Philosophy Books

This book is amazing, it covers soo much more than just the poses. I highly recommend this for anyone who loves Yin yoga!

This is a remarkable and thorough book for anyone interested in the topic of yoga, but specificly yin yoga. Bernie is an astute writer, who synthesizes the scientific understandings of yin yoga in a wholistic & readable way. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is a practioner of yoga, and most certainly to a yin yoga practioner or someone wanting to understand the deeper significance of this approach to practice.

This is a well written, complete resource book for Yin Yoga and explains in easy to read format. Bernie Clark not only explains what is Yin Yoga, but explains the energy body and the mind from the Yogic, Daoist, and Western viewpoints. Yin Asanas are well illustrated and explained. This is the most comprehensive book I have found out on Yin Yoga.

Please check my other yoga and meditation reviews on Amazon and worldturning dot com. Namaste'

This is one of my top favorite yoga books! It is not only for yin yoga practitioners but everyone will benefit from reading this book. It is written in an intelligent and relaxed manner. Bernie adds a bit of humor thru out the pages that is so refreshing. I recommend this book to all my yogi friends! A great read!

I have studied Yin Yoga with Paul Grilley and Sarah Powers and have been teaching Yin Yoga practices for several years. Bernie's book does a great job of bringing together Paul and Sarah's teachings and providing additional information and context in a well formatted and easy to access package. I highly recommend this to all who teach or practice Yin Yoga. A great yoga reference tool that I use frequently. I highly recommend it for your yoga bookshelf.

Thank you for making this purchase so easy! It was exactly the book needed and you offered some savings when compared to the local bookstore. It made sense to buy the books needed for this semester from you.

This book was used for my freshman Foundations of Education course. I found the book a joy to read, and it provided a balanced look at the teaching profession. This one book that will definantly not be sold back. The supplemental materials on the CD-ROM seemed to be high quality, but I disliked having to read them on my computer and ended up ignoring the CD.

This is an introduction to Jung's towering works, which consist of 18 volumes of Collected Works, 3 volumes of Letters and other writings. Jung was like an ancient mapmaker - The Christopher Columbus of the inner world. His discoveries of archetypal psychology and the collective unconscious set his map apart from other explorers of the psyche.

I know Jung used the term "ego" to describe the center of consciousness, like the author in this book. But personally I think it's slightly deceiving - I would use the word "mind" instead. Because it's the mind which is the locus of the decisionmaking and free will, not ego. To me ego is something one builds up to fiddle with the outer world (Compare to Jung's term "persona").

Anyhow, I found this book slightly confusing all in all. There must be better introductions to Jung...

...to Jung's often complicated thought. The description of the structure and dynamics of the Self was particularly clear and readable. Recommended. -- Craig Chalquist, M.S., creator of the Thineownself self-exploration site.

This is the best concise guide to Jung that I am aware of. Every chapter is engaging and the author's deep understanding and ability to express Jung's ideas comes through vividly on every page. I also like that Stein quotes Jung liberally to illustrate important points and places Jung's ideas in context. Jung is sometimes difficult to interpret because of how he approached various subjects during different periods of his life and because of his writing style. This book cuts through the potential confusion, gets to the point and also adds value in terms of depth beyond just presenting basic concepts. If you want a good introduction in Jung's own words, then Aion is probably a good alternative. However, I think this book adds considerable value beyond just reading Aion or Carl Jung's other works randomly. If you want to read some works by Jung that are more accessible, then you may enjoy reading his lectures. These are often easier to understand than his books. There are also some nice collections of Jung's writings by topic.

This book is based on a lengthy taped series by Stein given at the Chicago Jung institute. The lectures are truly outstanding! Somehow, though, the book is only about 90% outstanding. That's still a strong recommendation! Stein is one of my favorites of the current generation of Jungian analysts. He also has a seminary degree, and (in true Jungian style) his best works focus on the psychology of religion. In this book, Stein intelligently explains many of the basic (and some not-so-basic) Jungian concepts. Even if you're familiar with these, Stein's perspective is worth examining. He has a number of unique things to say about some of these ideas.

