Tom Butler-BowdonReseñas

This is a great book because it manages to be entertaining and it introduces you to 50 different self-help authors and if you happen to like any of them, you can make a note and then take a deeper dive so this really helps because if you’re looking for a self-help book there’s so many books it’s almost impossible to decide where to start in with self-help.

Pretty much, every time that I've read a digest of a book as a time-saving device, I've been disappointed. And, I'm reminded of the advice of my old Philosophy lecturer, Thomas Mautner, that to understand a philosophy book you really needed to read it four times (or was it three?) ....anyway, it was certainly not to read the digest. And, to be fair to myself and my principles, when I bought this book and started reading it, I thought I was getting a set of essays by the original writers themselves. But no. This is a digest by Tom Butler-Bowdon of his-take on the 50 thinkers/writers he has selected here. I almost stopped then but I'm now glad that I persevered. I had actually read a number of these works including spending the best part of a year studying Hume's "An enquiry concerning Human Understanding".....so I thought this would mainly be a refresher for me. But the reality was that many of these authors were fairly prolific and of the 50 books selected, I think I had only read about 13. Though many the the same ideas were being canvassed by the different writers in different words, in their various books.
And, I must say, that Tom Butler-Bowdon has earned my admiration for the way that he's been able to capture the essence of the works in a clear and helpful way. Also, he's not afraid to slip in the odd critical comment or a comment that indicates how history has treated this particular work...and the flaws exposed in it.
It's not possible for me to try and do, here, a book-summary of Tom's summaries of 50 books but I will draw out a few things that were either new to me or I found especially interesting. For example:
Harry Frankfurt, "On Bullshit": "A lie can shock or startle, but we accept it as being, after all, consistent with human nature. Bullshitting, however, particularly when it extends beyond individuals to organisations and governments, is perverse, a corruption of humanity. Rejection of the "authority of truth" is favour of selling or telling a story can lead to the rise of Hitlers and Pol Pots, whose spin on history is so captivating that it attracts millions of followers".
William James, "Pragmatism": "A belief or idea has value only if it 'works'--that is, changes our world in some way. Other notions nd ideas, however, attractive or elegant, should be dismissed'. "James divides philosophers into two basic categories: the empiricists, who wish to boil everything down to naked facts and observation; and the rationalists, who believe in abstract and eternal principles. The former tend to have an unsentimental, fatalistic, irreligious, and often dark view of the world, while the latter are optimists who tend to believe in free will, spiritual order, and the unity of all things. Naturally, each camp tends to have a low view of the other.
James notes that we live in an empirically minded age, yet this still does not cancel out the natural human impulse for religion. Many find themselves caught between philosophy that does not cover spiritual needs, that offers a completely materialistic universe, and religious philosophy that does not take account of facts"......"It is astonishing to see how many philosophical disputes collapse into insignificance the moment you subject them to this simple test of tracing a concrete consequence".
Daniel Kahneman, "Thinking fast and slow": "These immediate impressions Kahneman describes as fast or System 1 thinking. We use this much more often than slow, deliberative, System 2 thinking, which can include anything from filling out a tax form, to parking in a narrow space, to trying out an argument. System 2 thought involves attention and effort, or, to use a philosophical word, reason.
The systems can operate in tandem. When System I cannot solve a problem immediately, it calls on System 2, with its detailed and deliberate procesing, to
chew it over and come up with an answer. System l allows us to drive along a highway without thinking about driving; System 2 kicks in when we suddenly
need to think where we are going. System l allows us to read a story to our daughter without actually taking it in; System 2 comes to life when she asks a question".........Our brains are set up to detect a predator in a fraction of a second, much quicker than the part of the brain that acknowledges one has been seen. That is why we can act before we even "know we are acting. "Threats are privileged above opportunities" Kahneman says. This natural tendency means that we "overweight unlikely events, such as being caught in a terrorist attack. It also leads to us overestimating our chances of winning the lottery.
"Act calm and kind regardless of how you feel" is good advice, Kahneman says....."In the 1970s, most social scientists made an assumption that people are generally rational and their thinking sound, but that sometimes emotion hijacks this rationality. In fact, things work more the other way around. We draw on the rational mind only when we really need it. Our thought is not "corrupted" by emotion; instead, much of our thinking is emotional".
