Thinking and Writing about Philosophy

by Hugo Bedau

With 16 readings by prominent philosophers and 8 examples of student writing, this concise and inexpensive guide discusses every stage of reading, analyzing, and responding to philosophical texts and arguments and offers thorough coverage of research and documentation.

Genres: Philosophy

205 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 1996

About the author

Hugo Adam Bedau was the Austin B. Fletcher Professor of Philosophy, Emeritus, at Tufts University, and is best known for his work on capital punishment. He has been called a "leading anti-death-penalty scholar" by Stuart Taylor Jr., who has quoted Bedau as saying "I'll let the criminal justice system execute all the McVeighs they can capture, provided they'd sentence to prison all the people who are not like Timothy McVeigh."

Reviews

[Richard · Rating 3.25 out of 5]

Decent; that said, there's an irony in the organization and writing of the text itself being a little clumsy. It is particularly good on distinguishing i) how to read a philosophy text well/actively at the service of understanding it and ii) using methods of evaluating/judging the text after it's understood. (Too many folks blur these two acts, which is why I personally want to brush up via texts like this.) This isn't the best text on writing philosophy, but it won't lead you into error.

[Jakub Mrozinski · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book has plenty of exercises that allow you to apply the concepts and techniques you learn. Not enough introductory books in philosophy take this applied approach, which I think is essential.