The taped series is still available from the Chicago Institute, if you prefer audio. There's also another long audio series by Stein which is equally (if not more) profound---"A Psychological Interpretation Of The Bible." Much as I like Edward Edinger's Jungian books on Biblical themes, this other series by Stein is even better! Someday, hopefully, it will find its way into print.

This provided an excellent introduction to Jung for me (a lay person) but it could use a pointer to some follow-up at the end. It leaves the reader with the thought: "Where do I proceed from here?", directly into the mass of Jung's works?

This is easily the most used book in my collection. I mostly use it as a reference when reading philosophical texts, but I also enjoy it on its own. I am extremely curious, and the helpful cross references allow me to follow my thoughts wherever they take me. The entries on logic can be quite opaque for those not already trained in symbolic logic, but the rest are accessible to the educated layperson. Entries on specific philosophers are well organized and masterfully summarize biography and theory. If you are trying to immerse yourself in philosophy or contemporary social theory, this book will be of immense help.

All the reviews have already said everything I would, so I am adding my rating. This title is concise, comprehensive on philosophy and each entry is straight to the point. Sometimes I want a bit more information, but then this is not an encyclopaedia or a primary text. For what it is: a philosophy dictionary, it cannot be beat.

The organization of this book sucks. It's alphabetical, but most of the contents for vocab terms say "See..." and give no page reference or anything. The book is really long, probably longer than the Bible, but it does have some helpful hints. It is, however, written just like my lectures, which is a bad thing. It could be clearer and less annoying. My class said this book was "not required" and now I know why.

I have used both the Oxford Companion to Philosophy and this dictionary. I prefer the Oxford Companion because it contains more definitions and clearer expositions. But both books neglect recent Continental types of philosophy; yet, the Oxford fares much better in this regard than the Cambridge.

I lack training in philosophy but often read nonfiction criticism that requires a bit of philosophical background. This book provides that background without sending my tired eyes to the much longer entries in the eight volume _Encyclopedia of Philosophy_. From the Dictionary's depth and breadth of concise entries, with references to related and equally concise entires, I can usually learn enough to answer my immediate question. The entries also point me to where I should dig if I want deeper background. This Dictionary now permanently resides beside my reading chair.

The author does better on attack than defense. On attack in his previous books he has been incisive and clear. He could clearly state why he finds the apparatus of the conscious self unnecessary and he could be outraged that fellow profesionals might accept determinism in the psychology lab but abandon it at home.

Here, trying to defend the application of determinism to the self "at home," he runs straight into the logical conundrums this involves. His strategy is to try to wind us all together in strings of wispy theory that he hopes, like a spider's web, will entangle us and render us defenceless. No such luck.

Reason either is or is not subject to determinism. If it isn't, then no product of the human mind need be. If it is, it isn't qualified to consider the alternatives of everything being--not being--determined. The existence of science predicated on the demand that all hypotheses be capable of disproof demands that the process not be determined. The methodology of science guarantees that the self is not determined.

To me, this sad book reveals the vacuity at the core of the supposedly-determined self. Read it as a warning of what is happening to students fed on a diet of physicalism and natural selection.

Take me for a Christian, a creationist? Think again. There's a growing tide of resistance among scientists (I'm a science writer) to physicalism's implications.

Owen Flanagan's new book, The Really Hard Problem: Meaning in a Material World, offers a synthesis of ancient wisdom traditions with the best of contemporary science, ethics, and epistemology. The amalgamation is a delightful and thought-provoking survey of what it means for humans to flourish. Flanagan explains why what we know from today's best science should leave us genuinely hopeful for a sketch of best-practices for living full, ethically committed lives. Written in a clear, dryly witty style, The Really Hard Problem speaks to lay readers and theorists alike. I worked through the book over the course over three days, often stopping to read passages aloud to my partner and take notes about how humans should understand themselves in the world. If you're interested in a fruitful, spiritually-expansive dialogue between science and wisdom traditions, then I recommend this book highly. It's simply terrific.

