5 comments about The Making of a Philosopher: My Journey Through Twentieth-Century Philosophy.

1. Professor McGinn seems to be rather proud of his writings for the general public. I haven't seen the other popularizations, but I suspect that he has got a little carried away with his earlier successes.

   This is not an actually bad book, but shallow it is. You get a potpourri of anecdotes, how a poor boy goes to university and then enters a conveyor belt of promotions and job offers.

   In between the details of his CV you also get rather two-by-four style tutorials on (mostly) linguistic philosophy.

   And that's about it. No insights to speak of, no life-changing ideas. Very little about "twentieth-century philosophy". No story about how to make a philosopher.

   Good idea, lazy thinking, sloppy writing.




2. This book is both a memoir and yet another introduction to philosophy. McGinn tries to come at introducing philosophy in a different way: through his autobiography and through the issues that prompted his interests in philosophy, the ideas he found interesting as a young man studying philosophy, and what he has thought about at particular times in his career as an academic.

   The results are rather mixed. You don't get much of substance here, and so you should look somewhere else if you're searching for a serious and comprehensive introduction to philosophy. But this book does cover enough ground to give you a taste of what current academic philosophizing is like. It includes a breezy, straightforward picture of the life of an academic along with brief sketches of lots of interesting philosophical issues. Furthermore, there's not a lot of history covered here; the emphasis is on a few historically important philosophical issues and the more striking arguments and positions that have been defended in contemporary analytic philosophy. So this really gives you an account of what professional life is like for people working in contemporary Anglo-American analytic philosophy, the tradition in which McGinn works.

   It appears McGinn intends the reader to come to philosophy in the same way he did. We go from the vague, somewhat confused ideas and concerns that first led McGinn to philosophy to immersion in ideas and concerns of current-day professional philosophers. Now, this emphasis on the intellectual development might seem too limited a perspective from which to introduce a subject. But this isn't such a problem here since specialization isn't as extreme in philosophy as it is in other parts of the academy. Since the division of intellectual labor here isn't as extreme as it is in the sciences, all philosophers tend to know a lot of the same stuff.

   The book is quite interesting at the beginning, and I think the first couple of chapters would be a good introduction to just what philosophical thinking is like. Here there are very few details about McGinn's early life, and he concentrates on only those elements of his autobiography that are relevant to his intellectual development and his eventual interest in philosophical questions. So these chapters are concerned with the kinds of philosophical problems that are likely to be of interest to those without much, or any, background in the subject. Skepticism, free will, the existence of God--these are the sorts of issues that are introduced in this chapter. McGinn doesn't say a great deal about these issues here, though he says enough to reveal how philosophers attempt to answer them and how they criticize or defend the answers given by others.

   The latter chapters come to focus more on the nature of life in academia and the issues that get discussed in contemporary analytic philosophy along with McGinn's own intellectual development as an academic. So we really get two stories here. The first story is the one of McGinn's rise to prominence in academia, and the other is the story of major issues in U.S. and U.K. philosophy from the sixties to the present. And these stories are interconnected since McGinn is a prolific thinker who has published on nearly everything of central importance in contemporary metaphysics, epistemology, philosophy of mind, and philosophy of language. Some of the highlights he mentions are Davidson and Quine on meaning, Wittgenstein and Kripke on rule-following, Kripke and Putnam on reference, David Lewis on possible worlds, Dummett's anti-realism, Nagel's views about the mind and its relation to the body. And whenever McGinn discusses someone's ideas, he attempts to provide a brief portrait of them.

   Whatever one thinks about McGinn's personality--and some aspects of it can be off-putting--his discussions of issues here is pretty even-handed. While he occasionally says unflattering things about other philosophers, but he's more even-handed when it comes to their ideas--even those ideas with which he isn't sympathetic. He doesn't ridicule the ideas of others; nor does he use the book to push his own ideas on the topics he discusses.




3. I learned about McGinn via the work of Jerry Fodor. "The Making of a Philosopher" was the first book I read from him. This book is a rather good portrait of the intellectual development of a person. It is fascinating to see how his interests in philosophy develop and the persons involved. The book has the additional benefit of containing philosophical explanations that are short, to the point and clear.
   McGinn also comes across as a very likable chap, unlike some of the pompous gits one finds frequently in philosophy (for a sample of these individuals just take a look at the reviews in this page).



4. Ontogeny describes the origin and the development of an organism from the fertilized egg to its mature form. Ontology is the philosophic study of being or existence. Colin McGinn takes the reader on a ontogenic journey from his youth in a mining town in northeast England to his arrival as a Professor of Philosophy at Rutgers University. His journey takes us through his choice of philosophy as a career, his personal philosophic questions, his answers (or non-answers), his initial rejection and later rise in prominence at Oxford University. We can sense his existential questions as he tries to apply the philosophy he teaches, the questions of ontology, epistomology, free will, fate and luck, to his own life. This personal history is very engaging and serves to humanize the scholar and soften the aloofness and arrogance we usually associate with a world class academic.



5. In his book The Making of a Philosopher, McGinn seamlessly weaves in and out of autobiography and concise explication of the most notable contemporary philosophical concepts with uncanny agility. In doing so, McGinn creates a new and entertaining genus of philosophical writing. Very often, philosophy seems so cold and abstract; almost inhuman. In addition to McGinn's extremely clear treatment of the most notable contemporary philosophical concepts, the Making of a Philosopher defies tradition by putting a human face to such popular contemporary philosophy, from describing Saul Kripke's table manners (p. 66) to David Lewis' driving habits (p. 101) and much, much more.
   
