western philosophy

Last week completed the book 'Sophies World' by Jostein Gaarder

My earlier attempts to understand Western Philosophy were thwated by my choice of book, lack of any previous background or perhaps most importantly by my lack of maturity. I had attempted the book - Story of Philosophy
by Will Durant 6 years back but had given it up after 2 chapters. The same phenomena had happened for - Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance. Few years back I was finally able to read the entire book Zen.. without understanding it completely. Eveny night on retunring from office I would read a couple of pages and would then doze off. This lasted for 2 months and by the end of it I was able to tick mark this book off my list of 'To be Read' books. Though the content gets heavier after a while I still managed to complete it due to the shear mental association with the Motorcycle trip. It kind of broke the monotony of the philosophical content.

After this I had given up on reading any other book in this domain. My interest got rekindled on the suggestion of the owner of Corner Bookshop at Spencer Plaza. I am glad that he recommened this book.

Sophies World is brief introduction to the entire history of western philosophy. For the first time I was able to follow the flow of ideas from the pre-Socratic Greek philosophers to Jean Paul Sartre without getting into the trap of definitions and jargons.



Best part is that fictional/story telling structure the the book similar to the Goldratts 'The Goal' makes it a easy read.