Series:

Introducing...

17 total works

Cover of Introducing Plato

Introducing Plato

by Dave Robinson and Judy Groves

Published 1 March 2000
This text begins by explaining how philosophers like Socrates and Pythagoras influenced Plato's thought. It provides a clear account of Plato's puzzling theory of knowledge, and explains how this theory then directed his provocative views on politics, ethics and individual liberty. It offers detailed critical commentaries on all of the key doctrines of Platonism, especially the very odd "theory of forms", and concludes by revealing how Plato's philosophy stimulated the work of important modern thinkers such as Karl Popper, Martha Nussbaum and Jacques Derrida.

Cover of Introducing Philosophy

Introducing Philosophy

by Dave Robinson

Published 1 March 1999
Philosophers have always enjoyed asking awkward but very important questions such as: What is the nature of reality? What are human beings really like? What is special about human minds and consciousness? To what extent are we free to choose who we are and what we do? Can we prove that God exists? Can we be certain about anything at all? What is truth? Does language provide us with a true picture of the world? How should we behave towards each other and how should we organize society? Do computers think? Introducing Philosophy is a comprehensive guide to all of the significant philosophers of the Western world from Heraclitus to Derrida.

Cover of Introducing Empiricism

Introducing Empiricism

by Dave Robinson

Published 2 September 2004
Our knowledge comes primarily from experience. But is experience really what it seems? Is it reliable? Empiricist philosophers accept a 'commonsense' view of the phenomena we observe and yet conclude that all we can ever know are 'ideas'. Physical reality may not exist at all! The experimental breakthroughs of Kepler, Galileo and Newton - a radical new outlook in 17th-century science - informed this great British tradition in philosophy. Introducing Empiricism outlines the arguments of Locke, Berkeley, Hume, J.S. Mill, Bertrand Russell, and the last British empiricist, A.J. Ayer. It also looks at criticisms of empiricism in the work of Kant, Wittgenstein, Karl Popper and others.

Cover of Introducing Freud

Introducing Freud

by Richard Appignanesi

Published 1 March 1999
Freud revolutionized the way we think about ourselves. His psychoanalytic terms such as Id, Ego, libido, neurosis and Oedipus Complex have become part of our everyday vocabulary. But do we know what they really mean? Introducing Freud successfully demystifies the facts of Freud's discovery of psychoanalysis. Irreverent and witty but never trivial, the book tells the story of Freud's life and ideas from his upbringing in 19th-century Vienna, his early medical career and his encounter with cocaine, to the gradual evolution of his theories on the unconscious, dreams and sexuality.

Cover of Introducing Lacan

Introducing Lacan

by Darian Leader and Judy Groves

Published 1 November 2000
Jaques Lacan is now taking his place as a major psychoanalytical theorist alongside Freud, although recognition of his status has been delayed by fierce arguments over the complexity of his ideas. Written by a leading Lacanian analyst and writer, "Introducing Lacan" elucidates the central ideas of Lacanian theory. It guides the reader through Lacan's early studies of paranoia to his subsequent analytical innovations - his addition of structural linguistics to Freudianism and his new ideas on the infant "mirror phase", the construction of identity and the dynamics of the psyche. It also makes clear that, although Lacan has become a major postmodern influence in literature, art, philosophy and feminism, his theories are not simply cultural intellectualizations but are rooted in clinical practice. For anyone intrigued by Lacan's ideas but discouraged by the apparent arcane quality of his writings, Darian Leader's lucid text and the graphic illustrations of Judy Groves together provide the ideal introduction.

Cover of Introducing Descartes

Introducing Descartes

by Dave Robinson

Published 1 July 1999
Rene Descartes is the father of modern philosophy. Famously, he is the philosopher who was prepared to doubt everything - even his own physical existence.



Most people also know that he said 'I think, therefore I am', even if they are not sure what he really meant by it.



Introducing Descartes is a clear and accessible guide to all the puzzling questions he asked about human beings and their place in the world.

Cover of Introducing Political Philosophy
How did governments get started in the first place? Why should they be obeyed? Could we live without them?



Introducing Political Philosophy explains the central concepts of this intriguing branch of philosophy. It also describes and evaluates the key ideas of all the major political theorists, from Plato to Foucault, who have tried to think systematically about human beings, societies, and the purpose of governments.

Cover of Introducing Ethics for Everyday Life

Ethical philosophy has a long and distinguished history, but how can you apply it to your life?

This Practical Guide explores the alternative ethical philosophies and how we can all use these to aid us with everyday dilemmas. Introducing Ethics for Everyday Life provides advice on whether human beings really are selfish and greedy, why you might want to be a good person, and how to pick an ethical philosophy that works for you.

Free of jargon but full of straightforward advice, case studies and step-by-step instructions, this is the perfect concise introduction to using ethics to help you make decisions.

Dave Robinson has taught philosophy for many years, and is the author of Introducing Ethics.