   I happened to stumble across this book just after I graduated from Berkeley, and as it happened, reading it was a great way for me to reflect on and summarize a good deal of material that I was exposed to as an undergraduate. Feeling somewhat burnt out and jaded about philosophy at the time, what sold me on the book initially was the very beginning of the preface (a section of the book that can make or break a purchase for me), "The purpose of this book is to explain philosophy in an accessible, engaging way. But how best to do that? After trying out a number of plans for such a book, I hit upon the autobiographical format. More orthodox formats inevitably became too textbooklike, and while there is a place for such books I didn't want my book to remind the reader of school."
   
   Needless to say, given my current mood at the time, I was sold. I was happy to buy the book too, because I had been meaning to read more of McGinn's work anyway, since I found the few scraps of his work that I had been exposed to exceptionally clear and intriguing. It was a natural purchase for me.
   
   One negative about the book: I do wish that McGinn had taken it upon himself to go into greater detail about his life. To his credit, he does a good job of highlighting the good and the bad, but you finish this book with a sense that McGinn has left out many, many important details about his life. Not that it's that philosophically important, but he fails to mention any of those gritty details that make biographies so interesting--he fails to mention anything about his love life, for example. Before I give too much away, let me just say that biographies in philosophy are extremely rare. If anything, I recommend that anyone remotely interested in the subject should read this book to get a different perspective of philosophy that isn't very common.

5 comments about Jean-Jacques Rousseau: Restless Genius.

1. It is no disrespect to a biographer of Rousseau to say that his task is made considerably easier by the fact that his subject had himself, in his fifties, written such a vivid and amazingly self-revealing autobiography, the famous Confessions. Especially as far as the first half of Rousseau's life are concerned, the main task of the biographer is to recount a story that has already been written, correcting the occasional misremembering or misrepresentation, and to comment upon it. Damrosch's own writing always reads pleasantly and easily, and he also alerts us in advance to how Rousseau's descriptions of his own childhood and adolescence would inform later writings, like Julie (1761) and Émile (1762), and how much his youthful resentment about the way he was treated by social superiors would be the foundation for his later political theories.
   
   For the first 37 years of his life, Rousseau had not revealed himself as the genius in the subtitle, though he was certainly restless: constantly on the move physically and psychologically highly labile. One wonders, in fact, how interested one would be in those 37 years if he had not shown himself a genius thereafter. I for one became a little impatient that as much as 2/5th of this long book is devoted to this early period, which by itself is not all that interesting, in which there are a lot of trivial incidents and in which we are told more about Rousseau's marginal acquaintances than perhaps we want to know. True, there emerges a good picture of the aristocratic segments of society which took Rousseau up and in which he moved with an understandable touchiness about his own status; and we also learn, for example, that Rousseau's behaviour in placing his five children to a Foundling's Hospital as soon as they were born (not left on the doorstep, a story later spread maliciously by Voltaire) was not as unusual in those days as one might think: more than a quarter of all newborn babies in Paris were abandoned in this way. Most of them were illegitimate, as Rousseau's were, and some of them, like Rousseau's later friend d'Alembert, were the illegitimate children of aristocrats.
   
   To me the book became really interesting when Rousseau made his break-through into real originality, and from that point onwards it gains immensely in power. Damrosch's analysis of Rousseau's writings is excellent. It does several things: it explains the ideas clearly and succinctly; it shows their originality at the time and the way they have influenced later thought, and it invariably links the ideas up with Rousseau's psychology. In this respect Damrosch goes against some literary theorists who insist that one should read texts as if one knew nothing about the lives of their authors; but many of Rousseau's books deliberately reflect his personal experiences in such a thinly disguised form that such arid theories are even more than usually inappropriate. Outstanding, I think, is the analysis, near the end of the book, of the Confessions, and I was particularly taken with his comparisons between Rousseau's autobiography and the autobiographical writings of his contemporaries, Voltaire, Diderot, Hume, Gibbon, and Benjamin Franklin. (Damrosch is an American professor, and he comments: "Contemporary American culture talks the Rousseau line but lives the Franklin life").
   
   Damrosch's account of Rousseau's emotional, prickly and suffering personality amply bears out David Hume's famous judgment: "He has only felt, during the whole course of his life; and in this respect his sensibility rises to a pitch beyond what I have seen any example of, but it still gives him a more acute feeling of pain than of pleasure. He is like a man who were stript not only of his clothes but of his skin, and turned out in that situation to combat with the rude and boisterous elements, such as perpetually disturb this lower world."
   
   The book is attractively illustrated with contemporary engravings and portraits and with photographs of places where Rousseau lived.



2. I had previously read a good deal about Rousseau in general histories of the Enlightenment, and inspired by Prof. Damrosch's course for the Teaching Company, I had re-read a few of Rousseau's own works, but I was still intrigued and puzzled by his place in history and by his personality. Prof. Damrosch's book is so comprensive, insightful, and readable that my questions have now been answered to my complete satisfaction. In addition, Prof. Damrosch encourages and enables readers to compare themselves to Rousseau in terms of the unique individuality that we all share. I think that I now understand my own similarities and differences to Rousseau better than I did before. But I am not only a fellow human being but a participant in the history and culture of the modern world, which has been more profoundly affected by Rousseau than most of us realize.



3. This fascinating biography gives a concise and briskly moving snapshot of one the key figures of our contested modernity, indeed, and ironically, of the Enlightenment tradition. Before Hegel mechanically codified dialectic Rousseau lived it in his embrace and intuitive grasp of contradictions that form the unity of life. Perhaps this is the reason he is often misunderstood and why a work such as The Social Contract provokes in turn its own dialectical audience. At a time when a technocractic rendition of the Enlightenment reigns as scientism Rousseau's critique, at the fount of the Romantic movement, still speaks to us. And Rousseau first grasps what Kant will make explicit in his 'critique of pure reason': the place of freedom in the mechanical Newtonian triumph, finally a triumph over man. All in all Rousseau is simply a human puzzle and this cascade through the strange incidents is superb reading.



