The Practice of Philosophy: Handbook for Beginners

by Jay F. Rosenberg

Based on the author's nearly 30 years' of teaching introductory philosophy — and his observations of where beginning readers run into difficulty — this compact “primer” gives readers the basic tools they need to explore philosophical reading and writing for the first time. Provides insights and strategies for helping readers get started with reading, thinking about, and discussing philosophical concepts and writing short philosophical essays about what they've been reading and thinking; includes a new chapter that illustrates techniques for probing beneath the expository surface of a given question to uncover the inevitable structure of presuppositions and problems underlying it.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction, Writing

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

Jay F. Rosenberg was the author of many philosophy books, articles, and textbooks, and was a professor of philosophy at University of North Carolina: Chapel Hill. As an undergraduate, he wrote a students' cookbook which is still in print at the Reed College bookstore (his alma mater).

Reviews

[Nigel Dawson · Rating 5 out of 5]

An essential tool for any undergraduate major or minor in philosophy. This book gets beneath the surface and explains how (analytic) philosophy is done; everything from finding the explicit and implicit arguments to the different ways of reading(and criticizing)a philsophic argument.

[attronoctis · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting, good introduction to what philosophy entails as a learnable, improvable skill. (This sentence already poses the question - what do I mean by "good"? So let me correct myself: an understandable, slow introduction keeping in mind the beginners, yet still being thorough.)

We receive advice on how to interact with philosophical work, on how we can ourselves write such essays. It introduces us to the validity of arguments, and what kind of argumentation errors we can encounter - especially ones posing as valid arguments: the frogs, as it calls them. Obviously, we do not get an exhaustive primer on argumentation and logic, as that is outside of the bounds of this book.

On the last few pages we can even find puzzles through which we can flaunt our philosophical and argumentative prowess - which will not be too impressive based on the contents of this sole book.

Still, a good introductory work. (For the definition of "good", see the beginning of my review.)

[Rob Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book offers an excellent of discussion what philosophy is and what philosophers are (or should) be doing, as well as suggestions on how to do it. I came away with an improved understanding of what I have been doing and why, as well as a sense of how I might strategise my future endeavours. I would recommend it to those who have been studying philosophy for a while, to those who just want to get an idea of what the point of philosophy actually is, but especially to those new to philosophy: this book will save you many a headache early on and give you a sense of what you are doing and why as well as the greater significance of the practice.

[jeremiah]

Great for perpetual beginners, too!

[Chris Comis · Rating 4 out of 5]

Probably one of the best books I've read on how to read philosophical works. That is, how to pick apart an argument, how to detect the point of an argument without getting side-tracked, etc. As books on or about philosophy go, this one is a pretty no-nonsense book.

[B R · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a handy little book, especially for first year students: he provides a lot of info on the main patterns of argument used by philosophers, how to take apart their arguments, ways to rebut arguments, as well as the main object of (analytic) philosophy, and how this relates to the seemingly trivial puzzles that they discuss. Was also helpful on the different kinds of philosophy essays that one writes in one’s undergraduate years, and on different (and increasingly profound) was of reading philosophers, as well as finding ways to engage theme with each other.

[HuSharp · Rating 4 out of 5]

不同于一般的导读书，该书注重的是认知技能而非历史回顾与主义分类。作者授人以渔地带着问题展示分析方法（分析问题、设计标准、其他方案缺陷、解释方案、评估方案适用性、回应可预见的批评）读下来也对自己思考论文结构有帮助。
作者最后提到阅读哲学书籍分为六步，也摘录下来。1.为结论，进行“主义”分类，了解全貌；2.为论证，了解推理结构；3.为情境，回到时空找出思考路径；以及：批判、裁定、创造。
ps: “形式”那一章不如贴上逻辑代数来的实在。

[Xaver Seiringer · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good introduction to philosophy.
I think, even for someone not familiar with the topic, who just wants to know what philosophy is about.

[David Braimah]

2013

[White Rose · Rating 5 out of 5]

一本极好的哲学导论。虽说走的是偏分析的路子，却并没有花很大量的篇幅去讲形式逻辑的具体技术（第三、第四两章，第五章勉强能算），而是把核心放回做哲学本身，讲解如何去做哲学——从什么角度批判哲学观点、演示如何剥离问题中的预设、如何层层深入研究一个哲学家。第一次间歇前讲形式逻辑的部分是在讲如何用论证来做哲学，第一次间歇之后的章节基本都是干货，讲解做哲学的一般方法。

[Falk Jürgens]

Just a book for university

[Reinhard Gobrecht · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rosenberg beschreibt z. B. fünf Arten der Philosophie-Kritik: Äquivokation, Petitio principii, Infiniter Regreß, Verlorener Gegensatz und Leere Behauptung. Ein interessantes Beispiel aus der griechischen Philosophie, welches das Identitätsproblem beleuchtet: 'Das Schiff des Theseus' wird in seinem Buch untersucht.

[Quannguyen]

In the world we can see that at least some things are changing. Whatever is changing is being changed by something else. If that by which it is changing is itself changed, then it too is being changed by something else. But this chain cannot be infinitely long, so there must be something that causes change without itself changing. This everyone understands to be God