This is a remarkably brilliant book that I found tremendously thought provoking. I'm not a philosopher, although I did study some in undergrad and grad school, so I am woefully unqualified to comment on the more technical portions of the work. But I admired the way the author tackled some 'really hard problems' that often get overlooked by those who adhere to 'logic' and 'science' rather than 'religion' (all of which are ultimately 'faith-based', but that's another issue). For instance, the whole question of 'why is there something rather than nothing' is something that he takes on quite seriously from a non-religious perspective, and while I found his argument to be somewhat less than satisfying I really have to give him credit for trying.

There are quite a few typos, grammatical errors, etc. that caught me by surprise, given the learned nature of the work - some more detailed editing would have helped. And I couldn't help but note the culturally chauvinistic allusion to the 'odd' hindu beliefs associated with marriage and a few other condescending remarks toward the great unwashed masses - a fairly common thing among philosphers sometimes I'm afraid. And while I recognize he couldn't attack every 'really hard problem' there was an occasional lapse into the assertion of unexamined (at least in this book) assumptions that felt kind of weak to me. But on the whole, an excellent book!

Flanagan's knack for addressing issues that have real stakes outside the academy--issues concerning the meaning of life, human nature and flourishing, and the clash of humanism and scientism--is on brilliant display in this book. Among the book's virtues are Flangan's careful engagement with the brain sciences and his ability to draw from diverse traditions of philosophy.

This is philosophical writing at its finest.

Flanagan fills some very large gaps in this short compendium. He offers a view of conscious experience in a material world that allows for beauty and quiet awe all the while breaking none of the laws of natural science. Attempting to synthesize the wisdom of the Buddhist and Taoist (and other Eastern spiritual traditions) with the latests findings in the physical and social sciences is nothing to sneeze at, but Flanagan weaves a beautiful tapestry of a non-reductive material mind that has free-will and causality and is integrated with the physical world and body. The aim of the mind-body, he explains is to achieve Eudaimonia, or flourishing/well-being. He draws upon a strong knowledge of brain imaging in experienced meditating monks, the positive psychology movement, philosophy of mind, metaphysics, and evolutionary theory to solidify his main points. Flanagan provides a compelling argument that we can determine objectively (relative to current situations) the best way to going about living the "good life" without appealing to anything super-natural.

I found the book to have some good points to think about. This book isn't one I'd go tell people to get, but it was a good one to listen to on my way to work everyday. It will make you think.

Few are immune to the problems of life. Some of them can truly affect us in negative ways. Dr. Livingston identifies many of these, and provides ways to deal with them effectively, by stimulating improved thinking and suggesting constructive remedies.

The book is a wonderful composite of professional advice from a medical doctor who is a practicing psychiatrist,combined with exceptional horse sense and straight talk, e.g., "We are responsible for most of what happens to us." As I reflected on my own 63 plus years, I thought that that just about summed it up. For many of us, there is no escaping that insight. Reading his book is analogous to having a wise and experienced uncle guide us through some of life's major problems and misapprehensions, suggesting to us how to make things better.

At the top of the list of what Dr. Livingston says we should try to nurture in our character and seek in our friends and lovers is kindness. He says this most desirable of virtues is key because it governs all the others, including a capacity for love and empathy. Such advice alone would probably help us eliminate a large number of other problems Dr. Livingston speaks about so effectively.

The author gets to the pith of things noting that happiness has three elemental requirements: something to do, someone to love, and something to look forward to. He says if we have those things, it's hard to be unhappy. He has a wonderful definition of love: "We love someone when the importance of his/her needs and desires rises to the level of our own...That love is demonstrated behaviorally...And that true love requires of us to become totally vulnerable to another."

And here's a real eye opener about marriages: "It is the failure of expectations over time that causes relationships to dissolve." I've heard it described as their being an "unwritten contract" about expectations that were in place at the beginning of the marriage, such as each will take care of his/her health, not use drugs, drink to excess, not gain an inordinate amount of weight, will be loyal, share the workload, etc. Dr. Livingston says "While it takes two people to create a relationship, it only takes one to end it."

Dr. Livingston writes not just as one who is among the best of us, but also as one who is the rest of us. He has faced having to cope with personal challenges of his own, including the loss of two of his beloved children. No prospective reader should think that the author is speaking to us from an ivory tower. His own life experience and professional training have uniquely prepared him to help many people in a variety of problematic situations.

I have been helped by the wise counsel contained in his book and recognized myself on a number of occasions in his writings. I feel reasonably confident that any thoughtful reader would have the same experience. We may be tweaked by different things when reading the book, but be assured that if you choose to purchase it, that help is on the way.

Dr. Livingston also recognizes the practical limitations of his helpful profession: "It is misplaced kindness to offer only sympathy. It is hope that I'm really selling. If, after extended effort, I cannot persuade someone to buy, I am wasting both our time by continuing." If someone can't buy into seeing some light at the end of the tunnel after being given lots of help and support, no one is going to be able to help them, until they're willing to start trying to help themselves and to see the possibility of a better day, at least in the distance. It is clear from anyone who reads this book that Dr. Livingston is a highly skilled facilitator, but he is also clearly a realist. He essentially says that he and other professionals are not miracle workers, and that we are ultimately responsible for our own self improvement.

The book is full of truisms recognized clearly through experience by a wise counselor who doesn't have to speculate on their truth. "Relationship is under the control of the person that cares the least." He knows such things by professional daily experience with his clients. One of the great advantages of reading his book is that we can gain real wisdom that can help us directly in these and similar situations and can also suggest when professional help would be beneficial.

Lawrence J. Danks
Author: "Your Unfinished Life"

this book was very dissapointing. the content was practical and staight forward consisting of common sense and various observations with a few catch phrases. the author sounds like a nice guy who means well, but does not have much to contribute toward a better understanding of life for the average individual.

I'm not sure why this book was published, as it doesn't contain anything particularly remarkable beyond one person's pontificating about life's hard lessons. I would like to be paid to spout my unremarkable opinions in a series of essays. Moreover, I find it annoying that the author, a psychiatrist, characterizes ADD as a "behavioral problem" that provides "relief from responsibility" and calls adult ADD a "diagnostic fad" that provides "disorganized, daydreaming procrastinators" with a medical explanation and stimulant drugs. It made me want to throw the book across the room. I wonder how he treats his patients who suffer from ADD, which is not a "pattern of behavior" as he calls it, but in fact a neurobehavioral developmental disorder, the evidence of which has been seen in scans of the prefrontal cortex.

There is something in this book for everyone. You'll need to wade through and past certain lessons that aren't applicable to you at this time or state of your life. The book is a mix of lessons of a practicing psychiatrist, lessons from his own life (which were particularly moving and insightful) and lessons he is trying to pass along to the reader - so the book does at times read like a "hodge-podge" as stated by another reviewer. You won't find that the "30 True Things You Need to Know Now" come with a 3-step playbook on how to fix or succeed but the insights are valuable. The following chapters were particularly useful for me:

Chapter 4: The statute of limitations has expired on most of our childhood traumas. We are responsible for most of what happens to us

Chapter 6: Feelings follow behavior.
As much as we try, we do not control how we feel or what we think. Efforts to do so are uniformly frustrating as we struggle against unwanted thoughts and emotions in ways that only exacerbate them....But any change requires that we try new things, risking always the possibility that we might fail. Another question I often ask patients is, `What are you saving yourself for?'.

Chapter 9: Life's Two Most important questions are `Why?' and `Why Not'? The trick is knowing which one to ask. If people are reluctant to answer `Why?' questions in their lives, they also tend to have trouble with `Why Not'? The latter implies risk. Steeped in habit and fearful of change, most of us are to some degree risk averse. Particularly in activities that may involve rejection, we tend to act as if our sense of ourselves is fragile and must be protected. One would think that these fears would improve with age and experience; the opposite is usually the case...To take the risk necessary to achieve this goal is an act of courage. To refuse them, to protect our hearts against all loss, is an act of despair."

Chapter 11: The most secure prisons are those we construct for ourselves...So much of our lives consists of broken promises to ourselves. The things we long to do - educate ourselves, become successful in our work, fall in love, are goals share by all. Nor are the means to achieve these things obscure. And yet we often do not do what is necessary to become the people we want to be. It is human to shift blame for our failures...a shortage of time and the requirement to make a living are common excuses for inaction. Also, the fear that we might try and not succeed can produce a crippling inertia. Keeping our expectations low protects us from disappointment....whenever, as happens frequently, I point out to people the discrepancy between what they say they want and what they actually do, the response is surprise and sometime outrage that I will not take their expressions of intent at face value but prefer to focus on the only communication that can be trusted: behavior."

Chapter 15: Only Bad Things Happen Quickly. The process of building has always been slower and more complicated than that of destruction.

Chapter 18: There is nothing more pointless, or common than doing the same things and expecting different results.
I believe in what works. What you are doing now isn't working. Why not try something else?

It was a good surprise to read this book. In the beginning I found his writing style rough and slightly rude, but I continued, giving him the benefit of doubt. The book kept growing. This is a guy well traveled, that dared to immerse in a foreign country and culture, who has worked a non conventional profession. He assures he's not enlightened, which is something good to know. He never portraits himself as a wise guy, which is a very important and kind of rare sympton in the authors of the spiritual world. I hope he keeps it like that.
Don't read this if youre searching for a guru or a way to improve your meditation. I sensed hes like too fond of this zen meditation technique and wants the world to learn it. At least I know its not for me.
If youre interested in a some way to zen budhism, or hesitant to embrace it, it could be a good investment.

This book and The Zen of Meeting Women are the two most fun Zen books out there. The Zen of Meeting Women teaches you about Zen within the context of . . . yes, you guessed it, meeting women. Hardcore Zen teaches you about Zen in the context of Brad, one time hardcore punk band member. He blows away many Zen myths and takes Zen down to the human level. There's a lot of Brad's personality in this book, and you either love him or hate him. Either way, you'll get a very helpful and unique view into Zen.

At 202 pages and spread over twenty short chapters Brad Warners book sheds some light on a somewhat mystical subject. It is in itself a journey of seeking answers and revealing truths. An account of the authors own journey to enlightment that is broken down in a clear and simplistic way so that any reader will be able to collect enough clues so as to start their own journey. An easy to read book that also gives clues about Japanese culture. For example: themes such as "work to the universes time scale, be patient", and "sort out your misunderstandings of time and all your issues will disappear".

This book is a mass of narcissism, pontification, and muddled thinking - sort of like life, come to think of it - but hidden in it, like a diamond in a manure pile, is the essence of Zen: chop wood, carry water.

I know nothing about Buddism. I saw this book out-of-place in Barnes in Noble, and I liked the title, so I picked it up. I was on a business trip; I had nothing better to do...
I don't care if this speaks the truth about Zen and Buddism, as I really could care less.
This received 5/5 stars from me for two reasons: 1. It was very well written, and down to earth in style. 2. It made sense to me in a way that no other book on spirituality ever has.
Really, it's all about the second one... So don't read this for Buddism, don't read it for the writing, read it for yourself. Try the first few pages. If you don't want to read any more of it, you don't have to; in fact, I encourage you not to, as you would only be wasting your time...so read this book if you seem to like it; if not, go do something you love doing instead.

This book is a very small but precious gem.
I will carry it with me

By this time I am into the double digits on Thich Nhat Hanh books and do,
indeed, feel he is an old friend. Published in 2006, this book is from a
compilation of talks given ten years earlier. Many of its themes will be
familiar to those who have read other books by him on meditation. In this volume, I found particularly interesting his openness/comparison of Buddhism to other religious practices, including Buddhist and Christian parallels in The Lord's Prayer. The author takes a quite broad view of the subject of prayer, which I find inviting and accessible. This fits with his always encouraging view that a calmer, more contemplative life is available
to us all.

I love the work of Thich Nhat Hanh. This book is very inspirational and I read it regularly. It is filled with important reminders that help to make sense of my life. I am giving it for Xmas to those I love.

This is a wonderful book for deciphering what prayer/meditation is all about. It arrived more quickly than expected and is in wonderful shape.

I keep this book in my purse. When stress at work is starting to get to me,
I take it out and read any page. I breathe deeply, close my eyes and am refreshed.

Truth and method is a magnificent project about social sciences and it affected the social sciences deeply. After you read this Gadamer work it makes you feel that all beliefs about methodology of social sciences have to be reviewed again and we must repeat and repeat think about what really science is.And also we learn from this text that living is interpreting (hermeneutic).

Hans-Georg Gadamer's Truth and Method must be considered alongside the great works of Dilthey, Husserl, and Heidegger as a major treatise on hermeneutics, defined by Gadamer as understanding and the correct interpretation of what has been understood. More commonly, people define hermeneutics as the study/theory of interpretation.

Two major contentions that help frame his analysis are: (1) rejection of the view that proper understanding calls for eliminating the influence of the interpreter's context; (2) rejection of the view that the author's intent in writing a text has any special weight to it.

As to the first point, he argues that it is simply not possible for the interpreter to escape his present situation. He advances the concept of the "horizon." For Gadamer, the horizon is ". . .the range of vision that includes everything that can be seen from a particular vantage point." It is the grounding of the interpreter, including that person's language, that fixes the possibilities of what that person can see and understand. In Gadamer's words, it is

". . .the way in which thought is tied to its finite determination, and the nature of the law of the expansion of the range of vision. A person who has no horizon is a man who does not see far enough and hence over values what is nearest to him. Contrariwise, to have an horizon means not to be limited to what is nearest, but to be able to see beyond it. A person who has an horizon knows the relative significance of everything within this horizon, as near or far, great or small."

To interpret the words of the past, Gadamer says that:

"Just as in a conversation, when we have discovered the standpoint and horizon of the other person, his ideas become intelligible, without our necessarily having to agree with him, the person who thinks historically comes to understand the meaning of what has been handed down, without necessarily agreeing with it, or seeing himself in it."

In interpreting texts, two horizons are involved--one is the horizon of the interpreter and the other the particular historical horizon into which he or she places him or herself in trying to understand the text. Thus, the two horizons interact to produce understanding.

The historical horizon of the text is not fixed; it cannot take on a meaning that is unchanged for all times and places. Here, he gets to the heart of successful hermeneutic inquiry--the fusing of horizons. He says:

"Hence the horizon of the present cannot be formed with the past. There is no more an isolated horizon of the present than there are historical horizons. Understanding, rather, is always the fusion of these horizons which we imagine to exist by themselves. . .Every encounter with tradition that takes place within historical consciousness involves the experience of the tension between the text and the present."

But what of the intention of the original author of a text? That leads to another of Gadamer's major points, by now clearly implicit in his idea of fusion of horizons. In short, it is not particularly important in trying to interpret a text. Once a text is created by its author, it becomes, so to speak, freed from the creator and begins to take on its own meaning, based upon its historical horizon, continually evolving as circumstances change. It is the text's horizon that interacts with the interpreter's horizon.

So what? To the extent that "reality" is the subject of inquiry, our understanding of "reality" will change as the historical horizon of a particular claim about reality changes. We can, then, never come to a satisfactory conclusion about a transcendental reality, about an absolute truth. Is relativism the end product of the endeavor? The hermeneutist in the Gadamerian tradition would simply note that there is no way out.

This is one of the most historically important works available on interpretation. It is difficult and challenging as a work; however, the effort to learn from Gadamer is well worth it.

