I am a busy man. I may not be the CEO of a corporation or someone whose schedule is always full, but I value my time. In that line of thinking they made The Philosopher’s Handbook, a collection of essays and excerpts from longer works.

The book is divided into six major sections that each focus on one aspect of philosophy. These sections are introduced by an expert in that field with an essay that talks about that focus. Following the essay is a number of short portions from different longer works. For example, the first section focuses on Social and Political Philosophy. It has an introductory essay from Paul Rahe and goes into pertinent sections of Symposium, Gorgias, and Republic by Plato; Politics by Aristotle; The Prince by Machiavelli; Leviathan by Hobbes; and the First and Second Discourses by Rousseau. The other five sections are Philosophy of Religion, Philosophy of Art and Culture, Metaphysics, Epistemology, and Philosophy of Science.

The book is good. I like how it focuses on a particular subject rather than having the entire work. The excerpt from Leviathan has that quote on how human life is, for example. I also like how the introductory essays focus your attention on the important parts of the work. As far as an introductory work, this book is well-suited to that task. ( )