The Making of a Philosopher - by Colin McGinn (Paperback)

From the Back Cover

Part memoir, part study, The Making of a Philosopher is the self-portrait of a deeply intelligent mind as it develops over a life on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Making of a Philosopher follows Colin McGinn from his early years in England reading Descartes and Anselm, to his years in the states, first in Los Angeles, then New York. McGinn presents a contemporary academic take on the great philosophical figures of the twentieth century, including Bertrand Russell, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Noam Chomsky, alongside stories of the teachers who informed his ideas and often became friends and mentors, especially the colorful A.J. Ayer at Oxford.

McGinn's prose is always elegant and probing; students of contemporary philosophy and the general reader alike will absorb every page.

Review Quotes

"One must be able to get ideas across, so that the rest of us can understand them. This McGinn does in the book, with so much apparent ease and clarity that we can actually learn something. " - New York Times Book Review
"[McGinn] offers an absorbing memoir of his life....in the course of his narrative he takes up several philosophical questions with admirable lucidity....his book coveys as well what might be called the pleasures of thinking." - Wall Street Journal