[Audiobook] Great Ideas of Philosophy (Daniel N. Robinson)

[madali]

Great Ideas of Philosophy (Daniel N. Robinson)

This was hard to complete. Divided into 60 chapters, with each being almost 30 minutes, that is 30 hours of listening to the same guy talk about Philosophy. Obviously, I would listen to it only in the car. I’m certainly not going to listen to 30 hours of this when I could do other things. And in the car, it is music, the news, or masturbation, and while all those are good, sometimes you need something else to pass the time.

The lectures are prepared and spoken by Daniel N. Robinson, and he starts off from early Greek philosophy up until modern philosophy, and closes off with ten chapters about philosophy on different subjects, such as justice, law, and so on.

I think my biggest issues with these lectures are that I was not impressed by Robinson. He calls it “The Great Ideas of Philosophy”, but it should have been called “The Great Ideas of Western Philosophy”, because he does not devote any chapters to philosophical thought that did not originate from Europe or America. It is not like it was because of lack of time, since he does devote chapters to people who are not necessarily philosophers (such as Newton). It is also not like he meant it as Western Philosophers anyway, because he does devote an early chapter about what was so unique about Greek culture to give birth to original thought and philosophical discourse, where he answers his own question, by basically and indirectly calling everyone non-Greek morons. Oh, there is ONE chapter entitled “Islam”, but he uses those 30 minutes to talk about how much the Islamic thinkers were basically using Greek philosophers with just a slight twist.

His summary into the philosophers was not usually that captivating. I want to listen to something like this and have it sparkle an interest in me, and make me want to learn more about the subjects, but it usually doesn’t. I think the only two people whose work I want to now read is Hobbes and, as cliché as this may sound, Nietzsche. Everyone else seems like a bore. Haha, oh my God, like Kant. If the lectures are anything to go by, Kant seems like such atrocious boring read.

I like philosophy, but not as an end to anything, but as a mental exercise, and as a support to other forms of thought. Philosophy in itself is useless and a waste, but it is essential to help practice our minds, and I think helps us to approach day to day problems and issues in a new way. While I learned a thing or two about philosophy, I do not think this audiobook was a good mental exercise.

2/5

[fizz]

If you just like to listen to semi intellectual stuff while driving - i.e. people talking on and on about stuff that is of no direct relevance to you but which you find curiously interesting, go to the University of Berkley website and download their class room lectures. A little academic, but I think you might find them interesting as background chatter while driving, especially their classes on psychology.

[madali]

I'm thinking of not going the lecture root. This one was a lecture, and I found that it was a bit tiresome. I think audios based on actual books MIGHT be better