4. This fine biography traces one of those lives that would not be credible if it were fiction. After his mother died and his father abandoned him, Rousseau wandered from place to place without receiving any formal education. He failed at just about every job he attempted. Through a course of self study, however, his genuis slowly fermented, and then, in a mind bogling 5 year period around the age of 40, produced The Social Contract plus two of the most popular and influential novels of the 17th century, Emile and Julie.
   
   The story of his life, as told by Damrosch, serves the purpose of explaining where his philosophy came from. In Damrosch's view, Rousseau's outsider status and his ability to learn on his own provided the prespective from which he could see through the assumptions of his day and emerge with a unique view of life. Damrosch does a superb job of weaving between Rousseau's life, his personality and his philosophy.
   
   My only slight criticism is that the substance of The Social Contract, the book for which he's best known today, fills just a few pages. I would have preferred more on that. Damrosch, a professor of literature, seems more at home analyzing the two novels and the later autobiography, Confessions, which he considers the first modern autobiography in which a person tries to look at his childhood and inner life to see how he became the person he became. Damrosch does a first rate job examining all aspects of Rousseau's thought as revealed in the novels and the autobiography.
   
   In short, an extremely well written biography of a both intriguing and important man.



5. Until Damros published this 2005 National Book Award finalist, there has not been a good single-volume biography of Rousseau in the English language. This is because Rousseau's own auto-biography, "Confessions" (1782), is so well done and the number of sources for Rousseau's first 40 years are otherwise so weak, that writing a new biography is mostly a retelling of what Rousseau has already said. The strength of Damros' biography is to summarize Rousseau's life, his evolving thinking and his major works, including historical significance and context, while weaving in some of the best scholarship available after two centuries of reflection.
   
   His personality can best be describe as immature and "sharp at the edges". He either loved a person with all his heart, or hated them as his worst enemy. Usually, it started with the former and ended with the later, fueled by his paranoia and over-active imagination. These are traits one normally sees in a child, a black and white world view of love and hate unable to deal with the ambiguities of human weaknesses - which makes sense given Rousseau's brilliant genius combined with his abusive child-hood; lacking a mother he needed to trust someone, but at the same time could trust no one because of his abusive past. This fueled his desire for self-sufficiency and subsequent rejection of dependent relationships - thus he was naturally conflicted in an 18th C French society which was based on hierarchies of dependencies, where everyone was either the master of someone, or mastered by someone (and usually both)--Rousseau found a way to both live and preach an isolated life of self-sufficiency and inward reflection, hallmarks of the modern man. The master of no one, mastered by no one, and completely isolated from everyone. All of this is directly reflected in his works and ideas, so it is possible to fully understand Rousseau's works by understanding Rousseau the person - this biography paints the full portrait and answers many questions.

No comments about Memoirs: Hans Jonas (Tauber Institute for the Study of European Jewry Series).

5 comments about Views from the Real World: Early Talks Moscow Essentuki Tiflis Berlin London Paris NY Chicago as Recollecte (Arkana).

1. There is no doubt that "In Search of the Miraculous" by Ouspensky is presenting Gurdjieff's ideas very much like they were delivered mainly in Russia in 1915-1918. However, the talks in "Views from the Real World" have for me even a more authentic tone, although the presentation is not systematic.

   Many of the talks in the "Views" are delivered in du Prieuré, Paris or New York in 1922-1924 and only one after his accident in 1924 (1930 in New York). The book has also over 30 pages of the article called "Glimpses of Truth" that Ouspensky was listening to when he was first introduced to Gurdjieff and the aphorisms that decorated the Study House in du Prieuré.

   A sample of what I mean by 'even a more authentic tone' is the way Gurdjieff explains in a talk called "Now I am sitting here..." the process of self-remembering, the technique used to access the state of consciousness, which he defines as 'self-consciousness', in which we are more awake than in our normal 'waking state'.

   He explains first how we can differenciate between sensations and feelings giving examples of sensations of the body, like warmth, posture and eating and the feelings resulting from memory of his mother and other similar feelings.

   On p. 239 he says:

   "For primary exercises in self-remembering the participation of all three centers is necessary, and we began to speak of the difference between feelings and sensations because it is necessary to have simultaneously both feeling and sensation.

   We can come to this exercise only with the participation of thought. The first thing is thought.... At the beginning all three need to be evoked aritificially.... I repeat: artificial things are necessary only in the beginning."




2. This book is a transliteration of G. speaking to an audience and answering their various questions. Moving, succinct, and of course, different from his other books.



3. Essential Reading for those interested in Gurdjieff as he actually is, rather than through Ouspensky's or Maurice Nichol's
   eyes; most of Gurdjieff's oeuvre would be largely incomprensible to a new reader- Beelzebubs Tales, The Herald of Coming Good, Life is Real only then, when I am- whereas this book is clear and presents
   G's extraordinarily different viewpoint on Man and Reality in a direct Q & A format



4. This book is an authentic collection of talks given by Gurdjieff. Being an unorganized collection on a number of different subjects, it should be read after "In Search of the Miraculous" by Ouspensky. Together, the two books give much insight into the real teachings of Gurdjieff and how his method should be practiced. These authentic accounts are all the more important now that there are many purported Forth Way groups that significantly deviate from what the Forth Way really is.
   
