blue and Brown Books; Wittgenstien, Ludwig
25) Meno; Plato
26) Posterior Analytics; Aristotle
27) Meditations; Descartes, Rene
28) Abstract on a Treatise of Human Nature; Hume, David
29) Questioning as a Philosophical Method; Hintikka, Jaakko
30) Against Method; Feyerabend, Paul
31) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions; Kuhn, Thomas
32) The Crisis of European Sciences; Husserl, Edmund
33) The Concept of Biological Progress; Ayala, Francisco J.
34) Science and the Scientist; Poincare, Henri
35) Science and Hypothesis; Poincare, Henri
36) Logic and Mathematics; Simpson, Stephen G.
1) Symposium; Plato
2) Gorgias; Plato
3) Republic; Plato
4) Politics; Aristotle
5) The Prince; Machiavelli, Niccolo
6) Leviathan; Hobbes, Thomas
7) The First and Second Discourses; Rousseau, Jean-Jacques
8) Confessions; Augustine
9) Guide for the Perplexed; Maimonides
10) Pensees; Pascal, Blaise
11) Lectures on the Philosophy of Religion; Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich
12) Fear and Trembling; Soren Kieregaard
13) Republic; Plato
14) Poetics; Aristotle
15) On the Aesthetic Education of Man in a Series of Letters; Schiller, Friedrich
16) The Birth of Tragedy; Nietzsche, Friedrich
17) Art as Experience; Dewey, John
18) Aesthetic Theory; Adorno, Theodor
19) Metaphysics; Aristotle
20) Meditations; Descartes, Rene
21) Lectures on the History of Philosophy; Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich
22) Reflections on the Common Concept of Justice; Leibniz, Gottfried William
23) Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics; Kant, Immanuel
24) The Blue and Brown Books; Wittgenstien, Ludwig
25) Meno; Plato
26) Posterior Analytics; Aristotle
27) Meditations; Descartes, Rene
28) Abstract on a Treatise of Human Nature; Hume, David
29) Questioning as a Philosophical Method; Hintikka, Jaakko
30) Against Method; Feyerabend, Paul
31) The Structure of Scientific Revolutions; Kuhn, Thomas
32) The Crisis of European Sciences; Husserl, Edmund
33) The Concept of Biological Progress; Ayala, Francisco J.
34) Science and the Scientist; Poincare, Henri
35) Science and Hypothesis; Poincare, Henri
36) Logic and Mathematics; Simpson, Stephen G.
September 30, 2019
I wanted to like this, I really did. But they misspelled one of the philosophers' names on the back cover, they included mathematics as a branch of philosophy, the introductions to each segment were longer than the actual philosophers' excerpts themselves (Stanley Rosen's own introduction was the worst offender...it was like a miniature book in and of itself), and they didn't even include certain philosophers I think absolutely necessary, like John Locke or John Stuart Mill. Way too much Aristotle and Descartes, too. Oh, and they included that criminal Dewey as well, who's probably done more damage to education and, subsequently, Occidental culture than almost anyone else. Jeez. This could have been a lot better.
December 18, 2024
If you want to get a big picture overview on philosophy, you're better yet consuming this knowledge from another medium. A YouTube playlist or quick sections on Wikipedia. Or even ChatGPT. Books are not ideal for a wide overview of a big topic.
Interesting and memorable quotes from the philosophers included:
Plato (from The Republic, Apology, Phaedo)
“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
“Justice in the life and conduct of the State is possible only as first it resides in the hearts and souls of the citizens.”
“We must go down again, all of us, to the prisoners … and share their labors and honors, whether they are worth having or not.”
Aristotle (from Nicomachean Ethics, Metaphysics)
“Happiness is an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue.”
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
“All men by nature desire to know.”
Epictetus (from the Enchiridion)
“Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of them.”
“Don’t demand that things happen as you wish, but wish that they happen as they do happen, and you will go on well.”
St. Augustine (from Confessions)
“Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new.”
“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”
Thomas Aquinas (from Summa Theologica)
“Reason in man is rather like God in the world.”
“Wonder is the desire for knowledge.”
René Descartes (from Meditations on First Philosophy)
“Cogito, ergo sum.” (“I think, therefore I am.”)
“I must once for all seriously undertake to rid myself of all the opinions which I had formerly accepted.”
Thomas Hobbes (from Leviathan)
“The condition of man … is a condition of war of everyone against everyone.”
“Covenants without the sword are but words.”
John Locke (from Two Treatises of Government, Essay Concerning Human Understanding)
“No man’s knowledge here can go beyond his experience.”
“Where there is no law, there is no freedom.”
“The mind is furnished with ideas by experience alone.”
George Berkeley (from A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge)
“To be is to be perceived.”
“We have first raised a dust and then complain we cannot see.”
David Hume (from An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding)
“Custom is the great guide of human life.”
“Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions.”
“All knowledge degenerates into probability.”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (from The Social Contract, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality)
“Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.”
“The first man who, having enclosed a piece of land, thought of saying ‘This is mine’ … was the true founder of civil society.”
Immanuel Kant (from Critique of Pure Reason, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals)
“Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind.”
“Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe … the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.”
“Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.”
Friedrich Nietzsche (from Beyond Good and Evil, On the Genealogy of Morals)
“God is dead.”
“He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster.”
“What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal.”
Interesting and memorable quotes from the philosophers included:
Plato (from The Republic, Apology, Phaedo)
“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
“Justice in the life and conduct of the State is possible only as first it resides in the hearts and souls of the citizens.”
“We must go down again, all of us, to the prisoners … and share their labors and honors, whether they are worth having or not.”
Aristotle (from Nicomachean Ethics, Metaphysics)
“Happiness is an activity of the soul in accordance with virtue.”
