[lbo-talk] popularizing philosophy

[Jeffrey Fisher]

On Sun, Aug 28, 2011 at 7:22 PM, Mike Beggs <mikejbeggs at gmail.com> wrote:
> On Mon, Aug 29, 2011 at 9:39 AM, Jeffrey Fisher <jeff.jfisher at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> As for Shag's initial question about the pop philosophy books, I have
>> to admit to not having read a single article from any of the "_____
>> and philosophy" books, not even The Big Lebwowkski volume. I know some
>> people who like Alain de Botton, and I've watched some of his series
>> on philosophers and thought it was pretty good, given what it was
>> doing.
>
> Bring back the old Pelican paperbacks, I say. They were aimed at a
> general audience and yet weren't gimmicky, didn't dumb it down, and
> you really learn something from them. I switch into present tense
> there because thankfully there are stacks and stacks of them for $5 or
> less at any second-hand bookshop. I assume they were sold in the
> States as well? When I want to get a basic outline of something, I'd
> much rather read that kind of thing than something titled 'Colon: the
> astonishing hidden life of the punctuation mark that became a cliche',
> etc. (Actually, though, I exempt the 'history of the world in a grain
> of salt' type books from this, because 'keyhole history' can be pretty
> interesting - Kurlansky is a good example.)

Yeah, as I say, I'd much rather they actually read Plato. Or whoever.

But if you wrote that book on the colon, I might find a way to assign it. :)

j