Gadamer's _Truth and Method_ is both very profound and very readable; it is a vast improvement over other more widely-read philosophical texts from the same region and time period (such as Heidegger's _Being and Time_ and Husserl's _Crisis of the European Sciences_). Unlike the aforementioned philosophers, Gadamer is actually willing to stick his neck out and reveal to us the true nature of his own personal spiritual beliefs. Believe it or not, Gadamer has the audacity to tell us that we "must take the Old Testament literally" (!) That's right, folks. Adam and Eve, Noah's Ark, Moses, Abraham-Isaac-Jacob-Joseph-ect. We have to take all of that literally. Now I've been to north-Georgia, backcountry, hillbilly Baptist churches where they didn't believe in that stuff anymore. And that is precisely what makes Gadamer's philosophy so revolutionary. The age of reason has quite literally come full circle. People were completely caught off guard by this shocking new assertion, that we must once again turn to the literal interpretation of the Old Testament in order to explain the dawn of temporal conciousness in man.
It seems as though modern phenomenolgy has uncovered far more new questions than it has answers. Hegel was one of the first to attempt an in-depth systemization on how and why the "spirit enters into time". Heidegger was one of the first with a specific answer, stating that the phenomenon of spirit is attributable to a type of "care" and "being-unto-death". Sarte countered that this phenomenology is in fact a result of "being-unto-other". But if we believe Gadamer's historical theory, we may have a concrete solution to all of these problems. Rather than be stuck with a narrow and one-dimensional theory of the phenomenon of soul (which could easily be diluted with other contingencies and unforeseen contributing factors) Gadamer brings us back to a very viable, believable, and comprehesive system of the historical birth of the spirit. Granted, it is impossible to empirically prove the historical accuracy of the Old Testament, but Gadamer points out this historic text's uncanny ability to account for and eliminate every possible obstacle to the coming-into-being of spirit. Once we understand Gadamer's system, we realize that not only is the Old Testament a sensible, fitting, and believable way to account for our existence, it is actually one of the most solid and inarguable existential theories out there. Yes, it does seem shocking and surprising at first, but the more you think about it, the more believable you will find the Old Testament to be. Apparently, the modern philosopher must go down every dead-end, back-alley historical theory known to man before he can finally come to terms with the wisdom of the ancients.
So the only question remaining is, should you buy this book? If you are open minded enough to at least consider the possibility of the historical theory described above, then you will probably find this book to be interesting and intellectually stimulating. If, on the other hand, you are horrified and appauled by what I just said, maybe you should instead ask your college professor for his latest recommendation.

I hate to admit it...especially because all the other reviewers have raved about it...but I find Truth and Method to be a real slog. Yes -- there is some good stuff here. But be warned - you will really, really have to work to get through this book!

Now at this point you may be thinking "well, you are probably lazy or were unprepared." But the thing is - I was neither. I have read Being and Time (which I think is an easier - yes easier - book) and have done much prepatory work for T & M including Introduction to Philosophical Hermeneutics by Jean Grondin -- which I highly recommend).

This book is brilliant. But I think it is very interesting that all the reviewers have such high praise for a text that is so very difficult. Great ideas do not need to be inaccessible. Don't believe me? Look at Plato, Aristotle, Nietzsche.....

First, Truth and Method is a true classic. Basically, it sees Gadamer revitalise 'nonscientific' truth, i.e. the experience of truth inaccessible to method and irreducible to bare statement. The book itself does have a structure/setting that makes it difficult to get into initially (it is usefully read in tandem with a good commentary eg. Joel Weinsheimer's 'Gadamer's Hermeneutics'), but it is simply worth the effort.

Second, the review below is mistaken when it attributes to Gadamer the idea that the Old Testament should be read literally. Gadamer refers to Luther's position that "the Scripture has a univocal sense that can be derived from the text", but he does this as part of an historical overview of hermeneutics and, on the very next page, Luther gets refuted by 18thC historicism. Gadamer moves beyond both these positions to reveal how 'literalism' (and - more pressingly - 'historicism') is a projection of unproductive prejudices. It is an "obstruction", that gets in the way of the truth Gadamer seeks. Also, while T&M is relevant to theology, it should be made clear that Gadamer is writing of a philosophical-universal hermeneutics and not something regional.