“It is the mark of an educated mind to be able to entertain a thought without accepting it.”
“All men by nature desire to know.”
Epictetus (from the Enchiridion)
“Men are disturbed not by things, but by the views which they take of them.”
“Don’t demand that things happen as you wish, but wish that they happen as they do happen, and you will go on well.”
St. Augustine (from Confessions)
“Late have I loved you, O Beauty ever ancient, ever new.”
“You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.”
Thomas Aquinas (from Summa Theologica)
“Reason in man is rather like God in the world.”
“Wonder is the desire for knowledge.”
René Descartes (from Meditations on First Philosophy)
“Cogito, ergo sum.” (“I think, therefore I am.”)
“I must once for all seriously undertake to rid myself of all the opinions which I had formerly accepted.”
Thomas Hobbes (from Leviathan)
“The condition of man … is a condition of war of everyone against everyone.”
“Covenants without the sword are but words.”
John Locke (from Two Treatises of Government, Essay Concerning Human Understanding)
“No man’s knowledge here can go beyond his experience.”
“Where there is no law, there is no freedom.”
“The mind is furnished with ideas by experience alone.”
George Berkeley (from A Treatise Concerning the Principles of Human Knowledge)
“To be is to be perceived.”
“We have first raised a dust and then complain we cannot see.”
David Hume (from An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding)
“Custom is the great guide of human life.”
“Reason is, and ought only to be the slave of the passions.”
“All knowledge degenerates into probability.”
Jean-Jacques Rousseau (from The Social Contract, Discourse on the Origin of Inequality)
“Man is born free, and everywhere he is in chains.”
“The first man who, having enclosed a piece of land, thought of saying ‘This is mine’ … was the true founder of civil society.”
Immanuel Kant (from Critique of Pure Reason, Groundwork of the Metaphysics of Morals)
“Thoughts without content are empty, intuitions without concepts are blind.”
“Two things fill the mind with ever new and increasing admiration and awe … the starry heavens above me and the moral law within me.”
“Act only according to that maxim whereby you can at the same time will that it should become a universal law.”
Friedrich Nietzsche (from Beyond Good and Evil, On the Genealogy of Morals)
“God is dead.”
“He who fights with monsters should look to it that he himself does not become a monster.”
“What is great in man is that he is a bridge and not a goal.”
July 6, 2019
I am a busy man. I may not be the CEO of a corporation or someone whose schedule is always full, but I value my time. In that line of thinking they made The Philosopher’s Handbook, a collection of essays and excerpts from longer works.
The book is divided into six major sections that each focus on one aspect of philosophy. These sections are introduced by an expert in that field with an essay that talks about that focus. Following the essay is a number of short portions from different longer works. For example, the first section focuses on Social and Political Philosophy. It has an introductory essay from Paul Rahe and goes into pertinent sections of Symposium, Gorgias, and Republic by Plato; Politics by Aristotle; The Prince by Machiavelli; Leviathan by Hobbes; and the First and Second Discourses by Rousseau. The other five sections are Philosophy of Religion, Philosophy of Art and Culture, Metaphysics, Epistemology, and Philosophy of Science.
The book is good. I like how it focuses on a particular subject rather than having the entire work. The excerpt from Leviathan has that quote on how human life is, for example. I also like how the introductory essays focus your attention on the important parts of the work. As far as an introductory work, this book is well-suited to that task.
The book is divided into six major sections that each focus on one aspect of philosophy. These sections are introduced by an expert in that field with an essay that talks about that focus. Following the essay is a number of short portions from different longer works. For example, the first section focuses on Social and Political Philosophy. It has an introductory essay from Paul Rahe and goes into pertinent sections of Symposium, Gorgias, and Republic by Plato; Politics by Aristotle; The Prince by Machiavelli; Leviathan by Hobbes; and the First and Second Discourses by Rousseau. The other five sections are Philosophy of Religion, Philosophy of Art and Culture, Metaphysics, Epistemology, and Philosophy of Science.
The book is good. I like how it focuses on a particular subject rather than having the entire work. The excerpt from Leviathan has that quote on how human life is, for example. I also like how the introductory essays focus your attention on the important parts of the work. As far as an introductory work, this book is well-suited to that task.
June 4, 2020
Keep this on your shelf
March 13, 2014
Really good introduction to philosophy. This book is divided into six separate sections, covering the categories of social philosophy, philosophy of religion, philosophy of art, metaphysics, epistemology, and philosophy of science. Each section contained an introduction by a contemporary philosopher followed by excerpts by some of the philosophical giants: Plato, Aristotle, Hume, Kant and others. I do have one quibble - I think I learned more about each category of philosophy from the introductions than from the source material.
June 20, 2012
Early days yet, but I enjoyed the intro to the book by Rosen, and Rahe's intro to the first section on social and political philosophy. Both stated things clearly and helped me understand some concepts better than I had before.
Want to read
January 14, 2008Picked this up because it was very cheap and has some interesting essays. Not planning on sitting down and reading it cover to cover, more likely, I'll read the occasional piece from time to time to expand my mind a bit. That is, when I'm not reading trashy vamp novels or bloody fantasy books.
August 26, 2013
great book. took a few months at a slow pace but always enjoyable. wide range and all encompassing. a solid guide to keep around for basic reference towards all basics of philosophy. well worth the $15 and time!
July 28, 2023
A great collection for those starting with philosophy, or just getting into it. Recommended.
June 14, 2014
Awesome reference book.
May 17, 2016
This book had some very interesting readings from various philosopher's. Although some of it was difficult to understand it really got you to think.
January 11, 2017
Excellent for short reads, and for ongoing reference.
Read
May 23, 2011long tedious reading for me, but a few nuggets to carry.
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews