Philosophy Books

The Thee-Minute Classroom Walkthrough is a thorough introduction to the philosophy and implementation of this type of classroom supervision. The authors advocate using many visits to each classroom every year to develop a picture of education in the classroom and in the school. The book also promotes a collaborative approach to classroom supervision, one in which the teacher reflects on instructional and curricular decisions and then plans for improvement. The classroom supervisor becomes a facilitator for such reflection.

I was expecting something less technical and more user friendly. I will have to devote some time to reading this in the summer and then perhaps implement next year.

This book was an easy read and had very practical, easy to put into practice, tips on observing classrooms. Time-saving techniques that still are quality practices.

An effective guide for pinpointing effective classroom instruction. This book also outlines specific strategies for engaging teachers in reflective dialogue that could enhance classroom instruction. A must read for administrators.

Kudos to Dr. Helen Mitchell, author of the most accessible philosophy textbook I've ever read! Finally.... a philosophy book that incorporates African, Indian, Asian, and Feminist Wisdom alongside traditional philosophers. Appealing to a variety of readers, Roots of Wisdom is a compelling read. I refer to it often, and keep it close at hand. It is an invaluable resource for writing academic papers, and quite simply a joy to read!

Helen Buss Mitchell does a great job at introducing the reader to philosophical topics and concepts through this book and its accompanying "reader" with excerpts from essays by astute philosophical authors. I am currently enrolled in a philosophy telecourse and these are the required books for the class along with two videotapes. IF you can get the videotapes, they help a great deal as well. Mitchell has poets and authors reading some of their work as she discusses how it relates to the topic at hand. Even if you are not enrolled in school but want a solid grounding in philosophy, I highly recommend these books.

"It is written on the limitless constellations of the celestial heavens, on the depths of the emerald seas and on every grain of sand in the vast desert that the world which we see is an outward and visible dream of an inward and invisible reality." - Sufi saying.

This book is a beautiful re-introduction to the "Sacred Geometry", the study of the simple mathematical patterns that dominate the universe. At the same time this practice both argues for a creator and also one who is unlike the standard "Holy book" picture for his basic engines of creation unfold like a lotus flower into infinity.

Unlike most stuff found in a "New Age" store, this book is not arguing you to believe anything, it shows you and teaches you and lets your own mind do the work. If I ever become a teacher I'll use bits of this book to try to get students to actually think and hopefully enjoy math, arts, the sciences.

Artfully done with many interesting side notes. Easy to read, the book raises many deep questions. Well worth the price!

Colleague Michael Schneider (who I had the pleasure of interviewing on community radio/TV a few years ago) wrote this outstanding book that has wonderful little illustrations and photographs showing how geometry and number remind us universal archetypes every where we turn in nature, art and architecture. For over a decade I've recommended this book as a perfect complement to my Sacred Geometry Design Sourcebook which you can also find here on Amazon or on my website at www.GeometryCode.com. If you want a great place to begin exploring sacred geometry (even though he doesn't call it that :-), A Beginner's Guide... and SGDS make a great pair of references.

A Beginners Guide to Constructing the Universe shows the mathematical underpinnings of nature by explaining how nature makes use of the numbers 1 - 10 and also 12 and 13. For example number six is used by nature in the construction of many things including walls of cells as the six sided hexagon is a very stable geometric object. There is some focus on mystical aspects of math but not too much so that there ends up being a lot of practical knowledge to be found here. The Fibonacci sequence is presented along with the use it is put to by nature. There is a presentation of the golden mean also. I highly recommend this book to those who have had interest in math drilled out of them by the drudgery of unfocused arithmetic and algebra lessons. This book is a peak into the fascinating world of mathematics and should whet your appetite for more. One book to consider after reading this book is "Fascinating Fibonacci's" as it contains more detailed information on the material found in chapter 5 of this book.

First I bought two copies. Sent one to my 90 year old mother who read it cover to cover. Then gave away the other as an emergency gift. Then bought two more. Now I have to buy more because I read my own copy and have three people to whom I would like to give the remaining copy. Let's see, that is 2 + 2 = 4 + 2 or 3 = 6 or 7. Now I know what those numbers "are". This book is precious. It allows one to see the magic and the mystery in common objects and relationships around us. Nicely written. A lot of fun. The whole book is worth the price just for the fantastic quotes in the margins, let alone the chapters. I love this book. I am glad to know more about the radiant essence of my apples, bowls, desks, steering wheel, hands - and everything around me. Thank you Michael Schneider.

