
a book
The Making of a Philosopher: My Journey Through Twentieth-Century Philosophy
Colin McGinn · 2003 · 256 pages
Part memoir, part study, The Making of a Philosopher is the self–portrait of a deeply intelligent mind as it develops over a life on both sides of the Atlantic.
The Making of a Philosopher follows Colin McGinn from his early years in England reading Descartes and Anselm, to his years in the states, first in Los Angeles, then New York. McGinn presents a contemporary academic take on the great philosophical figures of the twentieth century, including Bertrand Russell, Jean–Paul Sartre, and Noam Chomsky, alongside stories of the teachers who informed his ideas and often became friends and mentors, especially the colorful A.J. Ayer at Oxford.
McGinn's prose is always elegant and probing; students of contemporary philosophy and the general reader alike will absorb every page.
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Nassim Taleb
“Colin McGinn teaches us that we need nevertheless to master the art of clarity of both thought and exposition. He writes with perfect clarity: a clear, unburdened, unaffected, UnFrench UnGerman philosophical prose. The book has a presentation of the Kripke idea of naming as necessity of such clarity that I felt actually smart reading it.”↗
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