   Some talks in this book also serve as a good source of shocks. They remind us of how mechanical we are, how difficult to wake up and how easy it is to fall back to sleep again while dreaming that we are awake. They should be read every once in a while for that purpose.
   
   In short, an excellent reading for any Forth Way student.



5. "Views from the Real World" is a collection of early talks produced by G.I. Gurdjieff himself during the early 1920s. Since this book is not organized in a right order but composed of different subjects, it is nevertheless one of the gems and most insightful read.
   
   This book is little over 280 pages, and consisted of roughly 40 subjects. I personally felt these talks were essential and well worth reading and be put into practice. This inspiring book, along with In Search of the Miraculous: Fragments of an Unknown Teaching, is well worth read and re-read. When reading this book with one perspective, you will find re-reading it with new perspective and discover a new shock of insight.
   
   Highly recommended.

2 comments about Reverence for Life: The Ethics of Albert Schweitzer for the Twenty-First Century.

1. Collaboratively and expertly edited by Marvin Meyer (Griset Professor of Bible and Christian Studies, Chapman University, Orange, California) and Kurt Bergel (Professor Emeritus, Chapman University and founder/co-director of the Chapman University Albert Schweitzer Institute), Reverence for Life: The Ethics Of Albert Schweitzer For The Twenty-First Century is an inherently impressive selection of profound essays by humanitarian Albert Schweitzer, enhanced with an eclectic variety of soul-searching commentaries on his thoughts and recommendations. Among Schweitzer's presented and scrutinized works are sermons, letters, as well as tidbits of his personal autobiography and deep philosophy. Reverence For Life is highly recommended as life-affirming, fundamental and thoughtfully constructed reading.



2. If you've read Dr. Schweitzer's "Reverence for Life", you should enjoy this compilation of letters and papers regarding and reinforcding Schweitzer's ethic. The included writings are authored by everyone from Graduate students to correspondents and Albert Schweitzer himself. Very enjoyable reading.

5 comments about The Autobiography of Bertrand Russell.

1. Considering that Russell lived such a long life, and an eventful one, and that this book (a compilation of three volumes) covers most of it, it's a long one. But eminently worth it.

   As always, Russell's style is brilliant. Simple yet deep, elegant and unadorned, always fresh and looking at things objectively yet with deep feeling.

   The book is always informative, engaging, and frequently hilarious.

   One of the nicer things about the book is the inclusion of some letters from others. Usually these are luminaries. The one from Will Durant, together with Russell's curt rejoinder, is marvelous.

   Russell has the knack of taking what could become boastful incidents--his imprisonment for objecting to WWI, his hair-breadth escape when his plane went down near Norway in WWII--and turning them into humorous, self-effacing ones.

   He also has the knack of talking about horrendous personal difficulties in a way that is objective and nonjudgmental.




2. For most reviewers Bertrand Russell's cruelty in a number of his personal relationships, especially with women is a minor motif of a very extraordinary life. I understand that point -of- view. There is so so much in Russell's life and thought that inspires admiration. He is by all accounts a great philosopher. He was a truly masterful writer, and his 'History of Western Philosophy'did the seeming impossible and made reading about the subject interesting and entertaining. Russell was a maverick and went his own way in the world of political thought. He may have been a fool when it came to Communism but he surely was right to see the dangers of a nuclear world, and courageous to fight against them. His zest for life, his ability to appreciate and enjoy so many things in life is certainly an admirable quality. He wrote with vigor and clarity and often great wit and humor. He could recognize the value of others, as for instance in his championing of Wittgenstein. He did seem deeply disturbed by human suffering and care deeply to somehow lessen it. Yet the personal cruelty stands strongly against him, and he would seem to join a long list including Marx and Gandhi of ' cruel humanitarians' . His atheism too disturbs me because he shows so little emotional understanding of the needs of religious believers. Russell was very thin and that thinness seems to me to somehow capture something of his essence, also his prose. He lacks a certain complexity, a certain kind of depth that comes in going deeper inside the heart and soul. He was a very great thinker, and writer but I do not believe that as a human being he had the highest kind of feeling and understanding for others. Perhaps one of the greatest 'flat characters'of the twentieth century, a century which also had a few 'rounded ones' of greater human complexity and intensity.



3. +++++
   
   "Three passions, simple but overwhelmingly strong, have governed my life: the longing for love, the search for knowledge, and unbearable pity for the suffering of mankind...Love and knowledge, so far as they were possible, led upward toward the heavens. But always pity brought me back to earth."
   
   This is how philosopher Bertrand Russell's (1872 to 1970) autobiography begins. This book (first published in three separate volumes) is brilliantly and simply written, emotionally charged, witty and wise, honest, and historically interesting. It spans almost a century of social and intellectual change. I would say that it is one of the great autobiographies in the English language from a man who was a towering intellectual and humanitarian figure of the twentieth century. As well, this book confirms why Russell, who authored more than seventy-five books, won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1950.
   
   His prize according to the official Nobel Prize internet site was awarded "in recognition of his varied and significant writings in which he champions humanitarian ideals and freedom of thought."
   
   Throughout his book, Russell describes his philosophical disputes and quarrels, his rise to honors, his many friendships with high profile people, and his religious and social self-questioning. He was a maverick that stuck to his convictions even if they got him into trouble (he was jailed at age 46 and again at 88). He never failed to stand up and be counted on any matter that stirred his conscience and ideals.
   
   A highlight of this book is that it includes the actual letters between Lord or Earl Russell and a long list of influential people of his time (many whose names are easily recognized today) at the end of each chapter. As well, illustrations (mainly in the form of black and white photographs) are found throughout.
   
