Blogcritics Category: Books: Philosophy

Book Review: Finding Beauty In A Broken World by Terry Tempest Williams

Tulis McCall — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 22:23:16 EST

Finding Beauty in a Broken World is a dense work that requires you to set down your popcorn and pay attention.
I thought this would be a sort of easy-going philosophical book I could glide through and glean from. It is not. Finding Beauty in a Broken World is a dense work that requires you to set down your popcorn and pay attention.Terry Tempest Williams is a scholar and a scientist who relies on empirical evidence to reach a spiritual conclusion. After the...

Book Review: The Philosopher And The Wolf - Lessons in Love, Death, and Happiness by Mark Rowlands

Dan Schneider — Tue, 16 Dec 2008 13:41:29 EST

A masterful evocation and definition of existence from a philosopher on the rise.
Philosopher Mark Rowlands is not what one would classically think of as a great writer, in that his prose is not supernally poetic like Loren Eiseley’s, he does not use easily understood but well-targeted metaphors like Stephen Jay Gould, nor does he have the raw power that Friedrich Nietszche did. But he manages to convey highly nuanced and...

Book Review: Pragmatic Thinking and Learning - Refactor Your Wetware by Andy Hunt

Fitz — Fri, 28 Nov 2008 10:57:40 EST

Streamline your thinking!
It's rare that I read nonfiction these days that is worth reviewing. Most nonfiction to me simply consists of reference material, examples, and step-by-step instructions to help in a given field of study. As a software engineer, I often find myself digging into a particular book for an example or a hint as to how to implement a piece of code....

Book Review: Outliers - The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell

Clarence Yu — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 21:19:33 EST

Malcolm Gladwell's new book Outliers seems to tell us things that we already know.
The definition of success is a very subjective matter, and Malcolm Gladwell, best-selling author of Tipping Point, and Blink, posits a theory that success is not based on ambition or intelligence, but rather from culture, ethnicity and unexpected logic, among other things, in his new book, Outliers: The Story of Success, out now in popular...

Book Review: The Devil Notebooks by Laurence A. Rickels

Gerry Weaver — Tue, 18 Nov 2008 12:15:36 EST

Even the Prince of Darkness doesn't make this book a lively read.
I came across The Devil Notebooks by Laurence A. Rickels and was intrigued with the idea of examining the place of the devil in our culture, especially contemporary pop culture. I knew with Rickels’ background as professor of German and Comparative Literature at the University of California, the book would draw heavily on critical theory, but...

Book Review: Fame by Mark Rowlands

Jessica Schneider — Thu, 6 Nov 2008 16:33:09 EST

A rewarding, insightful and mind you� entertaining read. From a philosopher.
There are some who need no last names. Paris. Lindsay. Britney. Sadly, just read those three words in context and you likely know the individuals I am speaking about. Why do we know about them, or more importantly, why do we care? Philosopher Mark Rowlands provides readers with an insightful look into what fame is, what motivates it, and how it...

Book Review: Godly Love: A Rose Planted in the Desert of Our Hearts by Stephen G. Post

Jennifer Bogart — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 17:20:43 EDT

Post presents a vision of Godly love that has little to do with God, and more to do with an optimistic perception of human nature.
Godly Love is an odd little book. Presented in a gift format, this 146-page title is printed on small pages with lots of white space and is small enough to fit in most purses and roomy pockets. However it’s not the size that classifies this book as odd, that only accounts for the “little” aspect of the description.Though Post...

Book Review: Yekl - A Tale of the New York Ghetto by Abraham Cahan and What It Means to Be an American by Michael Walzer

Ohm Devani — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 12:02:03 EDT

Two incisive visions, fictional and philosophical, of history and assimilation into American society.
Nineteenth century Russia: a land of terror for Jews. Large mobs with blood-boiling rage in their minds raid and murder innocent Jews, ruining their lives and instilling in them a sense of hopelessness; brooding on the situation, the Jews realize what is really happening to them. The government’s striking indifference to the situation...

Book Review: Noise/Music by Paul Hegarty

Ryne Barber — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 04:28:11 EDT

If you would like to have an introduction to the noise genre, I would suggest looking elsewhere.
But is it a history?This is one of the things that struck me as I finished Noise/Music: A History. One does not have to worry if the book is well-written - it's almost too wordy and garrulous for the normal reader. In fact, I would suggest being accustomed to philosophical works, and not expecting a thoughtless pulp read when you pick up the...

Book Review: Cradle to Cradle by William McDonough and Michael Braungart

Maggie Ball — Mon, 1 Sep 2008 18:35:31 EDT

We can design our lives and products around the notion of nourishment � from the way we live to how we design and produce goods.
For those to are ecologically minded, a key part of creating any new product is to produce a life cycle assessment (LCA), which is also known as a cradle-to-grave analysis, working from manufacture (‘cradle’) to use and disposal (‘grave’). The LCA investigates all of the environmental impacts of that product and attempts to...