Friederich Nietzsche, "Beyond good and evil".......this was one of the books that I have read before (some 60 years ago) .....though I have no recollections of what he said....though I do recall that he went insane towards the end of his life....that must have been in the prologue. ........:"In spite of all the value which may belong to the true, the positive and the unselfish, it might be possible that a higher and more fundamental value for life should generally be assigned to pretence, to the will to delusion, to selfishness and cupidity Perhaps good and evil are more knitted together than we think, though (in the interests of purity) we like to see them as separate.
Good and evil are a creation of humankind"........"....philosophers are not lovers of wisdom, but lovers of their wisdom. At the heart of each of their world views is a moral position, and "knowledge" is the costume in which it is dressed". ....On free will :"I shall never tire of emphasising a small, terse fact, namely, that a thought comes when 'it' wishes, and not when 'I' wish."
Plato, "The Republic": "Athenian leaders gained power by telling voters what they wanted to hear, when they should have been charting a plan for the health of the state.The result was a pleasing, lawless, various sort of government, distributing equality to equals and
unequals alike"....."Plato's alternative is an elite governing body of philosophers whose sole purpose is to work for the good of the state.
Plato suggests that we should not expect a nation or state to be run properly by merchants, tradesman, or soldiers, but only by those who have the best general overview of what constitutes the good in society. A society run by soldiers would be always at war and limit freedom to its citizens; a state run by businessmen would course with envy and materialism; Only a highiy educated generalist, trained over many years in abstract subjects (Socrates suggests 10 years' study of mathematics before moving on to philosophy). can govern well." ....."The Republics power lies not in its provision of a template for government (it is unlikely that we will ever see states run by "philosopher kings"), but in showing how the qualities of wisdom, courage, self-discipline, and justice make for well-balanced individuals".
John Rawls, "A theory of justice": "The best societies are those that do not simply offer personal freedom but lessen the lottery of life by giving a fair chance for all"......"Rawls proposes his own principles by which a just society could be guided:
1. There must be basic freedoms (e.g., of speech, association, religion).
2. The inequalities that inevitably result from freedom are so arranged to bring most benefit to the worst off, including full equality of opportunity.
The first "priority rule" supporting these principles is that freedom can only be restricted when it results in other freedoms. As Rawls puts it, "a less extensive liberty must strengthen the total system of liberty shared by all
The second priority rule is that justice is always more important than efficiency or utility of outcomes. Specifically, equal opportunity is more important than achieving a certain whole-of-society outcome, or what some government may believe is for the good of the people"..........The big problem, as Rawls sees it, with existing theories for achieving ajust society lies in the biases and prejudices of those charged with running it. To get around this, he makes his famous "veil of ignorance" proposal. Every member in society agrees to voluntary and temporary amnesia. As the veil of ignorance descends on them, they forget who they are and the place they hold in society, so that fairness to all is their main concern. After all, Rawls notes, if someone knew they were rich, they might want to oppose taxes welfare policies, not only because it might reduce their fortune, but because they may have conditioned themselves to see welfare as an unjust principle. The veil of ignorance eliminates such prejudices, because each person is blind to their station in life".
Jean-Jaques Rousseau, "The Social Contract": "Only through living in a framework of laws can people flourish. While they can be happy (in a brute sort of way) living in a state of nature, they can never reach their fullest potential, because only society provides an environment that can develop human virtues, and it is virtues that elevate man. Political equality and freedom are not natural rights, but rights required for the highest kind of human being or community to come into existence"........"The social pact between individual and state requires that individuals who "refuse to obey the general will shall be constrained to do so by the whole body Rousseau puts this even more plainly: 'such an individual will be forced to be free'."...."All the individual desires balance each other out, and from this melee emerges the wider public interest. Rousseau warns that we should always be on our guard against some sectional or group interest becoming so powerful that it skews the general will".
Bottom line is that I think Butler Bowdon has done a first rate job of summarising and putting into context the works of 50 significant philosophers and he's convinced me to seek out more of his works. I give the book five stars.

