The Making of a Philosopher: My Journey Through Twentieth-Century Philosophy - Hardcover

McGinn, Colin

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0060197927 ISBN 13: 9780060197926

Publisher: Harper, 2002

Synopsis

Part memoir, part study, The Making of a Philosopher is the self-portrait of a deeply intelligent mind as it develops over a life lived on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Making of a Philosopher follows Colin McGinn from his early years in England, reading Descartes and Anselm, to his years in the States, first in Los Angeles, then New York. McGinn presents a contemporary academic take on the great philosophical figures of the twentieth century, including Bertrand Russell, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Noam Chomsky, alongside stories of the teachers who informed his ideas and often became friends and mentors, especially the colorful A. J. Ayer at Oxford.

McGinn's prose is always elegant and probing; students of contemporary philosophy and the general reader alike will absorb every page.

About this title

Review

The Making of a Philosopher is an unusual book--and a welcome one. Well-known analytic philosopher Colin McGinn sets out, rather ambitiously, to write an introduction and explanation of philosophy. But instead of a dry volume bound for dusty shelves, McGinn has given us a book of philosophy, but it is philosophy as told through autobiography. By telling the story of his life--or, more precisely, his intellectual life--McGinn illuminates a number of the central topics in contemporary philosophy. He intentionally leaves out the portions of his life he deems irrelevant to his intellectual formation, but one can't help wondering how capably he can make this distinction about himself.

The book is enormously readable, or at least as readable as an introduction to analytic philosophy can hope to be. McGinn, who also writes fiction, has a gift for narrative, and the events in his life propel the reader along a clear, concise, and helpful overview of the main topics in today's philosophy departments. He is candid, occasionally self-deprecating, and funny, but above all, an able guide. Readers will discover not only the thoughts of Bertrand Russell, Saul Kripke, and Ludwig Wittgenstein but also a wonderfully honest examination of a philosopher's life worth living. --Eric de Place

About the Author

Colin McGinn was educated at Oxford University. The author of sixteen previous books, including The Making of a Philosopher, he has written for the London Review of Books, The New Republic, the New York Times Book Review, and other publications. He has taught philosophy at University College of London, Oxford, and Rutgers University, and is a distinguished professor of philosophy at the University of Miami.

Edition details

• Publisher: Harper
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0060197927
• ISBN 13: 9780060197926
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 256