Find out how we will achieve peace through war and continual conflict. This is an important, though troubling work of political philosophy by the great thinker, though it is mediocre when compared to the historical dialectics of Hegel. For evidence of Kant's racism/ethnocentrism, read the section on Cosmopolitanism, in which Kant effectively excludes all humans outside of the Ancient Greece and the West from the human project. Well, one can't assume a great transcendental thinker will also be enlightened in politics; sad considering the "Enlightenment" is one of Kant's primary concerns in the book.

It is very useful to have a Kant's shorter essays on political philosophy and the philosophy of history collected in a single volume. While a larger, more comprehensive collection, edited by Hans Reiss, is published by Cambridge Univ. Press under the title *Kant: Political Writings*, this smaller Hackett version is nicely translated and much more affordable. Hackett Publ. Co. in general has been very kind to philosophy. They deserve your patronage.

From beginning to end, 200 Pomegranates and an Audience of One captivated me. Shawn's gift of storytelling, when combined with his passion for artistry, makes for an inspiring read. This is certainly a book I'll be talking about for a while!

I'll be honest...when I first heard the title of a new book by Shawn Wood, I said, "Two hundred what?" It didn't sound like any book I would read.

Later I heard the entire title: "200 Pomegranates and an Audience of One: Creating a Life of Meaning and Influence." Okay, it sounded a little more interesting to me. But time is limited. I still wasn't sure I would read it.

Then Jessica Kelley from Abingdon Press asked me to consider giving the book an endorsement. Oh boy. I told her I'd be glad to read it, but I would only endorse it if I liked it. She sent me an early manuscript a couple months before the book was released.

I learned from the first few pages where the "pomegranate" reference comes from. Yes, I'm a pastor, and yes, I've read the Old Testament a number of times, but I've never noticed the passage about the artist Huram and his bronze veggies (or fruits, I'm really not sure). Then I started the introduction, and I was sucked in from the very first paragraph.

Shawn is great at telling stories. I don't mean he's really good. He's great at it. I love the way he authentically shares out of his life, from the pain of his past, to stupid decisions he's made. It helps me identify with an author who is normal.

I'm convinced this book will have broad appeal. It is for anyone who desires to be great at something. I could see my wife (a stay-at-home mom) enjoying this book as much as I enjoyed this book.

This book is an easy read, and isn't very long. If you picked up a copy already, you'll see my endorsement on the back cover. Just so you know, no one paid me or bent my arm for an endorsement. After reading the book, it was an easy decision.

I cried reading the acknowledgments and was laughing in chapter one. This book was a fast read with the highs and lows of a good drama and made a strong impact; professional and personally. My faith and my filter is different because of Shawn's humble and authentic story telling ability. He brought truths about God AND myself to light to inspire more.

In his book, Shawn uses his story and stories about people around him to drive this home: "Self examination" is a time when we see who we are and choose to be better or worse. There is no staying the same."

I am not the same. Good read for anyone...student, parents, grandparents, professionals, domestics... It's a keeper.

200 Pomegranates and an Audience of One sheds new light on God's calling for each of our lives.

Through Shawn's unique perspective, everyone [from single moms, CEO's and even people who feel quite ordinary] has the ability to see why the efforts of our individual "canvases" is truly a work of art that matters to God.

Shawn blew me away with his whimsical story-telling style and piercing truths. I never would have guessed he was a first-time author & can't wait for his next book.

This was a textbook I needed for my graduate school class. For the subject Nursing Research Theory the text packs a punch. Books got to me in a timely fashion.
Thanks a lot.

Although this is a very original work I cannot help to think that maybe it would of been better as a single short essay, and not some elaborate spiel hoping to convince the reader of his correctness. Maybe much of the thesis is lost in translation, maybe not and it is an uninteresting read.

Granted simulation is often accepted as THE reality by much of the masses, worldly prose is not the solution. Philosophy should be something everyone (with a 11th grade public education) can understand, appreciate, and apply to their own lives. This book, although initially provoking becomes trivial, it writes itself out of its own existence. The only reason why the book will endure is it has much originality but overall I agree with the reviewer who stated that a person would be better off reading "green eggs and ham"...

