"The textbook "More Than the Love of Wisdom: An Introduction to the Whole of Philosophy" responds to the oversimplified and trite description of philosophy that new students to the discipline typically produce or encounter.
In contrast to many standard textbooks and courses, which present philosophy as a series of sub-topics such as ethics or metaphysics, this book familiarizes students with philosophy as a whole. It addresses what unifies the extreme diversity of philosophical questions and topics into one coherent discipline.
The book begins by introducing, and rejecting, many popular but ill-informed responses to the question of what philosophy actually is. It disabuses the reader of common misunderstanding, and prepares the way for moving toward a clear and well-informed understanding of the nature of philosophy.
Subsequent material addresses the various parts of philosophy, and its history, paving the way for readers to explore philosophy as an inquiry into the most general and fundamental concepts, principles, and features of the world.
Concise and conversational, "More Than the Love of Wisdom" reasons with readers to reach a conclusion, making the book itself an exercise in doing philosophy.
"More Than the Love of Wisdom" is written for undergraduate Introduction to Philosophy courses. It can also be used as a supplemental text for lower-division courses in ethics and the philosophy of the mind.
David A. Jensen is associate professor of philosophy at Brigham Young University, where he teaches courses in Kant, ethics, and the philosophy of language. He earned his doctoral degree in philosophy at the University of California, Los Angeles. Dr. Jensen has been honored as a Mellon Fellow in Humanistic Studies, and an Ezra Taft Benson Scholar. His professional writing has appeared in peer-reviewed journals, and he is the author of the book "Practical Reasons and Rationality.""