PLATO SMASH!!
A mixture of philosophy, absurdity, humour and surprising factual accuracy make the Action Philosophers an entertaining and educational read. Plus it makes Plato sound like a wrestler. That’s ballin’.
What’s in it?
The Action Philosophers series gives mini-biographies that describe what influenced the philosophers’ lives, and what their major philosophies were. My favourite aspect of the book was the breadth of philosophers covered: Plato and Bodhidharma to Carl Jung and Ayn Rand. (Yes, Adeel, I know).
Click through to see why I liked it, and where you can get a free preview of this series.
Why I liked it?
As a self-proclaimed “pro-am philosopher”, I learned much more than I expected to from this book. To be frank, although I am quite interested in Buddhism, I had never heard of Bodhidharma. (”Father” of Zen Buddhism, and quite the iconoclast.) Also, the book also nicely interweaves the lives of many of the great thinkers to show how they affected each other’s thoughts and actions.
Lastly, I felt like the bites were large enough to be satisfying, but not so large that my impatient personality took over and made me get down to dance.
Check it out!
Check out the free previews of the Action Philosophers. You can also buy paper or digital versions from this site.
[tags]review, philosophy, graphic novel, comic[/tags]
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Er, they’re usually great overall thinkers like Einstein, not obscure people like Hegel or Spinoza.
Does this mean you would prefer a comic book of obscure philosophers?
Sorry, I had a comment before that which didn’t get through. I said that you can buy similar action figures at a place on Harbord just west of Spadina, a well as at the U of T bookstore…but they’re overall great thinkers like Einstein, not obscure philosophers.
PS Any book on pre-Socratic philosophers IS a book about obscure philosophers. There were Anaximander and Anaxagoras, Xenophanes (not to be confused with Xenophon or Aristophanes, or Zeno), Zeno of Elea (not to be confused with the later Stoic named Zeno of Citium), Protagoras and Pythagoras…and it goes on.