Cooksey aims to introduce readers to the philosophical content of literature and the literary form of philosophy by surveying ten masterpieces of philosophical literature. Each of the ten chapters of Masterpieces focuses on one book: Plato's Republic, Augustine's Confessions, Dante's Divine Comedy, More's Utopia, Voltaire's Candide, Goethe's Faust, Kierkegaard's Either/Or, Nietzsche's Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Huxley's Brave New World, and Borges's Labyrinths. For each book, Cooksey discusses the biographical and historical context of the author, the themes and motifs of the work, and subsequent influence of the author on Western philosophy and literature. Although most of Cooksey's discussions focus on providing summaries of the individual texts listed above, he also makes general claims about philosophical literature: it represents a certain mode of thinking that is irreducible to reasoned argument, and its openness to reinterpretation and resistance to one exclusive or final meaning enables it to remain eternally current. The general idea for this book is visionary….Lower-division undergraduates and general readers.

Choice

Aimed at high school and college students, this introduction to philosophy groups 10 works central to philosophical literature into a section of works of philosophy that are also significant contributions to literature and a section of works of literature that draw on or contribute to philosophy. Each chapter centers on a single book, such as Plato's Republic, Dante's Divine Comedy, Goethe's Faust and Borges' Labyrinths, and discusses the author and his philosophical background as well as the work itself.

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