Sharon Kaye

I just finished reading ‘Philosophy- A Complete Introduction’ by Sharon Kaye.

I awarded this book four stars because it provided a simple, easy to understand introduction to fourteen important philosophers and their contributions to the discipline of philosophy. It provides what its title suggests.

Each of the fourteen chapters contains an introductory summary of the philosopher’s key ideas, a thought experiment, quotations from their major works, and some detail of their work.

As a newcomer to philosophy I found the book informative and sufficiently challenging to pique interest without being overwhelming.… (més)

Equal parts lightweight thriller, treatise on Aristotle and his lost works, and hatchet job on Christianity and, in particular, Roman Catholicism. I was expecting the thriller part, and Kaye doesn't disappoint, providing an interesting and fast-moving story. A cozy thriller, in a way. The plot was occasionally implausible and had its awkward moments, but it wasn't bad for a first-time effort at fiction. And as a fan of fiction with a Vatican connection, I enjoyed it. I was also expecting the Aristotle part, and some of this was more interesting than the thriller story, including the book's afterword, although I probably only agreed with about half of Kaye's theories and guesses here. (Given the many gaps in the official history of the man, it's nearly impossible to talk about Aristotle without making some guesses along the way.) The hatchet job was disappointing in that there are already too many Dan Brown copy cats out there who have done it far better, and with far more supporting material. For readers who are offended by (or who have simply had their fill of) stories about evil Catholics and killer Cardinals working hard to keep the truth from their simplistic and dimwitted followers at all costs, etc., etc., etc., you'll probably want to skip this one. Unless you have a relatively thick skin and can see that the hatchet isn't being wielded very effectively.… (més)

Sharon M. Kaye is a professor of Philosophy at John Carroll University. She's written several introductions to philosophy and logic with students in mind. She writes in the intro that she was converted to Philosophy as a major while attending a Critical Thinking lecture in which she was confronted with the notion that "not everything can be true," which offended her post-modern senses at the time. I found this book to be a good introduction to logic. One nice aspect is that Kaye has selected articles from various newspapers and magazines for students to critique as exercises. She explains how to set up a good argument, how to lay out all the premises of someone else's argument, and how to find weaknesses, critiquing a paper by Steven Pinker as the concluding example.

An argument cannot be sound if it is not valid. While soundness is subjective, validity requires a conclusion that logically follows from the arguments' premises. Kaye starts with Socrates' categorical syllogisms, a three-step transitive argument, modus ponens, various fallacies, etc. Avoid affirming the consequent and denying the antecedent.

It took me back to a mathematical logic and set theory course I'd had. There we dealt more with Boolean logic, I wish I'd had logic from the philosophy side as well. Interestingly, religion is one of Kaye's interests. The first example of establishing a logic argument is one from William Lane Craig on the existence of a creator. I'm reminded that he teaches courses in logic for his home church.

I give this guide 4 stars out of 5. It's a great introduction.… (més)