Reviews for Bacon: His Writings, and His Philosophy

The average rating for Bacon: His Writings, and His Philosophy based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-10-26 00:00:00 Bernard B Lewis This book is a collection of op-ed columns the author wrote for the National Post op-ed page from May 2000 to October 2003. Before even opening the book it is obvious that Kingwell is biased; the title blatantly rebukes the right. Throughout the book his opinions are very left-wing. Since this is a collection of opinion pieces, writing an unbiased book was clearly not Kingwell’s goal. However, the author does mention that he refrained from editing some of his work. He kept it in its original state. There were pieces he found too grating, and some he realized afterward were inaccurate. To keep the integrity of the book intact, he left them as is. Even though the book was published 6 years ago it is already out of date. Some issues aren’t current but the message in the piece may still be relevant. Other issues aren’t explained in detail, so if you are not familiar with the context the message may be lost. Nevertheless, there are some over-arching themes that can be gleaned from the book. Mark Kingwell talks a lot about thinking critically and forming individual opinions. At one point Kingwell says, “We have to think for ourselves; pause and reflect on our duties and desires before we rush off and barge into yet another thoughtless policy initiative or glib suggestion”. This makes the tone of the book quite negative and often pessimistic. Even so, I like his critical tone. I think people are far too quick these days to accept the status quo without dissecting it, and what it really means. They take things, information especially, at face value. Kingwell also talks about how many people have become less involved in the way our world is run. We have transformed from citizens into consumers. We no longer care about issues, nor do we care to take the time to inform ourselves. Kingwell attributes our apathy to overstimulation. He claims that many feel that if they cannot do everything, they will do nothing instead. I think it is also necessary to be critical of Kingwell’s writing. While talking about being critical of Al Gore he says: “Al Gore once claimed he invented the internet”. I know these are opinion pieces and not research papers; still this is a pretty big claim. For information like this it would be nice to know a source, and maybe some context.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-06-06 00:00:00 Steven Maier this is a great book that should be read by everyone.