Reviews for Cosmos, God, and Philosophy

The average rating for Cosmos, God, and Philosophy based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-06-25 00:00:00 Fred Van Holst I assigned the book for one of my classes. It's soso. Schick covers too much; in many places, his quick treatment of positions turns into a caricature (e.g. when he tries to explain in one or two paragraphs the development from empiricism to logical positivism). I most disliked his chapter on Kant's ethics. He just throws the formulations of the categorical imperative onto his readers without explaining how they are derived/what their underlying meaning is. Still, at many places he does a good job. Overall, it was ok using the book once, but I will try something else for my next intro class. I liked the discussion questions at the end of each chapter, they facilitated my preparation.

Review # 2 was written on 2011-08-29 00:00:00 Kathryn Patterson As far as textbooks are concerned, this is the best one I have read. Schick was able to keep my interest. He did not drop down to painfully simple vocabulary, nor did he elevate his diction to pretentious heights, nor did he keep the information dry. Rather, the book contains succinct but informative thought experiments, explanations, and counterexamples. I as a Trekkie also happened to enjoy the frequent mentions to TOS and TNG... That being said, the book's shortcoming comes in the form of a few unconvincing thought experiments and counterexamples. Some of the examples countering the soul theory seemed slightly off-base, for example. Many of the thought experiments and counterexamples mentioned are important and well-known, but a few of them are not the strongest out there in the philosophical world. Many concepts are reduced slightly oversimplistically at times, but it is a very good book for introducing students to philosophy.