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katetay69's review
2.0
Such a disappointment :(
The premise of this is that it is an easy intro to some of the great philosophers but it is definitely not that.
Firstly, the writing style is choppy and the ends of chapters feel unfinished to me, it just didn't hold my attention. The 'lessons' in the book don't end up shining through, they just got lost.
Secondly, I didn't find it funny when he tried to be, it was all just quite dull. I probably enjoyed the first quarter of the book the most.
Nevertheless, there were some takeaways:
- The story of philosophy is like a game of hide and seek; profound meanings or explanations come into the light for a while, sometimes centuries, before historical circumstances send them back to inaccessible corners.
- Philosophy can shed light in the darkest corners and create a bond between people who lived hundreds of years apart.
- Turns out Pythagoras was all about numbers being apart of ratio and harmony. He believed everything is a number, and that numbers are the essence of design, and if everything is a number it means there is harmony and relationship between them.
- Foucalt believes that illness reveals the fault lines of knowledge and power in society. This was true for bubonic plague, AIDS, COVID 19
- Dementia is a baffling illness, one which murdoch described several times in its early days as sailing into darkness. it can be traumatic for lose left on the shore, who are invariably left with questions about the identity of the person being carried away from them by the tide.
The premise of this is that it is an easy intro to some of the great philosophers but it is definitely not that.
Firstly, the writing style is choppy and the ends of chapters feel unfinished to me, it just didn't hold my attention. The 'lessons' in the book don't end up shining through, they just got lost.
Secondly, I didn't find it funny when he tried to be, it was all just quite dull. I probably enjoyed the first quarter of the book the most.
Nevertheless, there were some takeaways:
- The story of philosophy is like a game of hide and seek; profound meanings or explanations come into the light for a while, sometimes centuries, before historical circumstances send them back to inaccessible corners.
- Philosophy can shed light in the darkest corners and create a bond between people who lived hundreds of years apart.
- Turns out Pythagoras was all about numbers being apart of ratio and harmony. He believed everything is a number, and that numbers are the essence of design, and if everything is a number it means there is harmony and relationship between them.
- Foucalt believes that illness reveals the fault lines of knowledge and power in society. This was true for bubonic plague, AIDS, COVID 19
- Dementia is a baffling illness, one which murdoch described several times in its early days as sailing into darkness. it can be traumatic for lose left on the shore, who are invariably left with questions about the identity of the person being carried away from them by the tide.
textpublishing's review
The following book reviews have been shared by Text Publishing – publisher of Ideas to Save Your Life
‘Michael McGirr is a bit of a twenty-first century alchemist with words: nothing is too deep to be made understandable, his aim is consolation and kindness always, and the result is often magic.’
Geraldine Doogue
‘A wonderful excursion through a host of ideas and thinkers.’
Meredith Lake, ABC RN Soul Search
'A tonic…A book to unscramble your brain and help refresh your perspective.’
Happy Mag
‘A lively, often comic, narrative combined with a romp through some of the key ideas of ancient philosophy…What McGirr draws from the well of philosophy serves his purpose as a storyteller and a critic of society, and he leads us from the personal to the philosophical in an entertaining and often insightful way.’
Janna Thompson, Australian Book Review
‘A bracing romp…Definitely add it to the Christmas list.’
Fullers Weekly
‘McGirr’s survey of more than twenty major philosophers, including Socrates, Montaigne, William James, Simone Weil and Mary Midgley, is very much about which of their ideas retains authentic traction in a vocational life dedicated to making the world a more just and humane place…[This is an] erudite yet chatty collection of essays…New lights turned on for me as I read Ideas to Save Your Life. I’m thankful for the laughs too.’
Gregory Day, Age
‘Humorous and passionate…The life that McGirr commends is one that risks insecurity, is sensitive to one’s fragility and fallibility, compassionate to other human beings, and full of wonder at a beautiful and death-marked world. The natural response to such a world is one of gratitude.’
Eureka Street
‘Michael McGirr is a bit of a twenty-first century alchemist with words: nothing is too deep to be made understandable, his aim is consolation and kindness always, and the result is often magic.’
Geraldine Doogue
‘A wonderful excursion through a host of ideas and thinkers.’
Meredith Lake, ABC RN Soul Search
'A tonic…A book to unscramble your brain and help refresh your perspective.’
Happy Mag
‘A lively, often comic, narrative combined with a romp through some of the key ideas of ancient philosophy…What McGirr draws from the well of philosophy serves his purpose as a storyteller and a critic of society, and he leads us from the personal to the philosophical in an entertaining and often insightful way.’
Janna Thompson, Australian Book Review
‘A bracing romp…Definitely add it to the Christmas list.’
Fullers Weekly
‘McGirr’s survey of more than twenty major philosophers, including Socrates, Montaigne, William James, Simone Weil and Mary Midgley, is very much about which of their ideas retains authentic traction in a vocational life dedicated to making the world a more just and humane place…[This is an] erudite yet chatty collection of essays…New lights turned on for me as I read Ideas to Save Your Life. I’m thankful for the laughs too.’
Gregory Day, Age
‘Humorous and passionate…The life that McGirr commends is one that risks insecurity, is sensitive to one’s fragility and fallibility, compassionate to other human beings, and full of wonder at a beautiful and death-marked world. The natural response to such a world is one of gratitude.’
Eureka Street
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