Product Description

A tour of Western thought by one of the world's most eminent philosophers--in a book that fits in the palm of your hand.

Can nature make us happy? How can we know anything? What is justice? Why is there evil in the world? What is the source of truth? Is it possible for God not to exist? Can we really believe what we see?

There are questions that have intrigued the world's great thinkers over the ages, which still touch a chord in all of us today. They are questions that can teach us about the way we live, work, relate to each other and see the world. Here Leszek Kolakowski explores the essence of these ideas, introducing figures from Socrates to Thomas Aquinas, Descartes to Nietzsche, and concentrating on one single important philosophical question from each of them.

Whether reflecting on good and evil, truth and beauty, faith and the soul, or free will and consciousness, Leszek Kolakowski shows that these timeless ideas remain at the very core of our existence.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #87850 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 240 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780465004997
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
• Click here to view our Condition Guide and Shipping Prices

Review
"New York Review of Books"
"A slight and deceptively modest volume, "Why Is There Something Rather Than Nothing?" is more than a short guide to the history of philosophy.... Written with a graceful simplicity that belies its profundity, this is a book that reconnects philosophy with perennial questions.... Kolakowski's work is exemplary and indispensable."

"Atlantic"
"A discrete, dialectical wonder, a high-brow, low-key little volume that's strangely synchronous: backward-looking, forward-thinking, and--best of all--wholly free of both condescension and commonplaceness."

Richard Neuhaus, "First Things"
"Each little essay is a masterpiece of exquisitely refined intellectual summary and judgment. One may not always agree, but, in disagreement, one is prompted to think again."

"New York Times"
"With admirable clarity and brevity, Mr. Kolakowski puts these enduring questions within arm's reach of the general reader. If your New Year's resolution is to become a better, wiser person, this may be the place to start."

Review

About the Author
Leszek Kolakowski is currently senior research fellow at All Souls College, Oxford. He has also taught at the University of Chicago, McGill University, UC Berkeley, and Yale University. He is the author of numerous books, including his masterpiece and magnum opus Main Currents of Marxism, published in three volumes in the 1970s and recently reissued in a single volume by Norton. He is the recipient of many major international awards, including the Jerusalem Prize for the Freedom of the Individual in Society (2007), the Library of Congress John W. Kluge Prize in the Human Sciences awarded for lifetime achievement in the humanistic and social sciences (2004), a MacArthur ("genius") Fellowship (1983) as well as the German Booksellers Peace Prize (1977), the Erasmus Prize (1980) and the Veillon Foundation European Prize for the Essay (1980). He is a Fellow of the British Academy, a fellow of the Académie Universelle des Cultures, and a Foreign Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He lives in Oxford, England.

Customer Reviews

Windows into Philosophy
Most of us would probably pick up a book like this because we are looking for answers about the meaning of life, or something like that. But instead of answers, Professor Kolakowski offers more questions. He introduces us to one thought or concept from each of 23 philosophers and then, in Socratic style, gives the reader some questions to answer.

This little book is both challenging and enjoyable to read, a real thought-provoker.

A delightful little book
This small book of brief philosophical portraits is great fun. Important to emphasize, however, the smallness of the book and the brief nature of the portraits provided. As Kolakowski points out in his introduction to the book: "This little book is not meant as some sort of super-condensed textbook, encyclopaedia or dictionary. If a student attempted to sit an exam on the basis of these essays, he would be disappointed: he would fail." That caveat notwithstanding, these little essays (none of them longer than 10 pages) provide succinct snapshots of most of the great philosophers in the European tradition. Not so much a book of philosophy, it's a book about philosophers and their "great ideas", each presentation gets to the heart of the philosopher's key ideas, and each concludes with provocative questions for readers to ponder.
For some hard to fathom reason, Basic Books chose to eliminate 7 of Kolakowski's portraits, portraits that can be found in the Polish original. The seven portraits left on the cutting room floor are those of Aristotle, Meister Eckhart, Nicolas of Cusa, Hobbes, Heidegger, Jaspers and Plotinus. Chiefly for that reason (what in the world were they thinking?), this volume loses a star.

Interesting, but Incomplete
This is a relatively quick and interesting read. I am amazed that the editor cut the writer's essays on Aristotle (which would have demostrated the author's thoughts on the evolution of Scrates' and and Plato's philosophy), and also an essay on Meister Eckhart, one of my favorite spiritual thinkers. But worth the time to read to be exposed to the philosophy of some well-known thinkers, and some other more obscure thinkers over 2,500 years of human history.