Befuddled: The Lives & Legends of Ancient Philosophers

Philosophy teacher Birch (Pandora’s Book) delivers an entertaining illustrated survey of major ancient philosophers. From Heraclitus and Pythagoras to Buddha and Zhuangzi, Birch weaves philosophical concepts with anecdotes that bring his subjects’ intellectual journeys to life. Buddha, he writes, grew up wealthy and then pursued a life of one-grain-of-rice-a-day asceticism, only to discover neither produced meaning—it took meditating under a fig tree to grasp the “impermanence of the world.” Socrates, meanwhile, on a quest to understand wisdom, questioned politicians and wise men so thoroughly that they eventually called for his death, though not before he realized true wisdom is knowing one’s cluelessness. Birch excels in summarizing complex ideas (his breakdown of Zeno’s Paradox, which holds that a moving object never reaches its destination, is particularly impressive), though the foregrounding of colorful anecdotes sometimes dampens the philosophical substance. But for readers looking for a primer on heady philosophical concepts, this will do the trick. (June)