The Philosopher's Toolkit: A Compendium of Philosophical Concepts and Methods, Edition 2

I here mean to comment on the e-book as an e-book, not so much the content provided by the authors. 1.) the index does not function as an index in the e-book: instead of entries which take you to the passage in question, it is simply a list of terms found in the index, which lead nowhere. Now one might say, "There's no need for an index which leads to passages, since in an e-book, one can simply do a word search." True, but then why have this corpse of an index in the e-book? 2.) the "original pages" option does not actually provide a facsimile of the original pages, but again, some strange half-being: neither the flowing text nor the pages of the original book. It is technologically possible to provide the original pages (Hackett Publishing, for example is able to do so), so why not just do so? The fault probably lies with the publisher, which did not give the proper files to Google. This does not make the e-book unreadable, but does mean the ostensibly "original" pages are aesthetically unappealing (compared to the actual original pages) and that one cannot cite page numbers which correspond to the print version. Admittedly, the citation issue is not as pressing in a book composed of entries which can be cited as such. ----- ----- ----- As for the content, it does the job advertised in the title: provides the reader with a basic philosophical toolkit. The "tools" are presented in short, readable articles which provide references for further exploration. If one wishes for longer, more in-depth articles, one can find them in a philosophical encyclopedia (a number of which are listed in the Toolkit). The book does operate on an introductory level, but I don't have the impression that it pretends to be doing anything more. The shortness of the articles may mean instead that it is non-threatening to the average undergraduate reader, and invites exploration in a way that more comprehensive books might not be able to do.

best book for many topics. of course some terms are too short but thats also why this is the best for learning many terms.

Relevant crossing of higher kind against lower kind crossing