





I'm not degrading this merely because it is a coffee table book, i'm attacking it because it is in bad taste and adds absolutely no fresh perspective to Heraclitus' fragments or his life. I suggest looking at, instead, Luciano DeCrescenzo's "The History of Greek Philosophy Volume I: The Pre-Socratics" for a lively and interesting read (including biographical details).
"The Collected Wisdom..." is a hard cover as well, which makes not a lot of sense (other than the nice presentation) considering the length of the book. You could happily buy a book with all the fragments for nearly the same price or cheaper. No doubt the reason why Amazon knocked $6 off the original price was because there were too many unopened boxes collecting dust. Let the bookworms eat these ones.
The last thing we need is for the words of a man like Heraclitus to end up on bad robot-rock album covers or as band names (the same fate that Nietzsche now, regretfully, seems to be suffering from). It would seem that Roger Von Oech has decided to try his hand at the craps table as well with "Expect the Unexpected (Or You Won't Find It): A Creativity Tool Based on the Ancient Wisdom of Heraclitus". Are people really so dumb that they need these pre-digested, refined, books full of preservatives to inspire them? I am all for more simplified introductions, but if that means pandering and studying current trends, then what you'll always get is an ugly bastardization. The whole point of philosophy is to make people think!!
And yes, i realize that basically every translator of any kind of philosophy (regardless of time or place) uses "God" as a substitute for the original thinker's conception and belief system. I would call it Christian revisionism ... though it may also be because most translators cannot give their readers the benefit of the doubt and compromise their writings by pandering or making the work more digestible. Or simply because so few can translate from a more neutral standpoint or stand outside their religion for the sake of the writing.
a.n.
p.s. If anyone knows of any good translations of pre-Christian/non-Christian European philosophy which does not suffer from the aforementioned peccadillos, i would be interested to find out more about them


Additional thoughts:
1. This a beautifully produced edition with the Greek on the left and Haxton's fine poetry on the right. As usual, I skipped the foreward and notes preferring to commune directly with the Master rather than through the medium of a posturing chorus of academic factotums.
2. The information age was supposed to witness the twilight of the great age of printing. How wrong. It is a miracle that in this age Viking is publishing a side by side Greek and English version of a book two and half millennia old! Perhaps the great age of the Printed Book is only now dawning.

Used price: $17.95




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Heraclitus is amazing. This book shows his awesome mind and imagination, and is concise and to the point. I recommend this book for anyone. Many don't recognize Heraclitus's wisdom, or have never heard of him, when he is one of the greastest philosophers of all time. This book says it all.