Great Minds, written by Joan Haig and Joan Lennon and illustrated by Andre Ducci - reviewed by Sue Purkiss

 

Many, many years ago, when I arrived at Durham University, myself and all the other students of English were gathered together by our professor for an introductory talk. The only thing I remember about it is a piece of advice he gave us about the choosing the subsidiary subject which we would study for two years. "Many people have in the past chosen philosophy," he said. "I would caution you against this. People think that philosophy is easy. It is not. It is very, very hard."

I think he was probably right. It would have been hard. But if we'd been given this book as an introduction, it would have made it a whole lot easier.

In 73 pages, the two Joans, ably abetted by illustrator Andre Ducci, take us on a journey through the history of philosophy, starting with Confucius (551-479 BCE) and finishing with Kimberle Williams Crenshaw (1959-) Each vividly illustrated chapter covers a different thinker. It sets him/her in the context of the time and place in which they lived; explains the questions with which they grappled; discusses the ideas which they developed; and makes links with past and subsequent thinkers. The writers explain all this clearly and concisely, and the design of the book aids this by a creative use of colour and text boxes - it's lively, but not distracting. For example, look at this page.

The artist uses imagery relating to the culture of the thinker who is the subject of a particular spread: for example, see this spread on the Maoris.

The thinkers covered come from a wide range of cultures and countries. Many of them I'd heard of, but actually knew little about: some of them, particularly the more recent ones, I hadn't heard of at all. I was fascinated to read about Mary Midgley, whose interest was in how we view the rights of animals in relation to ourselves; her friend Philippa Foot (they were both at Somerville College, Oxford, after the war), who was interested in how we judge whether an action is morally good or not; and Henry Odera Oruka (1944-1995), who seems to have almost single-handedly established African Philosophy as a thing.

I realised, as I became more and more engrossed, that while I'd started reading it as a history of philosophy (incidentally, it's apparently aimed at upper primary/lower secondary), as I read on I was becoming drawn into thinking about the questions the philosophers posed - questions about what it means to be human, how we should live, how to think logically, how we relate to each other and to the world around us.

And those are all questions which matter so much - I'm tempted to say more than they ever have, but I think that probably isn't true: they have always mattered.

Definitely, a book which every school should have in its library.