Customer Rating:  
Summary: Western Philosophy is so un-Pooh-ish
Comment: If there was a ZERO star rating, I would have given it here. I became interested in this book after reading and thoroughly enjoying the âaeTao of Poohâ by Benjamin Hoff. Unfortunately, I quickly found out that this is the wrong book and for good reasons. First of all I found it extremely boring and often difficult to follow. This deficiency however is merely the symptom of a much deeper problem inherent in the attempt to use Pooh out of all creatures to illustrate Western philosophy. Pooh is the epitome of an easygoing fellow, someone who doesnâ(tm)t take himself too seriously, and who lives each day for itself. This is almost the exact opposite of what Western philosophy has been attempting to achieve. In general, Western philosophers have taken themselves far too seriously, emphasizing logic and deduction over everything else, and were never really easygoing. It is no surprise, given this inherent contradiction, that âaePooh & the Philosophersâ ended up such a disaster. I really donâ(tm)t know what on earth Williams was thinking in using Pooh to illustrate Western philosophy! Instead I recommend Benjamin Hoffâ(tm)s great duo âaeThe Tao of Poohâ and its sequel âaeThe Te of Pigletâ. This book, âaePooh and The Philosophersâ is not worth anything and a waste of time.
Customer Rating:
Summary: an attempt to relate Pooh to western philosophy ruined by stretching a point once too often
Comment: Pooh and the Philosophers is an attempt to link everything Pooh to western philosophy and thus provide the reader with a nice introduction to said. The problem is, in stretching the actions and utterances of Winnie-the-Pooh to an extreme, there is little space left to describe the details of western philosophy. So the reader is left scrambling to keep focused on the sparse details of western philosophy provided which are inter spaced by long periods of Winnie-the-Pooh details. I was not able to learn much from this book as a result and I found it very frustrating.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A bit of a far stretch, but interesting...
Comment: This book is reminiscent of the writings of conspiracy theorists. The author takes a number of threads from A.A. Milne's Pooh books and interprets them in a way to turn Pooh into the greatest teacher of Western philosophy. At the start, it seems entirely outlandish, but halfway through, you will start thinking, "Jeez, I suppose that could be true.., it makes sense, I think." Here's an example. Pooh gets a balloon from Christopher Robin in order to reach some honey. Williams posits the theory that this is referring to the earliest Greek philosophers, who were greatly interested in cosmology. The balloon, he says, represents the round earth, floating in space. The honey, thanks to Pooh's secrecy surrounding why he wanted the balloon, represents philosophical truth. In other words, the realization that the earth is round is a step towards philosophical truth. However, Pooh fails to get the honey, showing that the path to truth is not so simple. "We must not expect our first endeavours to lead us to our goal."
While this book is presented in somewhat of a tounge-in-cheek format, there is little doubt that Williams is earnest in his belief, and this book could serve as a bit of a basic primer on Western philosophy as it introduces the theories of a number of great philosophers. However, this is VERY basic, and the book itself is a bit of a trifle. I'd say it's worth a read, but don't take it too seriously.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Western Philosophy is so un-Pooh-ish
Comment: If there was a ZERO star rating, I would have given it here. I became interested in this book after reading and thoroughly enjoying the "Tao of Pooh" by Benjamin Hoff. Unfortunately, I quickly found out that this is the wrong book and for good reasons. First of all I found it extremely boring and often difficult to follow. This deficiency however is merely the symptom of a much deeper problem inherent in the attempt to use Pooh out of all creatures to illustrate Western philosophy. Pooh is the epitome of an easygoing fellow, someone who doesn't take himself too seriously, and who lives each day for itself. This is almost the exact opposite of what Western philosophy has been attempting to achieve. In general, Western philosophers have taken themselves far too seriously, emphasizing logic and deduction over everything else, and were never really easygoing. It is no surprise, given this inherent contradiction, that "Pooh & the Philosophers" ended up such a disaster. I really don't know what on earth Williams was thinking in using Pooh to illustrate Western philosophy! Instead I recommend Benjamin Hoff's great duo "The Tao of Pooh" and its sequel "The Te of Piglet". This book, "Pooh and The Philosophers" is not worth anything and a waste of time.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Good concept -- but the joke gets old
Comment: This book was the primary text in a university workshop I just took on "Philosophy in Children's Literature." Being a big fan of Benjamin Hoff's "The Tao of Pooh," I approached the book with great hopes. Williams' tongue-in-cheek conceit is that the Bear of Little Brain is, in fact, the greatest philosopher that ever lived. All of western philosophy before Pooh was mere preamble and the twentieth-century existentialists were familiar with an heavily influenced by the "Great Bear."
I felt that Williams was more interested in being clever than in whatever other goal he had in mind. He presents the philosophical concepts too briefly and dismissively to be of much value. Worse, it seems he spends more space extolling the brilliant Pooh that really discussing how the (sometimes stretched past the breaking point) passages from A. A. Milne's stories relate to philosophies. Like any one-joke movie or TV series, it just got repetitive and annoying after awhile.
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