   Even though this autobiography is to me brutally honest (for example, "I used to...watch the sunset and contemplate suicide. I did not...commit suicide because I wished to know more of mathematics"), I felt that Russell was holding back on revealing certain aspects of his life.
   
   Finally, the last words in Russell's autobiography are found in the postscript:
   
   "I have lived in the pursuit of vision, both personal and social. Personal: to care for what is noble, for what is beautiful, and for what is gentle; to allow moments of insight to give wisdom at more mundane times. Social: to see in imagination the society that is to be created, where individuals grow freely, and where hate and greed and envy die because there is nothing to nourish them. These things I believe."
   
   In conclusion, be sure to read this autobiography and learn more about this extraordinary and unique man!!
   
   (first published 1967-1969; acknowledgements; introduction; 17 chapters; postscript; main narrative of 730 pages; index)
   
   +++++



4. I am a big fan of Bertrand Russell but this book has been difficult for me. It is very long and very wordy. It contains lots and lots of the details of Russell's personal life - a lot of letters from everybody. I've had the book for a few years now and I am still reading it. As they say, autobiographies are never objective. I love to talk about myself too but wow! I enjoyed Mark Twain's and Clarence Darrow's autobiographies a heck of a lot more. I paid good money for this book and I intend to finish it - one day.
   Unless you are especially intrigued by autobiographies or Mr. Russell, I would say that Bertrand has many other books that you might enjoy more.



5. Caveat emptor: whilst this is a magnificent autobiography published in one quality volume by Routledge, any potential buyers should be aware of the very small type setting of this book. I am 31 years with 20/20 eyesight and I find it immensely difficult to read. Try this out: take a word document and change it to 10pt. Times New Roman font, single spaced, and imagine it on bright white copy, 3" wide paragraphs. I've repeatedly tried to read this book, but the effect is so hypnotic on the page such that I cannot. The font is reminiscent of (but worse than) those cheap paperback classics read in school, by Signet or some such version.
   Since I do actually want to read this book, I am now in search of a readable copy. What does it matter to have it in one or two or six volumes, as long as I can appreciate the words? I am deprived of the pleasure of regarding the words on the page. I hope this helps someone make a decision.

5 comments about Niccolo's Smile: A Biography of Machiavelli.

1. This is a concise and lively account of Machiavelli's life. It provides the general reader with much needed context and background in order to read Machiavelli's works with any kind of understanding. While there are good scholarly works that can provide the feeling of more intellectual heft, this book should not be underestimated simply because it is easy to read and doesn't require weeks to read.

   Machiavelli is one of those brand-name characters that evoke certain reactions in people in such a generalized way that people mistakenly believe they know something about the man and his work. This book can help debunk much of that received nonsense. It is surprising how "modern" a man he was considering he lived nearly 500 years ago.

   The author has admiration for Machiavelli's skills as an analyst and as a diplomat, has sympathy for his personal suffering and disappointments, and forgiving in his attitude towards Machiavelli's human failings (the author might not even agree they were failings - they were just human). And that is the book's greatest contribution; it shows its subject as a human being rather than a caricature or a statue.

   In any case, I found this to be a very valuable and entertaining book. I recommend it highly. You can draw your own conclusions about the subject and they author's conclusions. But you will have gained a lot in the process of coming to those (now better informed) conclusions.

   There are a few helpful maps throughout the book and a suggested reading list at the end. The translation is terrific.




2. This biography presents the full Machiavelli, not just the cynical philosopher of politics. The reader discovers many other facets of his sometimes lusty, sometimes ironic, sometimes mischevious personality. The book places Machiavelli in the context of local events current to his time. We can see how he was influenced by, and tried to influence, the politics of his day. Above all, this book conveys Machiavelli as a writer, more effective in offering advice than he was at managing events. Viroli's brief essays at the beginnings of some of his chapters are elegant works in themselves. A plan of Renaissance Florence would have been a useful addition.



3. Maurizio Viroli does a masterful job of bringing the teachings of the world's first modern philosopher, Niccolo Machiavelli, to light. Machiavelli has gained an unwarranted notorious reputation for his "evil" treatise on political thinking and acting through his authorship of "The Prince". "The Prince" received more notoriety than his politically erudite work "Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy" in which Machiavelli espouses his belief that the Roman Republic was the best and most virtuous form of government to emulate. His breadth and understanding of Roman history is remarkable. Viroli throughout his book emphasizes Machiavelli's love of his country Florence, and the proud political work as a minor government administrator and ambassador Machiavelli performed during its years as a republic. It was on his many ambassadorial trips to the French, Papal, and Italian courts that he learned to observe political leaders and their governmental institutions which formed the basis of his political theories in his many writings. My favorite quote from the book is from a letter Machiavelli writes to a friend; "It's better to act and repent then not to act and regret".
   
   Modern philosophers starting with Machiavelli reject the classical view of politics as undemocratic and elitist. Only wealthy men of leisure would have time to develop the virtues and character necessary to rule. Machiavelli believed that man by nature was selfish and driven by ambition. Machiavelli is not interested in character formation and moral appeal but in building the right kind of institutions to govern society. Laws and justice would protect men from power hungry rulers. Modern philosophy is an out growth of the revolution that takes place in the natural sciences during the Enlightenment. The purpose of science is the conquest of nature man is in control of human life. Philosophers from Machiavelli on become sectarian. "Everything good is due to man's labor rather than to nature's gift." This book is not all politics and philosophy. Viroli gives us a good insight into the life and times of Niccolo Machiavelli with a good study into his character, passions, and psyche.
   