Bateson's writings are profoundly layered with meaning that a brief glance will overlook. His prolific influence can be found in sundry fields of study, including psychiatry, communication theory, and marriage and family therapy to name a few.

This is the type of book (among few) that can be read over and over again while discovering new facets of understanding every time.

I highly recommend the metalogues.

Take all the buzzwords in fashion in psychology and philosophy: classification, genotype, flexibility, somatic, discrete, threshold, characteristics, analytic... mix everything together and you get this book.
In other words there's not an ounce of meaning in those 700 pages, it's all worthless. No case studies, no examples, long phrases full of self importance written by someone who thinks he's an authority in everything from zen to medecine to evolution theory to archeology. Not only does he prove he doesn't understand anything, you'll laugh yourself silly reading any paragraph of the book at random.

If you have to read this for an assignment, you'd better change major and give it to your worst enemy for toilet paper. That's how low I think of this. And to think that a tree was felled for this. Ha !

Really, what is the difference between a nip and a bite? They look the same, when you are watching kittens playing, how can you tell if they are biting in earnestness or just fooling around? Well you can't really tell, because a nip is a bite and isn't a bite all at the same time. However, you can tell, of course you can, because a nip has a sign posted on it saying "this is play", a bite on the other hand has a sign saying "this is for real". Moreover tells us Bateson - one of the greatest minds in social thought - whoever cannot tell the difference between a bite and a nip is in big trouble, because the sign stating "this is play" enables us to tell reality from imagination, thus safeguarding our sanity. "Steps in the ecology of the mind" is a profound statement on the mechanisms that make us tick, on the human condition.

Reading "Steps" helped save me from the unremitting horrors of divorce court; I'd probably be on a death row somewheres if not for this & some peripherally associated material. I am very pleased to see that it's in print again.

From those meticulous metalogues to those essays on the Theory of Logical Types, Bateson can mesmerize, if you're prepared for it. Especially enlightening is the lecture on the Treaty of Versailles & cybernetics; for Bateson, the two most important events of his lifetime: if you're going to deceive someone (the Fourteen Points), you'd better get an honest man (Woodrow Wilson) to do it.

"Steps" is to science & reason what Frost's "West Running Brook" is to poetry: an intense meditation, soliloquy & dialogue. It's worth your while.

After my paperback copy of SEM decayed from several readings, I was more than a little disappointed to see that it had gone out of print. I'm glad that its finally back.

Absolutely, Bateson is a "sloppy thinker," just as Picasso was a "sloppy painter" by the standards of Vermeer and Rembrandt. And really a comparison to artists - not formal theorists - is the metric by which Bateson should be judged.

Why is it that Bateson attracts such loyalty? Because his writing illustrates a *process* of thinking, rather than a specific indisputable conclusion. Those who expend the time and effort to read Bateson - and in particular SEM - are rewarded with the certainty that the thinking process is as interesting as any possible conclusion. And it is somewhat more than "clever" that in the SEM dialogues, Bateson uses the very structure and form of his writings to illustrate the content he's explaining.

Indeed it is precisely that uncertainty which vexes "formal" theorists (such as the reviewer below). Bateson - as a systems thinker - was always more interested in process and context than in defining any literal end result. After all, what possible "proof" could be offered that dolphins are second-order thinkers because they can learn about learning?. How on earth could proof be gained that icons and verbalizations are mediated by dreaming?

I would offer this question to Bateson's critics: if his thinking is so irredeemably sloppy, what then is his lasting appeal? Why does he - among all the philosophers and scientists of the 20th century - continue to have such a loyal following? Name a single cybernetician or epistomologist who is commonly cited in contemporary philosphical thinking.

Answer: there are none. So the bigger question is not why Bateson is popular, but why systems thinking (of which Bateson was a practitioner) is so absent from American academia. That fact is an indictment of something, but is certainly is not Gregory Bateson.