Peter Kreeft has a series of books on the philosophers in which he examines them from an Aristotelian perspective, supplemented by the Catholic tradition. They are all in the “Socrates Meets” series: Socrates meets Machiavelli, Socrates meets Descartes, Socrates meets Marx, Socrates meets Freud, Socrates meets Hume, Socrates meets Kierkegaard, Socrates meets Kant, Socrates meets Sartre, and Socrates meets Jesus. All of these analyze the “good parts” and the “bad parts” of each philosopher from a Catholic perspective, and they are written in a very easy dialog format. (Note: Socrates doesn’t find any “bad parts” in Jesus’s teachings, and converts to Christianity. And he finds Almost nothing wrong with Kierkegaard’s philosophy.)I would ge interested in a book which explains non-Catholic philosophies and explains which parts are correct and why the bad parts are wrong.
Is there such a book? I had high hopes for Fr Copleston’s books, but he doesn’t seem to explain what’s wrong with them
Anything and everything by Edward Feser.I would ge interested in a book which explains non-Catholic philosophies and explains which parts are correct and why the bad parts are wrong.
Is there such a book? I had high hopes for Fr Copleston’s books, but he doesn’t seem to explain what’s wrong with them
o), I thought a lot of the ideas were absurd, but I couldn’t say anything other than, Well, that’s is just stupid, why would anyone even think up that idea? (particularly Berkeley 
). As a result, I did not study philosophy, altho I now see that I probably would have if I had started at the beginning rather than assuming modern philosophy would be better than ancient.Check out this book:
There are philosophers who are non-Catholic Christians who cover some of the topics that you’re looking for. I’m not sure how strictly Catholic you want your authors to be, but I’m sure you can use some of the same arguments that these authors use. Here’s one recommendation…I would ge interested in a book which explains non-Catholic philosophies and explains which parts are correct and why the bad parts are wrong.
Is there such a book? I had high hopes for Fr Copleston’s books, but he doesn’t seem to explain what’s wrong with them
So you did not study philosophy, but you are confident in your intuition that the ideas presented there are often absurd or ridiculous (and seem to be implying the experts who teach these courses either have a poorer understanding of the content than you and/or are being disingenuous)?Thanks so much for the great recommendations! I am a little bit familiar with most of the authors mentioned, but I did not know about the particular books y’all mentioned.
What I really want is a book for parents to use or give to their children to show the problem with various philosophical ideas (other than they are ridiculous or don’t make sense). That way, the children could be either “inoculated” before they go to college or argued with after they go. That was why I was looking for something other than Copleston (and St Thomas’s ST).
I mean, even when I was in college myself, not Catholic and fairly liberal
Unfortunately, Socrates’ Children is going to take a while… the first volume, The Ancients, is not out yet. But when Kreeft is finished, they will all be put together in one volume, and that will be definitely something to look forward to
**dmar, **There’s a dramatization of Socrates dialoging with college students based on one of Socrates Meets Jesus! Your post reminded me that I had wanted to get back to it: thank you
I have no idea what teachers of philosophy make of something like the subjective materialism dreamed up by Bishop Berkeley, so I intend no implication about these experts.
My apologies if I was mistaken in what I took to be the implications of your statement. I was basing my response on the metaphor of inoculation that you used–a metaphor that suggests the way philosophy is done at the university might harm your children.