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If you don't, try Mortimer Adler's "Aristotle for Everybody", Plato's "Republic" (I detest this disastrous book but you must read it) and "The Dream of Reason" by Anthony Gottlieb for starters. To truly appreciate the humor of this book (especially the punch line to the title - which is fabulous!) you need to have had at least some exposure to formal philosophy and its vocabulary. (Hmmm - maybe that college reminiscence review ain't so bad after all). This ain't exactly like sitting at the feet of Aristotle in the lyceum for four years. ![]() But come on, it is 199 pages of jokes with a bit of commentary by two old hippies who did undergraduate degrees in philosophy at Harvard. You are not actually going to learn a lot of philosophy from this book as others have noted. ![]() The back panel of the book says "Finally, a crash course in philosophy via jokes." If you buy into this unfortunate promotional drivel you will be instantly disappointed. So maybe I can inform your expectations and either prevent you from buying the wrong book or stimulate you to buy the right one. Why such variable responses? I think these different reactions arise from the variability of foreknowledge of philosophy among the reviewers and the expectations they have of both the comedy and philosophy in the book. Some folks write terse harsh dismissals, some say it is the best book they have ever read and some write irrelevant reminiscences about their collage daze. So you are looking at all the various reviews of this book and you are asking yourself "what is going on?" Some people love it and some hate it (and note that the audience is almost all guys - hmmm).
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