What? : Sacramento Book Review

Filed in Philosophy on July 19, 2011 with no comments

By?Mark Kurlansky
Walker & Company, $15.00,?77 pages

Mark Kurlansky?s What? asks the ?twenty most important questions in human history,? and has created a witty and amusing book in the process. This is a book of questions that at first seem to have no end, but force the reader to really consider the text and what they themselves think the answer might be. Often people can be intimidated by picking up any philosophical text. However, Kurlansky?s writing is delightful and welcoming to all readers. Slowly, as Kurlansky considers the ancient philosophers, Shakespeare, Hemmingway, and other ?great questioners,? readers begin to ask their own questions in response. Many will also start reading statements more as questions than as definite answers.

Kurlansky has created a brilliant book. What? asks valid questions that are often ignored. This book accomplishes what it sets out to do, and is just as entertaining as it is eye opening. Readers may start to ask these same questions to their friends or family, creating an open dialogue of ideas. And isn?t that what many of the great questioners where trying to do when they asked their own questions?

Reviewed by?Robyn Oxborrow

Source: http://sacramentobookreview.com/philosophy/what/

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