From Socrates to Taleb, the writings of philosophers range from obscure to humorous to downright pragmatic. While philosophy as a college major doesn't get the respect it deserves, anyone with fairly broad reading on the subject knows that there's plenty of room for the weird and amusing. If you have a deep thinker on your list and want to buy an unusual Christmas gift for your quirky recipient, check out these three philosophy books.
From Evolution and Holocaust Denial to Codependency – Pop Philosophy Books for Christmas
Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time, by Michael Shermer (Holt, 2002, ISBN: 978-0805070897) looks at the reasons behind frustrating thought patterns that lead to illogical behavior. You don't have to be Mr. Spock to find humans confounding; one afternoon with a room full of teen nieces and nephews all texting each other in silence will do that. But why do people act against self interest?
It doesn't take a secular humanist to find the inconsistencies in evolution denial, for instance, or an experienced historian to disprove Holocaust revisionists. Why People Believe Weird Things won't help your gift recipient have a deeper understanding of Sartre or Plato, but the book might help the reader to suffer through the family holiday party and understand why Aunt Sue got back together with Uncle Joe and really, truly thinks he'll change this time.
Is there "No Exit" from Philosophy Jokes about Platypus*? Unusual Christmas Gifts
Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar: Understanding Philosophy Through Jokes, by Thomas Cathcart and Daniel Klein (Penguin, 2008, ISBN: 978-0143113874) tackles ten topics, with chapters on:
- Metaphysics
- Logic
- Epistemology
- Ethics
- Philosophy of Religion
- Existentialism
- Philosophy of Language
- Social and Political Philosophy
- Relativity
- Meta-Philosophy
You may read that list and hyperventilate, with flashbacks to Philosophy 101 and the nightmares about Plato's Forms coming to eat you while you took your final exam naked with Sylvester Stallone as your professor, but if your gift recipient would read that and say "Cool!" then you know you've got an unusual Christmas gift he or she will adore.
Plato and a Platypus Walk into a Bar uses simple jokes to deconstruct the philosophical premise behind the jokes; most 12 year olds (and plenty of 40, 60, and 90 year olds) love the book because it explains, in terrific detail, the precise why of the what.
The Onion Has a Philosophy Book – Unusual Christmas Gift to the Nth Degree
"The Onion" asked twenty-one philosophy professors to give opinions (first mistake) and asked them to deconstruct why "The Onion" is insightful (second mistake). Why can't it just be funny? If you want to give the philosophy book of the season, get The Onion and Philosophy: Fake News Story Alleges Indignant Area Professor, edited by Sharon M. Kaye (Open Court, 2010, ISBN: 978-0812696875) when it hits bookstores on December 1, 2010.
To find history book lovers something special, consider these three quirky Christmas gifts.
* If this article serves no other purpose, it taught me that there is not universal agreement on the plural for the word "platypus." It's either just "platypus" (just as the plural for "sheep" is "sheep") or "platypuses," which sounds awful in my head, so I'll stick with the former.
Melanie Zoltan - Melanie Zoltan is a former college professor and administrator who has written for About.com, PCWorld, Brain Child, Thomson Gale, and ...
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