The 90-Minute Philosopher Series

Avoid the Plato book in the series. Strathern had no attention span when it came to Plato, and repeatedly misses the point. Personally, I prefer Frederick Copelston's History of Philosophy series. His books on early modern philosophy has helped me immensely in my History of Modern Philosophy class. I have found that I have learned more about the ideas of Descartes, Locke, and Berkeley from his books than the primary sources I have to read.

Thank you for the heads up, I will check into that series as well.

I've actually read the (for beginners) books to some things, and they're comics.

I've read Wittgenstein in 90 minutes and I would also reccomend that you avoid that title from the series Strathern, he sketches out Wittgenstein's personal life vividly but the coverage of Wittgenstein's actual ideas is very poor at best and Strathern seems to have quite a dislike for Wittgenstein.

I don't know about anybody else, but I tend to find introductory books such as these, counter-productive. They're good to get the basics of a philosopher, or for reference, but I find if one really wants to understand a philosopher it's best to rid his or her original work.

I agree for the most part, but in my particular case it assisted in choosing which philosophers I wanted to read at this point in time. Obviously we cannot read them all at once and there are some philosophers and works that we're destined not to care for, which is where I find introductory works to be useful.

I find for that sort of thing "general" introductory texts are better, that introduce a variety of philosophers rather than just one.

I can see why someone would think that, but a lot of those don't do many of the philosophers justice. I like things that have a point and get to it quickly. I've read some decent "general" introductory texts, but I personally found these individual ones more effective for my needs. I spent less then an hour reading two introductions that made me want to read further works. They not only gave me a decent summation of each philosopher, but pointed out specific works that I know I want to read. If I'm looking for a particular philosopher to study, I don't want to spend hours reading about other ones. I picked up an introduction to multiple philosophers and began to read the first few pages. Firstly, it was a rather large book with a rather small font. Secondly, the author bored me quite quickly. I like to invest my time wisely

Since the only "90 minute" book by Strathern I am familiar with is the one on Plato, this may not be a good critique of the series, but from my experience with that book, Strathern is anything but objective in his dealings with other's philosophies. I found Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy to be a much better introduction to Plato (and other philosophers)--and it is free.

I found the Strathern book on Wittgenstein to be much the same as Theaetetus described his experience. There are plenty of good introduction's to Philosopher's on the internet.

I have also found books that have self containted essays (so they can be read individually) on different Philosopher's to be useful and has certainly helped me be introduced to thought of Philosopher's quite quickly and clearly. Personally I thought the The Great Philosophers (pretty costly in the US) Amazon.com: The Great Philosophers From Socrates to Turing: Ray Monk, Frederic Raphael: Books
Was a very good book particulary liked Ray Monk's chapter on Russell and the foundation of math, which certainly increased my understanding of Russell's philosophy.

granted in the 90 minute books I've read from Strathern, he does little justice to the Philosophy itself, however some people need the heavily biographical information he provides in which to couch the actual phil. Biography is an essential part of people's ability to empathize and sympathize with the philosopher. It the path that most people need to travel to grasp abstractness.

Strathern's 90 Minute Kierkegaard is quite a disgrace. He continues to perpetuate old misreadings and even introduces some blantanly false ideas himself.

Out of curiousity what does anybody think of the Very Short Introductions series?

I am not familiar with that series, but if it is the series printed by Oxford University Press, then it is probably pretty good.

I have read some of the Very Short Introductions series and have found the information contained in them be to be accurate and useful, if not a bit a dull and dry. The real problem with Introductionary material seems to be finding the balance between being an enjoyable read and containing good sold information for someone wanting to learn the in's and outs of that particular Philosopher.

See I started reading Hume: A Very Short Introduction by A. J. Ayer (himself a famous philosopher) but I found it so dry, and imbued too much with Ayer's on interpretation of Hume that I gave up and went and read Enquiry instead, but then I've found the introductin to say Plato, really quite good.