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Title: Professors of Philosophy might just be wrong!
Review: What I love about this book is just how mad it seems to make philosophy professors. There they go jumping up and down saying - it's trivial, it's not philosophy, listen to me, buy my books instead etc (for the latest example of this check out Andrew Carpenter's review below). And yet, speaking as someone who did FOUR years of philosophy at college/PhD level, I can say that De Botton's book is a triumph, capturing the essence of what philosophy is about, detailing it in a human way, and what is more, writing like a dream. Let's not quibble about whether this book tells you everything you ever wanted to know about philosophy; of course it doesn't, but it's a wonderful portrait of a few great philosophers and why they matter.
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