Enlightened
Eccentrics
Enlightened
Eccentrics
Robert Spillane
PB AUD25.00
I pushed myself to read this book
in the sense that it would not fall into my
normal selection of reading material.
So why read it I hear you asking.
Professor Robert Spillane was my lecturer in
business philosophy many years back and I really
enjoyed his classes. So when this book was part
of our range at a recent conference I decided
to select it for review.
Although I don't recall my pass marks in Professor
Spillane's class I certainly would struggle
to get a pass if I needed to write an essay
on the material in this book!
His choice of title for the book comes about
based on the philosophers he has chosen to write
about. They all lived between 1600 and 1800
and fit into 'The Age of Reason' as Spillane
calls it.
His writing style is a mix of
dry facts and figures with bursts of delicious
irony and humour and it was that aspect which
kept me turning the pages.
You start the journey with the question asked
in 1784 by the Berlin Academy of Sciences "What
is enlightenment?" Two figures from the
German Enlightenment, Moses Mendelssohn and
Immanuel Kant took up the challenge and from
their responses so flows this book.
There were many philosophers that
I recognised, Descartes, Bacon, Voltaire and
many I didn't. Of that category I enjoyed reading
about Thomas Hobbes. He really was eccentric
and based on what I understand about the world
he could well have been enlightened!
Make your purchase .... 
Read
more reviews -