   As a retired Army officer and student of political philosophy, I found this to be a great book to continue one's journey into political philosophy and history of Europe.



4. Every now and then you read a book that brings its subject to life. Having studied Machiavelli from his writings, it helps to now know of his charms. This book contributed to my understanding of his works but more importantly to the background and history of his conversations. A good, quick read... Recommended.



5. Niccolo's Smile is, undoubtedly, a masterpiece in accessibility, ease of prose, and historical flow. Viroli has written a book that is both deeply human and unabashedly humane, as well as enjoyable, both for the Machiavelli fan and the newcomer.
   
   I cannot, however, understand or even detect where all the kudos and admiration for the translation come from: the book was evidently written in Italian, and the translation is so literal, so unedited, and so evident, that it is sometimes difficult to read through entire paragraphs without picking up a pencil and correcting the evident mistakes.
   
   Perhaps it is due to my Romance-languages background (Spanish is my native language), but I didn't find anything commendable about the translation, whereas the biography itself, on the other hand, is indeed a true masterpiece. (And this from a fan who's read through 12 other Machiavelli biographies, including De Grazia's intriguing Machiavelli in Hell, also available from Amazon).
   
   In short: buy it, enjoy it, and if you find yourself re-reading certain portions in search of a more coherent meaning, don't blame yourself: it's the translation.

5 comments about Nietzsche: A Philosophical Biography.

1. The only thing that makes this book unique is that it organizes Nietzsche's ideas chronologically, according to their development. If not for that, there's nothing that makes this book any better than the hundreds of other books about Nietzsche.



2. My copy is actually orange.. but what's beneath the cover is most important.
   
   This book is written by the #1 Nietzsche expert of our time. It flows well and squishes the important ideas into a picture that normal people can understand as one whole.



3. Nietzsche unfolded an entire existential drama. The will to power is first power over oneself. Cheerfulness was achieved through ecstasy and composure. Nietzsche's writings were a major force in the development of various intellectual currents of the twentieth century. He was a laboratory of thinking.
   
   Hearing Wagner's music in 1868, Nietzsche experienced rapture. He sought to capture music in his writings. Nietzsche placed Wagnerian music and musical improvisation at the pinnacle of pleasure. Friedrich Nietzsche considered himself divided. The early death of his father left him solitary. Between the ages of nine and fifteen he tried to acquire universal knowledge. He was a student of classical philology at Bonn. Reading Schopenhauer between 1866 and 1868 produced in him a sort of conversion. He read Lange and learned of Kant's critique of knowledge. He retained Schopenhauer's sense of the inner nature of the world and the possibility of transcendent knowledge.
   
   Self-configuration through language became a passion for Nietzsche. He considered philosophy a linguistic work of art. Encountering Wagner, THE BIRTH OF TRAGEDY emerged. The philological establishment was provoked by the assertion of Nietzsche that there had been a decomposition of tragedy through intellectualism. Nietzsche's highest goal was the flourishing of culture. Nietzsche uses Dionysian for reality and also for barbarism, pre-civilized, and violence. He believed Wagner's music was a means of reviving intellectual life in a Germany damaged by materialism and historicism and the founding of the German empire in 1871. Eventually the inner revolution of his thinking transcended Wagner.
   
   Myth is a concentrated image and it yields social and cultural context. For Wagner myth had religious overtones. Nietzsche's take on myth was aesthetic. The aesthetic moment is a sort of atom of happiness. An 1876 visit to Bayreuth left Nietzsche feeling disappointed. He thought historicism might be compensating for a lack of vitality. Hegel had enobled history in philosophical terms. In THE BIRTH OF TRAGEDY Socratic knowledge was a panacea. Nietzsche criticized Socrates as sentimental. He lacked the coldness of a Democritus, of a Hume.
   
   Nietzsche was interested in an implicit system to connect his ideas. He feared the aphoristic form might be an admission of failure. The compassionate disposition possessed by Nietzsche caused him to suffer. In HUMAN ALL TOO HUMAN Nietzsche wanted to liberate himself from thinking of first and last things. Between 1877 and 1880 Nietzsche's health was precarious. He linked physical suffering with mental triumph. To triumph over the body, an idea had to have linguistic form of great beauty and pithiness.
   
   Thinking was an act of emotional intensity. Nietzsche had a theater of ideas. His works are an experiment to obtain power over oneself. His philosophical thinking moved to a means of self-reflection. DAYBREAK contains phenomenological research. He wondered how we really feel when we think. ZARATHUSTRA dealt with the doctrine of recurrence.
   
   In 1881 Nietzsche wrote that pain was vanquishing his life and his will. He spent a bright winter in Genoa. THE GAY SCIENCE was written in 1882. He felt writing dealt with the long logic of a philosophical personality. The logic was difficult to discern because Nietzsche was circuitous. He met Lou Andreas-Salome in 1882. He proposed marriage and she said no. He was in competition for her with his friend, Paul Ree. Salome sensed Nietzsche's alien uncanny quality. She did not feel love for him. He had felt that she understood him completely. Although tortured by his own fantasies, he moved forward to complete the writing of ZARATHUSTRA. The metaphoric style hints at biologic contents. ON THE GENEOLOGY OF MORALS was written a year and a half before his breakdown in Turin.



4. The book appears to be targeted exclusively to the most serious student of Nietzsche such that subject matter is condense to the level of an essay. Definitely not for the layperson in search of an overview but more a book of snippets and fragmention which fails to offer any outstanding impressions.
   And the translation seems to be an exercise in," how to include as many obscure word from the English language as is possible".
   Definitely a smell of elitism.



