A Student's Guide to Philosophy: Philosophy (Guides to Major Disciplines) Paperback – November 1, 1999

Ralph McInerny is a rarely gifted philosopher, as his Gifford Lectures and prolific contribution to first rate academic philosophy indicate. This little introduction is one I found to be a jewel of book. True enough, it is not dumbed down to meet the lowest common denominator as far as the reading public is concerned. It's challenging reading, as it should be. It requires a bit of effort to read, and yet much of it is quite clearly written even for initiates. What McInerny does so well, and so relevantly, is to explain why the tradition of classical realism in philosophy is alive and well, and pointedly relevant in today's socal and academic context. Academic philosophers, who have reached the cul-de-sac of the postmodern caricature of philosophy, are living examples of the need for books like McInerny's. He rightly leads the reader through the watershed event in the history of philosophy--the "modern turn to the subject"--and shows why what goes by the name "philosophy" today is a rather sad imposter to the title. The death of philosophy, in other words, is greatly exaggerated. Such a claim relies on the acceptance of needless assumptions, some of which are sophisticated errors, while others are simply silly. One small problem I have with more than one of McInerny's books is the apparently gratuitious shots he takes at Luther and other Reformers. In this, he seems to follow one of his mentors, Jacques Maritain. I highly respect Maritain, who was the favorably treated subject of my PhD dissertation in Philosophy. However, the superficial criticisms of Luther and the Reformation appear to be an odd but inevitable thread in the otherwise sterling work of many contemporary Catholic philosophers. I hesitate even to include this observation, for fear that it might take away from the solid, commendable work McInerny has accomplished in his fine introduction, and his other excellent works. In the process of earning degress at three Catholic universities, I've always been a bit puzzled at the failure to understand Luther on the part of scholars who seemingly should know better. This is a small price to pay for the wealth of first rate philosophy found in McInerny's works--which are a needed corrective to the generally sad condition of academic philosophy today. The book is very highly recomended.

Dr. McInerny gives exactly what he promises: a guide. He points you in the right direction, and more than that, he gives you the map. And a great one. Always well written, as are all his books.Those who are biased accused him of being exactly that. But they should think again. Dr. McInerny never hid his views or his defense (and deference) of the classic philosophical view. He's a Catholic, and so he defends Thomism and the classical way. No surprises.What I think some people defend is that kind of cynical book where the writer pretends he's writing an "objective" and "unbiased" book while washing your mind with all possible modernist views. Those are the ones some people call "honest and unbiased".At least Dr. McInerny is honest about his preferences. You got what you payed for.

I own and have read several other titles belonging to ISI's "student guides" series and have found them to be generally informative and useful. That said, as a Philosophy major in college, I cannot recommend McInerny's guide to fellow students looking for an introductive overview of subject. While the author is no doubt a talented philosopher, the writing in this guide is very scattered. Different topics are jumped around to quite frequently, with nothing to really tie them together. I speculate that these topics are of major interest to McInerny, but that is not the point of this series. The point is to help students understand philosophy as part of a classic liberal education, and in that regard, I found the book wanting.The book also presumes that the reader has a strong background in philosophy already, thus making the material more suitable for graduate, rather than undergraduate, students.Overall, while the book has some redeeming points (ie the argument for first principles against skeptics), there are other better guides out there for students on the subject of philosophy. I would still recommend other titles in this "Student's Guide" series, however, primarily the ones pertaining to Psychology (Daniel N. Robinson) and Political Philosophy (Harvey C. Mansfield).