Giant-Size Thing (Action Philosophers!) [Englisch] [Taschenbuch]

I've been ecstatic with the previous two volumes of Action Philosophers. And, I'm not unhappy with the third and final volume. Van Lente and Dunlavey have done two services to the discipline of philosophy. First, they have found a creative, humorous, and effective way to present philosophical concepts to a vast audience. Second, and most importantly, they have found a creative, humorous, and effective way to present ACCURATE philosophical concepts to a vast audience.
Here's why four stars and not five. Action Philosophers Volume 3 began with five stars. It went down to three because they failed in the second aspect (accuracy). It then got an extra point, because even the inaccurate ones were funny as hell (I actually convinced one of my friends to play six degrees of Francis Bacon with me). So, it ended up with a grand total of four.
Here's the main reason for the lowered accuracy. To be brief, they bit off more than they could chew. EIGHTEEN philosophers are covered here. And, to give credit where credit is due, they did an amazing job with about half of them. The ones I was upset with were the one page philosophers like Foucault, Wollstonecraft, Berkeley, and especially Leibniz, (whose philosophy they never explained; they only used secondary source material such as Voltaire) were not given any just exposition of their concepts. Had they increased the page numbers or dropped the one page philosophers altogether, this would have been the best of the three volumes.
Having said that, I want to emphasize that this is still a book worth getting. They actually had the cajones to tackle Kant. And what's more, THEY SUCCEEDED!!! Okay, they didn't knock it out of the park, but they did as good a job with Kant as I've seen others do concerning his Critique of Pure Reason (and the Law and Order bit was hilarious). The follow-up with Hegel and Schopenhauer as a single comic showed that Van Lente and Dunlavey knew their stuff. Hegel and Schopenhauer were Kant's two main successors, though Hegel got most of the press (a point that Van Lente and Dunlavey nail). Their Aristotle (which was my favorite) and Epictetus were also particularly impressive and really highlight their A-game in this third volume.
In short, there are some shortcomings with this third volume that are primarily due to the guys flooding the book with too many philosophers. BUT! There is plenty that makes up for it. So, avoid the one pagers when you get the book (or read them, some are pretty funny, though not accurate) but know that none of the old magic is lost on the other comics.

This is the 3rd of a great series, and I am sad to hear that it might not continue. I have all 3 of these. I have never learned so much in a short period of time. What a great way to get an overview of many of the world's great philosophers, and some obscure ones as well. Could be an excellent way to teach young people about philosophy and history's gear thinkers, but as an adult I loved it.

Fred Van Lente and Ryan Dunlavey keep churning out these seemingly effortless "bio's" on historical figures of western and asian civ. I particularly enjoyed Socrates thru to Confucius. I own the entire series and it makes me feel a bit relieved that there are still people out there that will make the effort to explore and invigorate the classical text and reinterpret it in a new way. I would recommend the entire series. It will also get your kids interested in history and philosophy.