1. The first two chapters are more or less verbatim permutations of his 'Simulations', which this reviewer finds more substantial, though this book contains a few elaborations that are left aching for in Simulations. In every other respect, the first two chapters say little that Baudrillard had not already accomplished in previous publications in greater depth. The possible advantage herein could be lie in that the less extensive use of Semiotical and Marxist concepts may make this more accessible. But this assumes the utility of accessibility. Elsewise, the Semiotext(e) translation of 'Simulations' was more than adequate, you may just want to start there.

2. This text will likely be indecipherable jabberwocky to anyone not acquainted with Semiology and economics. Furthermore, if these thing bore or otherwise hold no relevance to one, there is no real point in reading any of Baudrillard unless one is in possession of a patience willing to wade through some genre specific terminology and verbiage to get some cultural and social analysis out of it; those critiques stand on their own for the most part.

3. The Matrix: low relevance to the film, his earlier writings are more radical.

4. Baudrillard has little reverence for the institutions of Socialism and Democracy, reading this may infuriate or otherwise cause a lapse of faith in those deus ex machinas.

Fell into this straight away, Used to reading similar but find it hard to read heavy theory, this was surprisingly easy to read, although some of the ideas are extreme, a lot can be taken from them and i look forward to reading every last word. truly tasty

A thought provoking book. Do not be shocked however if you find yourself reading it extremely slowly. The text is wordy and thick at best but often times necessarily to bring its points across. If you are not an avid reader, enjoy abstract thinking, or want to learn more about the differences between Simulacrum and Simulations avoid this book.

This is still a great read although convoluted at times so all others should enjoy. But those who are not well read have been warned.

Then again if you looked for this book odds are you are ready for this. I only wanted to warn those with out college education or advanced vocabulary to so that they wont lose their appetite for knowledge from heavy text, such an event would be regrettable.

The text is heavy, full of valuable info on what it pertains and much like this review it sometimes seems to repeat facts redundantly. Did I mention it was a hard read? (just kidding. lol)

This is quite a nice book, with an horrible translation. The translator made no big efforts to find the correct names of places, books and movies. And she also does not help at all if you don't know France and Paris: many places are cited, and you will not know that Beaubourg is an modern art museum if you were not there (luckily, I was over there while reading it).

The same occurs for "Forum de Halles", which is a huge underground mall, and for "Stand on Zanzibar", which was translated back from the French version, resulting in "Everyone to Zanzibar", clearly showing that the translator did not even looked for this book name in the internet (that shows no results).

Quite interesting ideas, easy to read (you do not need a lot of philosophical background) with such poor translations... more footnotes would have helped a lot!

This book was sooo interesting, I couldn't put it down. Despite being Christian or not, (I being in the latter category), it really shines new light on how you see the Christian faith, or any faith in general.

This was the first Nietzsche I read about 6 years ago at University. I only understood about 40% of it and have reread it about 3 times, each time understanding more. Anything of Nietzsche's is good. It's just a matter of rereading it if you really don't get it. The bits which at first seem like padding become the most interesting bits eventually.

This is a good place to start partly because of Michael Tanner's excellent introduction and also because it is not too long but covers the most important bits of his writing, his attack on Christianity (and the post-Christian mealymouthed morality we've inherited), the moral system which really made him puke. As Tanner says though, in many of his arguments against Christianity you can see he is arguing against it when practised by the overwhelming majority of people, not the person of Jesus or the philosophy itself which he often seems to appreciate and value.

Nietzsche is THE must read for all adults because I could have lived 1000 years and not figured so much of it out myself - that Christianity is a religion of hate, dressed up in 'love'. Sounds batty, but it's not. Because you can read Edmund Burke and others and have already thought these things yourself. Not Friedrich Nietzsche.

You won't read anything else like him anywhere.