> Babelio : https://www.babelio.com/livres/Butler-Bowdon-50-classiques-de-la-spiritualite/47...

Good collection of chapter-length summaries of 50 classics in psychology. About half of the works are either so dated or so bad that the summary is all that's ever needed from them, but it's still good to know the basics of these books. Several of the summarized books are so good that they're absolutely worth reading in full. Others are more context-dependent. The author did a good job of summarizing (based on a few of the books I've already read; assuming he did an equally good job on the others), so this is a good collection.

50 Psychology Classics is an excellent overview of key texts throughout the field of psychology. Butler-Bowden distills the texts in a way that is lucid and insightful and provides an organizational structure that constantly skips back and forth through chronology.

Author offers great insight into different books but unfortunately, a summary only offers the essence but not enough meat to help you internalize. Still a good book to have to get a quick recap.

With 50 Psychology Classics, we are introduced to a distilled version of fifty works in Psychology. They aren’t all classics, so the title might be a bit misleading. The book spans from William James to Walter Mischel. Some of the works are quite recent but have influence in other ways. They might be bestsellers or quoted a great amount. Some of the works are ones that I have read or at least have heard of. This is a pretty good introduction to Psychology in general in that it recommends books and gets you interested in the material. The same guy does this series and I have read the one on Philosophy.

I really enjoyed the book and would recommend it pretty highly. I actually bought a copy of it but I don’t remember where I got it from.

Contains key points of 50 works of philosophy, organized by the author's last name.

Author offers great insight into different books but unfortunately, a summary only offers the essence but not enough meat to help you internalize. Still a good book to have to get a quick recap.

Una breve introduzione dell'autore, in forma di saggio, ai suoi libri che si occupano di filosofia, poesia, religione, arte, letteratura e quant'altro possa essere considerato, nel senso più ampio della parola, "letteratura". Vite vissute, nel nome della scrittura, un'arte, una filosofia, una scienza, chiamatela come volete quella della "scrittura" e della sua sorella "lettura". Pensiero, scrittura, lettura sono alla base di tutta la letteratura del mondo. In qualsiasi lingua, religione o forma di governo, gli uomini non possono fare a meno di pensare, leggere e scrivere. E se tutto questo è "possibile", allora vuol dire che tutti abbiamo una possibilità di dare un senso alla nostra esistenza, un'idea di vita per la quale ogni uomo/donna continua ad essere degno di vivere e anche morire convinto di averne trovato il senso. Grazie a Tom Butler-Bowden.

The author's choice of philosophers was curious. I did enjoy hearing about some of these but others seemed less interesting, and more importantly, philosophically challenged.

I liked this anthology of psychology, but I felt it was odd that among the 50 authors chosen, many, if not the majority, came from Harvard. It just can't be statistically...

Excellent! A crash course in psychology, covering the full spectrum of the science, as well as its founders and achievers. I chose to absorb 50 Psychology Classics via audiobook format, and I'm so glad that I did. The narrator was the perfect blend of annunciation, timing and energy, while the narrative was astute, eloquent and engaging. A must have to broaden your psychology library.

www.booksnakereviews.blogspot.com

Excellent! A crash course in psychology, covering the full spectrum of the science, as well as its founders and achievers. I chose to absorb 50 Psychology Classics via audiobook format, and I'm so glad that I did. The narrator was the perfect blend of annunciation, timing and energy, while the narrative was astute, eloquent and engaging. The definitive collection and a must have to broaden your psychology library.