5. Safranski has made a name for himself in Germany as biographer of Schiller, Hoffmann, Schopenhauer, Heidegger, and with a recent bestseller about the German Romantic School, which comprised poetry, painting, and music. But his main triumph and commercial success was this book about Nietzsche.
   Oddly, it is not a biography, nor an introduction into FN's thinking, but a 'biography of his thinking', a concept which is inadequately translated in the English subtitle: I do not think that this book can be called a 'philosophical biography'. What is that anyway?
   It is a very readable book, unless you know zero about the man. In that case, better go elsewhere first. It is well worth reading if you are fairly familiar with the idea map of ancestors and successors and the main writings. It helps establish mental links and puts you on firmer ground.
   FN was one of the most influential writers in the decades around 1900, the year of his death. By that time he had been in 'mental care' for 11 years. Some said of him, he had delved into the mysteries of life so deeply that he went mad. His philosophy has been called a philosophy of life in opposition to materialism and historicism and other -isms. His Zarathustra was one of the 3 most carried books by German soldiers in WW1, says Safranski. The other two were Goethe's Faust and the New Testament. But I wish I knew how this statistic was obtained. Part of the Nietzsche myth?
   His ancestors, the triad of 'educators' if you wish, were the poet Hoelderlin, who shared the fate of ending his life in a lengthy asylum phase, having 'gone mad' as well, who provided the background of craving for mythology; then Schopenhauer, whose 'Will and Representation' became FN's philosophical backbone and became transformed into the concepts of Dionysos and Apollo; and finally Wagner, the composer in search of the German myth.
   When he became unable to handle his life, his evil sister took care of him and established his reputation as a German national chauvinist, a militarist, and a racist. The Nazis actually knew better, one of theirs wrote somewhere, says Safranski: apart from the fact that he was anti nationalist, anti socialist, and anti racist, he might be useful for Nazi propaganda.
   Personally I like to see FN as a poet and an aphorist; his philosophy does not seem to add up to a system, so better take your bits and pieces as you like them.
   I give only four stars, because I think the concept of the book has limited value. I would prefer a more stringent focus on either life or philosophy. As it is, the text somewhat vacilates. It can't make up its mind. Like its subject.

2 comments about The Soul of a Lion: The Life of Dietrich Von Hildebrand.

1. "The Soul of a Lion" is a very moving account of the life of Dietrich von Hildebrand, one of the most important Catholic theologians of the 20th century. Since it was written by his lovely wife, Alice, she does not pretend to be an unbiased observer. However, while she clearly writes from a heart filled with deep love and affection, she also recounts his mistakes and character faults without attempting to whitewash them.

   Some of the highlights of the book include the sections detailing his very cultured, very European uprbringing; his conversion to Catholicism; and his courageous, outspoken opposition to Nazism, resulting in his dangerous escape to America with his family.

   My one disappointment with the book is the ending-- Alice von Hildebrand ends her account with his arrival in the United States. This necessarily leaves untold the story of how the first Mrs. von Hildebrand (Gretchen) died, and how Alice had the great good fortune of meeting and eventually marrying Dietrich. Surely this is another moving tale which deserves to be told! Perhaps, someday, a continuation??




2. This incredible, 2000 book features a forward by Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, who subsequently changed jobs!!!
   
   Dietrich Von Hildebrand was anything but a dull, boring academic. As described by his widow, his life was filled with sanctity, romance, heroism, and intrigue. An outspoken opponent of Hitler, he became targeted for assassination. Hunted throughout Europe, he arrived in New York City in 1940, where he taught at Jesuit-run Fordham University until 1960.
   
   Even after retirement, Von Hildebrand maintained ties to Fordham through his protege, the late Dr. William Marra - my own teacher! I am deeply disappointed that I never took the opportunity to hear one of Von Hildebrand's presentations.

5 comments about Bill W.: A Biography of Alcoholics Anonymous Cofounder Bill Wilson.

1. Of late, I have been doing a lot of research work and writing on the differences in religious views, religious background, and religious influences on A.A. co-founders Bill Wilson and Dr. Bob Smith. In that connection, I have found myself turning more and more to Francis Hartigan's account and quoting portions of it in various contexts. The Bill Wilson story itself has been hacked around in so many ways, many of them inaccurate, that I look for the tidbits that show the author's real familiarity and lack thereof with the subject at hand. In Hartigan's case, I found his recital of the "spiritual experience" by Bill's grandfather, Hartigan's details on Lois Wilson, and Hartigan's accurate observations on Bill's decision for Christ at the Calvary Rescue Mission to be most refreshing and quotable. Among the plethora of recent books on Bill's life, I believe this Hartigan biography and the Bill W. Autobiography from the "Bedford Papers" as reported by Hazelden to be two important resources for learning A.A.'s historical, spiritual background. Dick B.



2. This is an amazing bio of Bill W.
   
   I've read pass it on and afew other AA related books, nothing has held my interest with such awe as this wonderful book.
   
   This book gives you a better understanding of Bill. Everyone has there own opinion.



3. The author went to work for Bill W's widow. Eventually this book resulted, after both were dead.
   
   The book provides a much needed perspective. It is clear on Bill's early atheism (which he called agnosticism) and helps focus how AA is a spiritual program and not a religious one and wny.
   
   Over and over again it explains the forces that were being reacted against. If you've listened to Bill and Charlie (they are available for free on the internet as mp3 downloads for ipods and similar products -- or your computer), this fills in the gaps.
   
   For example, everyone knows about Bill as a womanizer in his later years. What people do not know is that about the time he turned forty, his wife decided that she was done with sex. She was older than he was, went through menopause and retired from sex. No wonder that has he got into his fifties he started thinking of her more as a mother figure and less as a wife figure.
   
