2005/06/19

"Squashed Philosophers" by Glyn Hughes

From his "About" page:
There is no taking-part in the 'Great Debate' of Western civilisation... without some familiarity with the, remarkably few, thinkers in whose language and idiom the talk is conducted...

There's nothing new in making condensed versions of the classics. What is different here is that these are neither the opinion of one person nor mere extracts. Instead, each has begun with a very wide analysis of quotations, citations and, especially, past examination papers (including UK A-Levels back to 1976), to establish which passages, which phrases, which lines, which words and which ideas, are generally considered the most important...