Check out more of my reviews at BookSnakeReviews
Check out more of my reviews at BookSnakeReviews

After an introduction, the book consists of fifty short chapters each laying out the main ideas in a classic psychology book. Each chapter concludes with a short biography of the author or authors. The chapters are well written, give a good summary of the main ideas and avoid controversy. This book is good if you want an overview of the various schools of thought of psychology. I found some chapters very interesting so it has been helpful in directing my reading to my interests. It is worthwhile noting the chapters that are of particular interest so that you don't have to go back over the book. There is probably too little detail to be of very much use to psychology students. The book concludes with a list of fifty more books with a one sentence description which is also useful.

Save time!! Read 50 in 1 book!! Awsome½

* The Path To Prosperity by James Allen (1905) — You will only become truly prosperous when you have disciplined your mind and subjugated your negative emotions. Paradoxically, wealth (and happiness) comes most easily to those who forget the self in the service to others.

* Your Invisible Power by Genevieve Behrend (1921) — What we visualize tends to come into being. Use this invisible, but logical, power to turn any desire into reality.

* The Secret by Rhonda Byrne (2006) — You are a powerful magnet, attracting into your life the equivalent of whatever you are strongly feeling or thinking about, including thoughts of lack or prosperity. [my review]
* Secrets of the Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker (2005) — To obtain desired outer results, you must first master the inner game of wealth.

* Prosperity by Charles Fillmore (1936) — All wealth begins and ends with the spiritual Source, therefore gratitude for what we have is the master key to prosperity.

* Ask And It Is Given: Learning To Manifest Your Desires by Esther and Jerry Hicks (2004) — As long as you are in a state of mind and being that is ready to receive, you can have whatever you want.
* The Master Key to Riches by Napoleon Hill (1965) — The basic law of prosperity is that to receive, you must first provide something of great value.
* Open Your Mind To Prosperity by Catherine Ponder (1971) — In transforming your beliefs about spirituality and wealth, you can welcome great well being and prosperity into your life.

* The Abundance Book by John Randolph Price (1987) — Life is in part a test to see if we can learn the laws of abundance, specifically the law of ‘all sufficiency’.
* Creating Money: Keys to Abundance by Sanaya Roman & Duane Packer (1988) — If you know the universe to be an abundant place, you won’t fear not having the resources to pursue your purpose or mission in life.
* Do What You Love and the Money Will Follow by Marsha Sinetar (1987) — Though we can’t control when, the decision to do what we love sooner or later pays off.
* The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism by Max Weber (1905) — The spirit of capitalism is not greed and consumption, but the creation of order and the best use of resources. For those with a ‘calling’, there is no problem in reconciling the spiritual and economic aspects of life.

Creating Wealth
The books in this section contain the secrets of wealth creators. These are people who think big, take risks, and are willing to fail publicly. I like the top principle Butler-Bowdon extracted from these books:

The foundation of a prosperous life (combining material wealth, health, and mental wellbeing) is personal character, formed from self-control and cultivation of virtue. A person of integrity, trust, and good character is “bankable”; their riches evolve out of who they are as much as what they do.

Many of these titles are biographies. Others focus on wealth at an economic level instead of a personal level. Some are true classics.