   In a modern hospital, such as where my wife works, everyone knows about "banana bags" (IVs that are yellow from the b-vitamins, especially niacin, used routinely on alcoholics who have serious problems because of bad diet) -- but I never knew that started with niacin for alcoholics.
   
   Or the rumors of financial misuse -- at complete odds with poverty and the audits -- now I know how they started and how they kept going.
   
   I'm not an alcoholic (well, I've never had a drink, so I'm at least a very dry alcoholic), though I've sent a number of clients to 12 step programs, until recently I did not have the slightest idea what they were about.
   
   With this I understand what makes AA different from every other program out there, why it found that balance and how it was shaped and touched by the personality of its founder.
   
   The book is an easy read, and gripping. I finished it over a weekend, along with other projects and preparing and teaching a Sunday School lesson.
   
   It was interesting, complex, consistent and had a basic appreciation and fondness for the subject.
   
   I'm not sure how it plays inside AA, but from the outside I find myself admiring Bill W and AA a great deal from having read this book. Heck, I even got started on the "Big Book" (I've read about half of it so far).
   
   If you've gotten to this page where the book is advertised, it is probably worth your while to buy it. I got my copy at half price books for six dollars. They had a bundle of them. Used copies in excellent to new condition abound.
   
   Buy it, read it, think about it. Well worth the read.



4. I've been a "friend" of Bill and Dr. Bob since Christmas 1990, and have read a lot of material, both "conference approved" and other, and this book is probably the best biography of Bill W. that I've come across. I have to disagree with the reviewers who gave this work a low rating... I do not see this biography as a "hatchet job" or any sort of attempt to demean or diminish the memory of Bill Wilson.
   
   Bill was not saint, and he never really sought sainthood. If some hold him to saintly standards or infallible behavior, those depictions were\are pressed on him.
   
   Hartigan successfully describes Bill's childhood, young adulthood, service years, marriage and the early years of AA's struggles in great detail. Until I read this book, I knew from other readings that Bill had many faults, but I did not fully appreciate the depth of his alcoholic behavior, and its effect on both Bill and Lois. I also did not appreciate the severity Bill's lifelong struggle with deep depression.
   
   This biography also does a good job putting context and details to Bill's lesser known "adventures" which folks hostile to AA use to discredit Bill and the AA program.
   
   Bill experimented with LSD, starting in the 50's and into the 60's... starting when the drug was legal and being investigated for psychotherapeutic potential to help alcoholics and schizophrenics.
   
   Bill actively promoted niacin for alcoholics, dragging the AA name into this promotion, but it was out of enthusiasm and hope to help the still suffering alcoholic. He was called to task for this, and the AA name removed from such endorsements.
   
   Bill was unfaithful to Lois and maintained long term relationships outside his marriage. This biography, written by the personal secretary to Lois at the end of her long life, makes no excuses for this behavior, but does add context.
   
   I came away with greater appreciation of Bill Wilson, the man, who overcame many serious problems to help create an organization that has helped many thousands of people live better lives.



5. Marital difficulties
   Wilson was serially unfaithful to his wife Lois. Wilson 's affairs with women caused controversy and concern within AA and it was common knowledge in New York AA circles. His interest in younger women increased with his age, and caused Barry Leach and other friends of Wilson to form a "Founders Watch". People were assigned to keep an eye on Wilson during the socializing that followed AA functions and to separate and steer away those young women who caught Wilson's interest. Wilson, like many in his generation, could be sexist, but he was also "capable of treating the women who worked with him with dignity and respect". In the mid 1950s he began an affair with Helen Wyn, a woman 22 years his junior, "in duration, intensity and scope" this was different from his other affairs. Wilson at one point discussed divorcing Lois to marry Helen. Wilson with determined perseverance was able to overcome the AA trustees objections, and renegotiated his royalty agreements with them in 1963, which allowed him to include Helen Wynn in his estate. He left 10% of his book royalties to Helen and the other 90% to his wife Lois. In 1968 with Wilson's illness making it harder for them to spend time together, Helen bought a house in Ireland.
   
   Alternative cures and spiritualism
   In the 1950s Wilson experimented with LSD in medically supervised experiments with Gerard Heard and Aldous Huxley. With Wilson's invitation his wife Lois, Father Dowling, and Nell Wing also participated in experimentation of this drug. Later Wilson wrote to Carl Jung, praising the results and recommending it as validation of Jung's spiritual experience. (The letter was not in fact sent as Jung had died.)
   
   At a parapsychology meeting in the 1960s, Wilson met Abram Hoffer and learned about the potential mood-stabilizing effects of niacin. Wilson was impressed with experiments indicating that alcoholics who were given niacin had a better sobriety rate, and he began to see niacin "as completing the third leg in the stool, the physical to complement the spiritual and emotional." Wilson also believed that niacin had given him relief from depression, and he promoted the vitamin within the AA community and with the National Institute of Mental Health as a treatment for schizophrenia. However, Wilson created a major furor in AA because he used the AA office and letterhead in his promotion.
   
   For Wilson, spiritualism (communicating with the spirits of the dead) was a life-long interest. One of his letters to his spiritual adviser Father Ed Dowling suggests that while Wilson was working on his book Twelve Steps and Twelve Traditions he felt that spirits were helping him, in particular a 15th century monk named Boniface.[18] Wilson believed that the living could communicate with the dead and kept a "Spook Room" in his basement, where he along and others would conduct seances with a Ouijiboard, as well as experiment with automatic writing. Despite his conviction that he had evidence for the reality of the spiritual world, Wilson chose not to share this with AA.