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A Brief Guide to Ideas
by William Raeper and Linda Edwards

Philosophy -- Dry and Remote? Think Again!

Philosophy is as relevant as tonight's news, as immediate as the choice one makes in a career. Anyone who wants to interact wisely with the world they live in needs to understand the ideas that shape its commerce, launch its humanitarian efforts, trigger its wars, and profoundly impact the way they approach God, life, and relationships.
Postmodernism, Platonism, Humanism, Existentialism, Feminism, Rationalism, Fundamentalism, New Age . . . they're more than just terms. They're structures of thought we encounter constantly. A BRIEF GUIDE TO IDEAS gives readers a fundamental grasp of what they are and how they influence our dealings with the world . . . and its dealings with us.

Linda Edwards and the late William Raeper provide insights into over 40 of the world's major thinkers, like Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Descartes, Kant, Locke, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud, Wittgenstein, and many more.

Readers will develop a working knowledge of numerous key ideas and movements. And they'll learn how philosophers and religions through the ages have grappled with critical questions that influence our lives today.

A BRIEF GUIDE TO IDEAS is divided into sixteen themes, each one grouping philosophies together to succinctly compare and contrast them:

* How and What Can We Know? - Epistemology
* Who Am I? - The Question of Identity
* Does God Exist? - Philosophy of Religion
* Routes to Knowledge - Rationalism and Empiricism
* Why Do We Exist? - Existentialism
* All in the Mind? - Psychology
* How Should Society Be Organized? - Politics
* Is Man the Measure of All Things? - Humanism
* Who Is Jesus? - The Person of Christ
* What Place Has the Bible? - The Question of Interpretation
* Does Science Have the Answers? - Science and Belief
* The Nature of Meaning - Skepticism and Pluralism
* What Are the Boundaries of Reality? - The Paranormal
* God the Mother? - Feminism
* Anything Goes? - Relativism Versus Certainty
* Renaissance or Delusion? - New Age Thinking

Original edition of this book published by Lion Publishing plc., Oxford, England.

THE AUTHORS:
Linda Edwards is visiting lecturer at Trinity College, Carmarthen, Wales, and a freelance writer and educational consultant. The late William Raeper was a writer and teacher based in Oxford. Together, they wrote the highly successful textbook Luke: A Gospel for Today.

Title: A BRIEF GUIDE TO IDEAS
Authors: William Raeper and Linda Edwards
ISBN: 0-310-22774-7
(Softcover, 128 pp.)
Pub Date: February` 1999
File Under: Philosophy