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This Is Political Philosophy: An Introduction
This is Political Philosophy is an accessible and well-balanced introduction to the main issues in political philosophy written by an author team from the fields of both philosophy and politics. This text connects issues at the core of political philosophy with current, live debates in policy, politics, and law and addresses different ideals of political organization, such as democracy, liberty, equality, justice, and happiness. Written with great clarity, This is Political Philosophy is accessible and engaging to those who have little or no prior knowledge of political philosophy and is supported with supplemental pedagogical and instructor material on the This Is Philosophy series site.
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296 pages, Hardcover
Published December 27, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
October 11, 2021
Positives:
- Includes some good resources at the end of the chapters that I was not familiar with (actually the reason I bought the book based on a free sample).
- Provides a very broad introduction to the subject.
- It is centered on key issues and discussions rather than on a sequential/historical approach, which I like.
Negatives:
- Many typos for a book of its kind.
- Feels a bit too dumbed-down for my taste.
- Relatedly, the language often lacks precision. For example, they write (section 1.35) that "Utilitarianism in particular would say that the happiness of a whole society outweighs the happiness [should say "suffering"] of a single child." But this is not true according to *negative* utilitarianism, which the authors already introduced at this point. So the thought experiment, which is supposed to be about means vs. ends, brings in conflicting issues concerning which ends outweigh which ends.
- Some issues are treated in an overly one-sided and opinionated manner, such as affirmative action, whose potential negative effects, not least on the people it is supposed to help, are left wholly unexplored. They briefly list a single objection to affirmative action, and then go through many arguments in its favor, which is hardly balanced. I don't happen to be particularly invested in this issue either way, but I do find this one-sidedness problematic in a textbook.
- Many claims are not backed up with references, and some turn out to be wrong. For example, in Chapter 3, it is implied that the Tutsi and Hutu were "identities" created by European colonists, which is misleading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origins...
No reference is given. The claim is discredited in Chapter 13 in Avi Tuschman's Our Political Nature.
Given my affinity for Clark Wolf's articles on population ethics, I expected more from this book. Even so, it is a stimulating read.
- Includes some good resources at the end of the chapters that I was not familiar with (actually the reason I bought the book based on a free sample).
- Provides a very broad introduction to the subject.
- It is centered on key issues and discussions rather than on a sequential/historical approach, which I like.
Negatives:
- Many typos for a book of its kind.
- Feels a bit too dumbed-down for my taste.
- Relatedly, the language often lacks precision. For example, they write (section 1.35) that "Utilitarianism in particular would say that the happiness of a whole society outweighs the happiness [should say "suffering"] of a single child." But this is not true according to *negative* utilitarianism, which the authors already introduced at this point. So the thought experiment, which is supposed to be about means vs. ends, brings in conflicting issues concerning which ends outweigh which ends.
- Some issues are treated in an overly one-sided and opinionated manner, such as affirmative action, whose potential negative effects, not least on the people it is supposed to help, are left wholly unexplored. They briefly list a single objection to affirmative action, and then go through many arguments in its favor, which is hardly balanced. I don't happen to be particularly invested in this issue either way, but I do find this one-sidedness problematic in a textbook.
- Many claims are not backed up with references, and some turn out to be wrong. For example, in Chapter 3, it is implied that the Tutsi and Hutu were "identities" created by European colonists, which is misleading: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Origins...
No reference is given. The claim is discredited in Chapter 13 in Avi Tuschman's Our Political Nature.
Given my affinity for Clark Wolf's articles on population ethics, I expected more from this book. Even so, it is a stimulating read.
October 13, 2020
I read this book for Tuckness’s class POL S 235. I really enjoyed it. It was very thought provoking and easy to understand. Each chapter begins with some dialogue which also helps with comprehension since it reflects more of a real life argument about the chapters topics. This is probably a book I would of enjoyed outside of class so I was very satisfied.
February 21, 2017
Politics is a big area of interest for me, as is philosophy (which I've studied professionally.) Thus I was thrilled to be offered this book for review. Having now read it, I am even more pleased. It truly does cover all the bases, and as impartially as anyone could hope.
The authors are VERY well-read, quoting from an amazing variety of sources, and so far as I could tell, properly presenting the ideas of each source. Further, the material is extremely well organized into ten logical chapters, with subsections within each for different aspects of that chapter's topic, and further subsections for competing political and philosophical views on each. I found each discussion very interesting, and almost every page contained one or more thoughts I considered worth underlining. For those wanting to go even deeper, each chapter ends with further online and offline resources and references.
As I write this, our society is having a massive philosophical debate about politics, and I was pleased to find solid logic for dealing with virtually every issue I've read or heard about this month helpfully and logically covered, which is pretty amazing, considering it had to have been written before all the current fuss erupted. No matter which side you are on in any of the current issues, you will find the perspectives offered by this book useful.
Highly recommended! This book stays in my permanent library.
The authors are VERY well-read, quoting from an amazing variety of sources, and so far as I could tell, properly presenting the ideas of each source. Further, the material is extremely well organized into ten logical chapters, with subsections within each for different aspects of that chapter's topic, and further subsections for competing political and philosophical views on each. I found each discussion very interesting, and almost every page contained one or more thoughts I considered worth underlining. For those wanting to go even deeper, each chapter ends with further online and offline resources and references.
As I write this, our society is having a massive philosophical debate about politics, and I was pleased to find solid logic for dealing with virtually every issue I've read or heard about this month helpfully and logically covered, which is pretty amazing, considering it had to have been written before all the current fuss erupted. No matter which side you are on in any of the current issues, you will find the perspectives offered by this book useful.
Highly recommended! This book stays in my permanent library.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews