Should Philosophers Be Squashed? Or Would You Rather They Were Potted?

Should philosophers be squashed? Here's a website where you can see if they still make sense after squashing: Squashed Philosophers

Life is short and Philosophy is long, so perhaps it makes sense. My own approach has been to provide short critical summaries that might entice the reader to go back to the primary source in my book Philosophy: The Classics. I've podcast 15 chapters of this (you can listen to or download these 15 episodes here or get them from iTunes - both free)...but stopped short of releasing all 27 chapters in this form in case people stopped buying the book.

Comments

[Chris]

I've been listening to your podcast along with reading the book. Sorry to hear you won't be completing the series, as I'd been enjoying listening to them. Thanks for the link.

[João Feliz]

I was expecting the podcast on Mill's "Utilitarianism" (yes, I did buy the book). You see, happiness is a family matter - my family matter (the name "João Feliz", in plain english, would be something like "John Happy"), and so I do not take kindly when people have a go at Mill, not on the happiness issue, anyway. I particulary resent some of those "unpalatable consequences" (I really bought the book), as some others misconceptions, portraiting happiness as a blessed or drug induced state (how farfetched is that?), but didn't Mill answer those questions when he said "the truth of an opinion is part of its utility" and again "no belief which is contrary to truth can be really useful"?
- Be happy!, I dare to wish (since you can not all be Happy).

[Nigel Warburton]

Well, I might reconsider and podcast some more chapters if enough people really are buying the book!

[Justin R. M.]

I have the book (3rd ed.) and I've always wondered why you left out Hegel and Heidegger. To be sure, it would be one hell of a headache to condense that stuff, but if you did I'm sure your prose wouldn't be nearly as garbled as theirs. Perhaps if you don't include those philosophers in any new editions of the book you could do a podcast on some those philosophers that you left out. Just a thought.