Ours is a time not that very different from that of Nietzsche's. We too live in a kind of Victorian hell, a genteel time of right thinking professors who would make Nietzsche feel as unwelcome as did his "betters," who recognized he was a genius but didn't want him around. "Twilight of the Idols" is a lot of fun to read. It is exhilarating to read such frankness, without the American way of combining honestly with profanity. It is straight talk on the decline of German culture. I will leave it to the reader to decide if this may be applied to our once great country. Nietzsche's great insight in his time was to return to the Greeks, but to cast Plato aside, in favor of the great historian Thucydides, who immortalized the rhetoricians, such as Pericles, and sang the praises of the speaker and doer of deeds in contrast to the "armchair" thinkers such as Socrates. Nietzsche seems to be the ultimate heavy, but he is a hoot to read and seems to have had as much fun writing this work as I have had reading it.

Nietzsche is not fed up with christianity, he is fed up with christians, and the people who distort christianity. Nietzsche is not the antichrist, he is simply the Messenger in a greek tragedy. We are the antichrist.

"In reality there has been ofnly one christian, and he died on the cross. The Evangel died on the cross. what was called 'Evangel' from that moment on was already the oposite of what he had lived"

antichrist 39

Five stars for Nietzsche, three for the lack of notes. Also, there are many times when Nietzsche writes in french or latin and there is no note or translation.

ps I'm older than twelve.

So much for the most "lucid" of German prose writers, doesn't anyone think it peculiar his style resembles that of a conspiracy theorist warning us of the perils of the illumati and the freemasons. It is dogmatic to the point of shrill, and surprisingly lacking in real self-confidence. (perhaps he using his rhetoric as a way to convince himself of things not even he can believe.) It is full of vulgar unnatural and irational opinions meant mainly to shock lacking true conviction in the end. There is a constant confusion of thought and feeling, a endless muddying of the waters of interesting thought by a kind of upside down stoicism that could only be the product of a thorougly dacadent romanticism. There is also a kind of disturbing right wing athuritarianism,that is obviously the product of (M. Andre Gide's words )Nietschze's insane jealousy of Christ. He distorts history into a recreation of his own amusing and rather twisted pysche. His rants against christianity, while amusing, are often a attack on liberal christianity, which Nietschze being the ultra right winger he is patently despises. They confirm always a midn that worships strength as a confession of weakness.

Mark Gilderhus' book is a concise look at the evolution of historical research and reporting in a well written, easy to read format which brings life to a less than exciting subject. I was assigned this book for a graduate course on historiography. History and Historians is a good companion to David Fischer's Historians' Fallacies, Davidson and Lytle's After the Fact and Richard Evans' In Defense of History.

This short book does a good job of providing an overview of Western historical thinking from Herodotus and Thucydides to the modern period. The first chapter is a brief discussion of why we study history to begin with: curiosity, a need to bring order to the world, identify cause and effect, study the identity of a people, calculate the consequences of our actions, and to provide society's memory.

Chapters two and three review the evolution of historical writings and their approach. Gilderhus begins with the ancient historians with a discussion of history in Greece and Rome and then reviews the influence of Christian thought; a paradigm against which history revealed the workings of God's plan. This perspective began to disappear as Western Christianity divided and historians of various religious persuasions wrote histories supporting their perspectives of the past. Enlightenment historians went on to reject a religious approach or even a factual approach wishing to rely on reason for their proofs while at the same time denigrating the past. This gave way to the influence of romanticism and nationalism in the 19th century which led to a more scientific approach to research and analysis. (p. 36) (In some ways this was a reaction to the emphasis on religion and God on man but it could also be a reaction to the renaissance emphasis on the greatness of classical civilizations.)

Chapter 4 then reviews the philosophical aspects (speculative approaches) of history; Gilderhus says there are three schema: cyclical, providential, and progressive (p. 49) and discusses each in turn. Chapter 5 reviews the analytical philosophical approaches to history reflected in the positivist approach (general laws exist that govern the outcomes of human affairs, and idealist thought (which believed that because history was about man, who had free will, history was not repeatable). Chapter six is a simple overview of types of historical papers and research. The last chapter summarizes the state of historiography as it has evolved in the last century.

Entire books have been written about each of the areas addressed in Gilderhus' book; the strength of this book is that it provides a simple easy-to-read overview of the whole field and the thinking behind history.

An excellent book introducing the origins of historical thought, the changing ideas and methods of history, and the challenges of history in the postmodern era. Also, the introduction provides a great discussion on the importance of studying history. A very understandable and readable book, only 135 pages. I recommend it highly for anyone interested in studying historical philosophy.