A Guide to Philosophy in Six Hours and Fifteen Minutes

June 4, 2007
Though this slim volume is more a postmodern Cliffs Notes than a guide, readers who want to learn more about the big boys of Western thought have a fine tutor in Gombrowicz. Gliding effortlessly between straightforward exposition and far-reaching interpretation, with a healthy dose of respectful lampooning in between, Gombrowicz casts a lively, though dizzying, spell; on Schopenhauer's worldview: "It is a grandiose and tragic vision which, unfortunately, coincides perfectly with reality." Though his fluid prose sometimes obscures his meaning (considering Hegel's progress of reason, Gombrowicz's prose reads more like a performance: "Beyond time and space. There will no longer be any movement. Then poof! the ABSOLUTE."). Although the book covers no more than the standard group of Europeon Philosophy 101 figures (Kant, Hegel, Kierkegaard, Sartre, Heidegger, Marx, Nietzsche), it's far from introductory, playing fast and loose with some tricky concepts; readers entirely unfamiliar with the thinkers will find themselves lost at times, but the philosophy-conversant will find thought-provoking analysis and more than a few laughs.