No comments about The Candy Maker's Son: Memoirs of Kenneth G. Mills.

No comments about Spinoza His Life and Philosophy.

No comments about Dugald Stewart: The Pride and Ornament of Scotland.

No comments about Odd Man Out: Observations from the Periphery of Society.

1 comments about Philosophical Pragmatism: Common Sense Philosophy for the Average Person.

1. The Author, Bob Uda, was born and raised in Hawaii for the first 20 years of his life. From his youthful, barefoot days in Hawaii, he has earned four college degrees; worked in the aerospace, defense, and telecommunications industries; and rose to the top echelons of management. Needless to say, he now wears shoes!

No comments about Rabindranath Tagore - Life and Times of a Bengali Poet (Biography).

No comments about Masters of Political Thought (Plato to Machiavelli).

4 comments about Peter Abelard.

1. I've always been an admirer of the philosopher Abelard, and like everyone else, I found the story of his love affair with Heloise very touching. So naturally, I jumped at the chance to read a book like this. And I was not disappointed. This book was very well written. Rather than painting Abelard as an egotistical, condescending, self-absorbed brute as some writers have (I'm pointing a finger at the author of "Stealing Heaven"), this book portrays him in a more sympathetic light. In this book, he is more accurately depicted as a deep and insightful man. Helen Waddell builds on what we know about Abelard, rather than making a bunch of wild guesses. Her writing style, too, is vivid and eloquent. "Peter Abelard" is a must for anyone who is into the story of Heloise and Abelard or anyone who likes a good book. I highly recommend it.

   (But whatever you do, DON'T blow your hard earned money by buying "Stealing Heaven") :)




2. As a PhD student in theology with a background in medieval French history and literature, I've long been a fan of both Abelard and Heloise. Waddell's treatment of their tragic lives is nearly as timeless as they are. I like the fact that Waddell knows what she's talking about--her grasp of Abelard's revolutionary theological ideas (especially at the very moving close of the book, when he's working out his theory of atonement) is the furthest thing from superficial. It's precisely because of her scholar's knowledge that she's able to create a richly-woven setting for her two protagonists. This is something I've not found in any other treatment (especially *Stealing Heaven*, which is ghastly). She doesn't attempt to sensationalize the love story, and there's nothing in the way she presents things that's either anachronistic on the one hand or stilted (in that self-conscious, I'm-writing-medieval-dialogue way) on the other.

   I didn't find her Heloise at all bloodless; in fact, quite the opposite. I was pleased that Waddell lets us see Heloise's brilliant intelligence and intellectual fervor. (Abelard fell in love with her mind as much as anything). It's a shame this book is out of print here in the States. For anyone with an interest in the story of Abelard and Heloise (or even for anyone who simply likes good prose and well-done fictionalized history), this is a book that sould not be missed. It's a lovely, sometimes stunning read.




3. A well-written tale of two historical characters. Lovers of romance fiction and of great fiction in general should not miss reading this book of the tragic and enduring love between abelard and heloise. Sublime.



4. This book was recommended to me by an utterly fascinating, extremely well read man I met in India. Just the fact that it is his favorite book convinced me to read it. The beauty of the prose is breathtaking, haunting. Even as someone who is decidedly not a Catholic, or even religious (making it an opportunity to learn about medieval Catholicism), I found Abelard's spiritual journey profoundly moving, particularly in the end when his faith is restored. It is one of those books, like most of Nabokov's and many of Turgenev's, that is so beautiful it cannot be absorbed in one reading. A note on the story: as the title implies, this book is first and foremost about Abelard. His famous love affair with Heloise is treated as but one aspect of his remarkable life. Even so, it is well worth it, even for those with little interest in the man himself.

No comments about Voltaire.

1 comments about The Philosopher's Autobiography: A Qualitative Study.

1. This book can change your life, if you would like it (or not)!
   It presents the genre philosophical autobiography as a new philosophical literary type. It is a comprehensive source book which discovers the history and developments of recent research in this genre, rendering about 200 references to philosophers with an autobiographic life. Representative narratives investigated include the writings of Plato, Aurelius, Abelard, Al-Ghazali, Dante, Erasmus, Hume, Mill, Kierkegaard, Russell, Gibran, Simone Weil, Hazel Barnes, Alfred Tauber, and others. Extensively examined are the autobiographical works of Augustine, Rousseau, and Sartre. Unlike most literary and psychoanalytic interpretations of life narratives, the author comprehends the philosopher's life from a critical-philosophical perspective, or uses an alternative philosophical psychoanalytic method.