* Multiple Streams of Income by Robert G. Allen (2005) — The prosperous do not depend on only once source of income, but grow orchards of ‘money trees’.
* The Art of Money-Getting by P.T. Barnum (1880) — There are no shortcuts to wealth, aside from right vocation, good character and perseverance — and don’t forget to advertise.
* Losing My Virginity by Richard Branson (2005) — Don’t be afraid to be different. On entering any new field or an industry, aim to really shake it up and provide new value.
* How To Get Rich by Felix Dennis (2006) — Be willing to fail in public, and you have jumped the hurdle holding most people back from getting rich.
* Innovation and Entrepreneurship by Peter Drucker (1985) — The purpose of entrepreneurship is to deliver new satisfaction and value, and is built on ‘unexpected successes’ that are quickly capitalized upon.
* Capitalism and Freedom by Milton Friedman (1962) — The free market, not government, ensures protection of individual rights and standards of quality, and delivers extraordinary prosperity for those who seek it.
* The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century by Thomas L. Friedman (2005) — Technological advance is creating a ‘level playing field’ in which previously marginalized people and countries can play a competitive role in the world economy.
* Hard Drive: Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire by James Wallace & Jim Erickson (1992) — In your field of work, see what can be achieved by ‘setting the standard’. With a big, clear vision in place, you can make the most of any opportunity that comes your way.
* The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It by Michael E Gerber (2001) — The key to real prosperity in business is to work on your enterprise, not in it.
* The One Minute Millionaire by Mark Victor Hansen & Robert G. Allen (2002) — All who become wealthy in the modern world know the power of leverage: using other people’s resources and technology to multiply the effect of what they do.
* Be My Guest by Conrad Hilton (1957) — Having a dream and thinking big are the basic elements of all great enterprises and fortunes.
* The Lazy Man’s Way To Riches by Joe Karbo (1973) — Mental conditioning is the foundation of wealth; once your goals are programmed in, success comes easily.
* The Art of the Start by Guy Kawasaki (2004) — Before anything else, the fundamental purpose in starting any new enterprise is to create meaning. Start off catering to a small market, and if what you are doing is worthwhile, other opportunities will emerge. [Guy Kawasaki's blog]
* God Wants You To Be Rich by Paul Zane Pilzer (1995) — God designed the universe as a super-abundant place, with technology as the engine that delivers the greatest benefits to the greatest number.
* Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal by Ayn Rand (1966) — In capitalism, wealth is created by free, individual minds with no coercion involved. This makes it a moral system of political economy.
* Business As Unusual: My Entrepreneurial Journey by Anita Roddick (2005) — When starting a business, do the opposite of the established industry. Make your business a powerful force for social change.
* Pour Your Heart Into It: How Starbucks Built a Company One Cup at a Time by Howard Schultz (1997) — Nothing great is ever achieved without people making frightening leaps of faith. Huge enterprises can be built by giving people a small moment of joy in their day.
* The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith (1776) — The wealth of a nation is that of its people, not its government. Wealth is achieved through the division of their labor and the ever-greater specialization of their skills. The foundation of all future prosperity is current savings.
* The Art of the Deal by Donald Trump (1987) — To succeed in business, balance boldness and promotion with patience, caution and flexibility.

Managing wealth

Inside 50 Self-Help Classics, discover the books that have already changed the lives of millions, the proven classics of personal transformation.

Explore the life-changing ideas and words of some of our deepest thinkers, teachers and sages:
James Allen, Robert Bly, Joseph Campbell, Paulo Coelho, The Dalai Lama, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Clarissa Pinkola Estes, Viktor Frankl, Benjamin Franklin, James Hillman, Abraham Maslow, Thomas Moore, Ayn Rand, Pierre Teilhard De Chardin, Florence Scovell Shinn, Henry David Thoreau.

Experience the inspiring wisdom of ancient philosophy and religion:
Marcus Aurelius' Meditations, The Bhagavad-Gita, The Bible, Buddha's Teachings in the Dhammapada, Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching (The Way Of Power), Boethius' The Consolation of Philosophy

Gain insights from the gurus of personal transformation and the psychology of happiness:
Martha Beck, William Bridges, Alain De Botton, David Burns, Richard Carlson, Dale Carnegie, Deepak Chopra, Stephen R Covey, Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi, Wayne Dyer, Shakti Gawain, Daniel Goleman, John Gray, Louise Hay, Susan Jeffers, Richard Koch, Ellen Langer, Maxwell Maltz, Phil McGraw, Joseph Murphy, Norman Vincent Peale, Carol Pearson, M Scott Peck, Anthony Robbins, Martin Seligman, Samuel Smiles, Marianne Williamson

An abridged collection of self help books and review given by author.

Reference and Research Book News 06/01/07