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Title: A Community of Individuals (Routledge American Philosophy Series (RAPS)) by John Lachs ISBN: 0-415-94173-3 Publisher: Routledge Pub. Date: October, 2002 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $21.95

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Average Customer Rating: 5 (1 review)

Rating: 5
Summary: Good book for some fun yet engaging reading!
Comment: Ahhh...I love books like these. It's one of those that you have to think about but don't have to think about. "Come again?" Lachs has written a great collection of essays whose prose is so beautiful, terse and enriching that you, the reader, will be able to go through 100 pages at a time without ever suspecting that you learned as much as you did; you just thought you were having fun!! Like Sesame street for adults!

Before I give you the wrong impression, here's the synopsis. "Community of Individuals" is a collection of essays divided into three sections: "Intellectuals and Courage" consists of ruminations about the role of the teacher and the university. Lachs has some astute and all-too-urgent views taht are more like calls-to-action for profs and students. "Issues for Individuals" focuses on individual issues like epistemology and the creation of ethics. "Problems for communities" is exactly that; Lachs discusses bioethics, euthenasia, technology, and ethics in our prosperous age. The final section, and in my opinion the most enjoyable, is "American Philosophers". Lachs does such things as compare Peirce and Santayana's view of human purpose, emphasize the individualism of American thinkers in their break with German Idealism (well, except Royce!), and take Paul Weiss to task for his rigid and confused views on human nature and the creation of the self.

Through all the essays, Lachs is a Jamesian pragmatist through and through. His concern is to create essays dealing constructively with issues that have practical consequences and is always careful (like with Weiss) to recognize when philosophy tends to become so theoretical and abstract that it stops reflecting this messy ball of stuff called life. Even the more abstract articles (on human epistemology and American theorists emphasis on the individual) are written in ways that tie even the most abstract discussion into practical life.

The one curiosity of this book can either be construed as a fault or a benefit; there is really no discernible common theme of the book. After reading it, I even went so far as to read the back cover and introduction again to make sure I hadn't missed something. I don't think I did. While each section is pretty internally consistent (particularly the "Problems For Communities" section, which focuses on issues in science), the book taken as a whole is quite scattered. I don't deduct a star because, as I said, this can be taken as a welcome change or a frustrating diversion. It depends on your tempermant.

Still, I can't reccomend this book highly enough. It is fun, fresh, relevant, cautioned, and optomistic all at the same time! Can you ask for a lot more?