Cover of Introducing Rousseau

Introducing Rousseau

by Dave Robinson

Published 8 May 2001
"Introducing Rousseau" presents a maverick thinker whose ideas revolutionised our understanding of childhood, education, government, language and much else. What is the value of civilisation? Rousseau first posed this question. His answer - that civilisation corrupts natural goodness and increases inequality between humans - shocked his Enlightenment contemporaries and still challenges us today. Did Rousseau inspire the French Revolution? Can we trace Romanticism, psychoanalysis and Existentialism back to him? This great introduction charts Rousseau's turbulent life of lost innocence, persecution and paranoia.

Cover of Introducing Christianity

Introducing Christianity

by Judy Groves and Anthony O'Hear

Published 1 November 2000
Christianity depends on the belief that the Jesus of hisory is identical with the Christ of faith, and that God in the person of Jesus intervened finally and decisively in human history. But is the historical Jesus the same as the Christian Saviour? And how did an obscure provincial relgiion based on the paradox of a crucified saviour conquer the Roman Empire and outlive it? "Introducing Christianity" confronts the enigmas. It sets Jesus in the perspective of his time - within Judaism and its expectations of a Messiah, in the atmosphere of Greek philosophy and the Roman deification of emperors. It traces the development of Christianity from St. Paul and the Romanization of the Church, to modern liberation theology. This book is a lucid and exciting investigation that should appeal to all readers, whether Christian or not. It is also the ideal companion volume to "Introducing Muhammad" and "Introducing Buddha".

Cover of Introducing Ethics

Introducing Ethics

by Dave Robinson

Published 1 October 1999
Ethics has become the burning issue of current moral philosophical thought, raising the spectre of responsibility at a time when responsibility seems entirely replaced by uncertainty and relativism. What is the place of individual choice and consequence in a post-Holocaust world of continuing genocidal ethnic cleansing? Is 'identity' now a last-ditch cultural defence of ethic nationalisms and competing fundamentalisms? In a climate of instant information, free markets and possible ecological disaster, how do we define 'rights', self-interest and civic duties? What are the acceptable limits of scientific investigation and genetic engineering, the rights and wrongs of animal rights, euthanasia and civil disobedience? This book confronts these dilemmas, tracing the arguments of the great moral thinkers, including Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Hobbes and Kant, and brings us up to date with postmodern critics.

Cover of Introducing Kierkegaard

Introducing Kierkegaard

by Dave Robinson and Oscar Zarate

Published 3 February 2003
Soren Kierkegaard is widely held to be the founder of existentialism--his faith is ironic, playful and passionate, and he wrote like a novelist. Written for students of philosophy and theology, this book brilliantly explains Kierkegaard's life and thought. 170 illustrations.

Cover of Introducing Existentialism
Richard Appignanesi goes on a personal quest of Existentialism in its original state. He begins with Camus' question of suicide: 'Must life have a meaning to be lived?' Is absurdity at the heart of Existentialism? Or is Sartre right: is Existentialism 'the least scandalous, most technically austere' of all teachings?

This brilliant Graphic Guide explores Existentialism in a unique comic book-style.

Cover of Introducing Lenin and the Russian Revolution
Lenin is the key to understanding the Russian Revolution. His dream as the creation of the world's first Socialist state. It was a short-lived dream that became a nightmare when Stalin rose to absolute power in 1929. Lenin was the avant-garde revolutionary who adapted Marxist theory to the practical realities of a vast, complex and backward Russia. Is he chiefly to blame for opening the way to the totalitarian regime of Stalin? Readers will be able to judge for themselves. Lenin's career is depicted, from his obscure provincial origins to his role as architect of the Bolshevik Revolution, and his ideas, his genius for underground organisation and his strategies for agitation are explained. It is impossible to understand the events in post-communist Russia and eastern Europe today without some basic grasp of the Russian Revolution and Lenin's crucial role in it. This book is a re--issued classic which makes that history accessible and digestible.

Cover of Introducing Bertrand Russell

Bertrand Russell changed Western philosophy forever. He tackled many puzzles--how our minds work, how we experience the world, and what the true nature of meaning is. In "Introducing Bertrand Russell "we meet a passionate eccentric, active in world politics, who had outspoken views on sex, marriage, religion, and education.

Cover of Introducing Levi-Strauss
Introducing Levi-Strauss is a guide to the work of the great French anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss (1908-2009). The book brilliantly traces the development and influence of Levi-Strauss' thought, from his early work on the function of the incest taboo to initiate an exchange of women between groups, to his identification of a timeless "wild" or "primitive" mode of thinking - a pensee sauvage - behind the processes of human culture.

Accessibly written by Boris Wiseman and beautifully illustrated by Judy Groves, Introducing Levi-Strauss also explores the major contribution that Levi-Strauss made to contemporary aesthetic history - his work on American-Indian mythology provides a key insight into the way in which art itself comes into being.

This is an essential introduction to a key thinker.

Cover of Introducing Levi-Strauss/Structural Anthropology