Customer Reviews:
 Outstandingly excellent!!! May 4, 2007
9 out of 9 found this review helpful
I strongly disagree with the negative review. This is the best introduction to philosophy there is. The great Professor Sullivan of Fordham produced a masterful summary of the Aristotelian-Thomistic system which manages to touch on virtually every important issue in philosophy while remaining highly readable and accessible to beginners. Although published in 1956, the book remains fresh, lively, and authoritative. It is becoming increasingly hard to find an introductory philosophy textbook which shows sympathy for religious belief. Sullivan goes well beyond that; in the spirit of genuine philosophy, he builds a majestic synthesis of human thought which culminates in the view of the whole of reality in light of a single principle--Uncreated Being. Along the way are fascinating treatments of human nature and human knowing, the passions, natural law ethics, the problem of personal and political freedom, and on and on. If you compare this book with Jacques Maritain's introductory philosophy text you will see that Sullivan has followed Maritain's presentation closely, but made it more easily understandable. If you are a person of faith in search of understanding, buy this book, you will love it!!
 A Shoddy Survey January 3, 2007
6 out of 13 found this review helpful
This work of Daniel J. Sullivan is certainly not what it purports to be, an introduction to the very important discipline of philosophy. Rather, it is more in the genre of a simple survey of ideas, some of them pertaining to philosophy. Most assuredly, it does not well represent philosophia perennis, philosophy as wisdom.
Any serious presentation of the discipline of philosophy must be founded on the discipline of logic. And perhaps the major failing of Sullivan's work is that it totally neglects this important foundation. Even more, effective grammar ought to be informed by logic. And Sullivan's grammar, his writing in attempting to describe the very deep thoughts pertinent to philosophy, is sadly weak, because not so informed. In particular, his section on the very important concept of the analogy of being is so poorly written and evidently ill conceived as to be virtually unintelligible.
We found this book in our favorite Catholic book store. And it is published by our favorite Catholic publisher. So, we are doubly disappointed. Those who seek an excellent introduction to the very important discipline of philosophy from a truly Catholic perspective would be much better served by reading "Philosophia Perennis: An Introduction to Philosophy as Wisdom" by Brother Francis Maluf, M.I.C.M.
Review from the Publisher March 8, 2001
10 out of 18 found this review helpful
There are three ways of knowing truth: Revelation, Experience, and Abstraction - reasoning from the first two. This is called "Philosophy". Over the centuries, as the expression of Dogma developed, so too did Philosophy, creating where necessary the proper language to express the Church's teaching. False philosophy held by Catholics inevitably results in heresy. In this clear and easy to follow book, the main outlines of the philosophy held by orthodox theologians down through the centuries is made accessible to the average reader. Especially useful for saving the faith and reason of college students confronted by strange philosophical ideas.
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