I've mentioned Oxford's Very Short Introductions before on the blog, but I can't help pointing out another written by A.C. Grayling on Wittgenstein. It's a great example of distilling something complicated down into digestible hunks in an honest presentation and analysis. Very well done. In addition, he's a fine essayist with a number of collections worth reading, such as Meditations for the Humanist: Ethics for a Secular Age.
Check it out.
-Dylan
I’ve noticed that the distilled summary as a genre of writing is becoming more advanced across the board and split into many nutritious streams. Your “salon” is a major crossroads of this exciting development. Try out Clair Colebrook on Deleuze and also her history of the concept of Irony. I think she would inform your discussions of Plato’s character Socrates a good deal.
Thanks, Emil. I’ll check her work out.
-Dylan
btw, I’ve read the A.C. Grayling on Wittgenstein and it cleared up quite a few things I didn’t understand with regards to this complex man and his relationship to philosophy. I have yet to get used to your three voices, so I don’t yet know who is who when the discussion is going on. I look forward to getting caught up over the next year. I’ve come to philosophy through a circuitous route. Just getting my legs with it so to speak.
Claire is one of the best philosophers in the business tho as often happens in the politics of the academy she is not employed by a philo dept.
you can hear her here:
http://www.personal.psu.edu/cpl2/blogs/digitaldialogue/2011/04/digital-dialogue-47-narrative.html
Clicking on your link to Oxford’s Very Short Introductions, the first item on the list is Nothing: A Very Short Introduction. Clicking on the book image “click to look inside”, we come across this: This page intentionally left blank.
Hmmm, it seems nothing is not nothing after all.
I give a thumbs up to the whole seiries. They are great introductions that leave you wanting more and show you where to get it. The print is sooo small though.
Try the audiobooks. These are invaluable introductions as summaries per se.