Nigel Warburton

Philosophy: The Basics

by Nigel Warburton

"Bizarrely, when I first started writing philosophy books, in the late 1980s, there were hardly any philosophy books targeted at the general reader, and hardly any introductory ones. I was teaching undergraduates and 16-18 year olds philosophy at the time and I had lots of notes. The first book I wrote was partly based on my teaching — it’s called Philosophy: The Basics. It’s a general, topic-driven introduction to philosophy. It’s the kind of book that I hoped I would find, when I was 15 or 16, to help me understand what philosophy is. The publishers liked the format and title so much that they created a whole series of ‘Basics’ books with well over 50 titles now (unfortunately they forgot to credit me for initiating that!).

Argument is central to the kind of philosophy that I’m interested in—making a case for a position without being dogmatic about what that position is. It’s a book that doesn’t presume any prior knowledge of philosophy, but I’ve also tried to write it as clearly as possible. The structure of it is that I present an argument that’s been important in the history of philosophy and give some criticisms of it in each case. There’s an engagement with the ideas, not just simply a summary of them, it’s meant to encourage the reader to decide how good they think the criticisms are, and to carry on with further reading if they want to."

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Thinking from A to Z

by Nigel Warburton

"The second book that I wrote was called Thinking from A to Z. This is about critical thinking, the kinds of informal logic that are central to the philosophical method: reasoning tools, that complement the first book."

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Philosophy: The Classics

by Nigel Warburton

"The third book I wrote, Philosophy: The Classics, is slightly different. It’s approaching philosophy historically, looking at some key books in the history of philosophy, from the Republic to the present day. The book summarizes very briefly some of the key arguments from each book, and some possible criticisms of the approaches within the book. Again, it’s a book that’s meant to take you to the original books—not to be an excuse not to read them. Again, it’s written for a very general audience. I also edited an anthology of readings, called Philosophy: Basic Readings. That is meant to complement these three books. So that has short readings from a range of different places, on various topics and philosophers."

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A Little History of Philosophy

by Nigel Warburton

It may be true of all subjects, but it's particularly true of philosophy that it's hard to understand any of  it until you know quite a lot about it. Even a book for teenagers, like the 1995 bestseller Sophie's World, is extremely hard to follow if you really are a beginner. What's nice about Nigel Warburton's A Little History of Philosophy is that, as the title suggests, it takes a historical approach. That makes it a lot easier to follow what's going on. It has short chapters on all the big names in Western philosophy—and their basic ideas—over the past two millennia, from Socrates and Plato through to Peter Singer, the Australian utilitarian philosopher who only just retired from Princeton University.

A Little History of Philosophy is also very nice to listen to as an audiobook. By the end you'll know your Kant from your Kierkegaard, your Spinoza from your Schopenhauer and your Aristotle from your Arendt—all in just 7.5 hours of listening!

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Philosophy: The Essential Study Guide

by Nigel Warburton

"Lastly, I also wrote two slim books for people studying philosophy at university. One is called Philosophy: The Essential Study Guide, which is to help philosophy students understand how to approach being a student of philosophy (my original title for this was ‘The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Philosophy Students’, but the publisher didn’t like that). The other one is more general and is called The Basics of Essay Writing. It’s again a short book and applies particularly to writing philosophy essays, but to other subjects as well."

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The Art Question

by Nigel Warburton

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Philosophy Bites

by Nigel Warburton

A book of interviews from the Philosophy Bites podcast. Other books in the series include: Philosophy Bites Back, Philosophy Bites Again and Women of Ideas: Interviews from Philosophy Bites, edited by Suki Finn.

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Women of Ideas: Interviews from Philosophy Bites

edited by Suki Finn

Women of Ideas is a collection of interviews with philosophers from the Philosophy Bites podcast.  The interviews were selected and put together by Suki Finn, Lecturer in Philosophy at Royal Holloway, part of the University of London. It's a really fascinating collection, opening with an interview with Amia Srinivasan, Chichele Professor of Social and Political Theory at All Souls College, Oxford, on "What is a Woman?"

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Free Speech: A Very Short Introduction

by Nigel Warburton

Part of the Very Short Introductions series

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