Summary: An attempt to make philosophy young and hip and applicable to the modern world (using question like What does it mean to be a slut, How to reject the faith of your upbringing, and How to break up with your boyfriend.)
In my attempt to work through the audiobooks I have in my archive before buying new ones, I am running across a few that I probably should have just skipped. Just because it is free does not mean it is worth downloading. Over the past year or two I have stopped picking up a lot of free books that I would have picked up earlier because I have read a number of books I picked up for free that were just not worth the effort.
PhilLOLZophy is not a horrible book. But it is not particularly good either. The idea is decent. Make philosophy accessible by using it in real world situations. But the working out of the idea is mixed at best.
It is clearly oriented toward young 20 somethings. Which is not bad. I like a lot of books that are not oriented toward my 40 something self (like Packing Light). But this seems to be trying too hard to be cool. There is a good bit of language (which I am not opposed to), when appropriate to the subject. But here is seems to be a way to show coolness. And much of the content is oriented around sex, dating, and becoming an adult. Again, I am not opposed to those subjects. But it seems the authors want to talk about them and occasionally bring up philosophical ideas. And this seems to reverse the point of the book.
There is also a very clear rejection of Evangelical Christianity. One (or maybe both) of the authors grew up in an Evangelical background. And they are still bitter about it. The book actually is somewhat useful in understanding why she left the church. The church was unable to answer her questions, didn’t like that she had questions and she didn’t understand the nature of Grace and so got tired of trying to perform to the level of the expectation of those around her. When Christianity becomes about performance and adherence to a moral code (instead of about Grace, forgiveness and knowing Christ) is really ceases to be Christianity. What is odd is that at the very end there is a quick section about one (or both) of the authors converting to Catholicism. Which is very odd after earlier comments about rejecting theism.
According to Amazon there are two authors here. But there is no clear differentiation between them (at least in the audio version). So I have no idea if the author that rejected Evangelicalism, embraced alcohol and sex and became Catholic is one person or two different people. It doesn’t particularly matter. I gave up worrying about it and just listened to it as if there were one author.
What comes through most clearly is the difficulty in finding purpose in life and making moral decisions without a religious framework. (Ignore the part about converting to Catholicism because the authors clearly have in everything up until the last page or two.) If there is no meaning to life, and sex is just about feeling good, then why not do it as much as you like? Essentially that is the result of the book.
This could have been a good book, but it did not turn out to be one. At least I didn’t pay anything for it. (Although it is cheap and short if you want to try it out for yourself.)
PhiLOLZophy: Critical Thinking in Digestible Doses Purchase Links: Kindle Edition, Audible.com Audiobook