Guide for the Perplexed

The author of the world wide best-seller, Small Is Beautiful, now tackles the subject of Man, the World, and the Meaning of Living. Schumacher writes about man's relation to the world. man has obligations -- to other men, to the earth, to progress and technology, but most importantly himself. If man can fulfill these obligations, then and only then can he enjoy a real relationship with the world, then and only then can he know the meaning of living.

Schumacher says we need maps: a "map of knowledge" and a "map of living." The concern of the mapmaker--in this instance, Schumacher--is to find for everything it's proper place. Things out of place tend to get lost; they become invisible and there proper places end to be filled by other things that ought not be there at all and therefore serve to mislead.

A Guide for the Perplexed teaches us to be our own map makers. This constantly surprising, always stimulating book will be welcomed by a large audience, including the many new fans who believe strongly in what Schumacher has to say.

---

All Customer Reviews
Average Customer Review:
0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

A WONDERFUL WORK IN APPLIED THEOLOGY, 2008-09-11

This unexpected book a A WONDERFUL WORK IN APPLIED THEOLOGY. It exceeds expectations! Lynn Slater


0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

disappointing medieval thinking, 2008-07-29
I agree with the author that modern science, like anything, has its limits, which are too often exceeded to the detriment of everyone, especially modern science. Science cannot provide answers for many of the questions that concern humans most, such as what is the meaning of life, or how can we be moral, or happy. Something in addition to science is needed. I agree with the author that the humanities can help.

I disagree with the author that a return to medieval ways of thinking is also needed. If the modern experiment has "failed," as he says, it's because our reasoning should have been better, and needs to become better in the future, not because we need to abandon or to suppress reason. A particularly surprising example of this is his advocacy of vitalism, and how he sneers at science for having abandoned the idea. He appears not to realize how vitalism doesn't help us understand nature, and indeed, how it can prevent us from doing so. If you believe that eyes are beyond the scope of physics, you'll never build that pair of glasses that can help you. At least he does make one specific prediction that might be tested: if anyone ever creates life from non-living chemicals, it will refute much of his argument. His advocacy of the paranormal, such as Edgar Cayce, also greatly damages his credibility: how about providing some evidence we can check, rather than telling us to accept these frankly incredible claims entirely on his say-so? It's quite wrong for him to claim that science simply "looks away" when faced with something outside its mindset: it did no such thing with relativity or quantum mechanics.

I'm sorry to have wasted the time I needed to read this book. I'll give it more than one star because it is well written and thoughtful, but not more than two stars because I think the arguments are poorly reasoned and flat-out wrong. We do need to learn to live with each other and with nature better, but making up stories when you don't know the answer and then pretending that you do know the answer isn't how to do it. Much of the book is also outdated and beside the point: for example, he does lots of sneering at Freud and Marx, who since this book was written have been thoroughly discredited. And all those "young people" who Saint Fritz mentions as being sympathetic to his ideas? Just about all of them became yuppies.


0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

A teasure whose brevity belies its depth, 2008-07-05

In this short book, Schumacher challenges head on the empiricalist philosophy of the present age. Its strength lies in the fact that it successfully manages to paint a picture of the whole of the universe, a picture of a universe where man stands at the peak of life on earth, man not only has bios and zoe but he has consciousness (which animals share to a limited extent) but critically he has self awareness. Not only can he survey the whole of the universe in a synoptic vision of reality, he can look into himself and sculpt himself through a life of virtue. A further strength of this book is that it draws not only on christian teaching but on the great teachings of the East. He decrys surface living, which is the mode of the present time and urges man to grasp ancient wisdom and reach for his true goal, namely his spiritual perfection (albeit that this cannot be completed in this life). He also decrys the strong tendency in our culture to horizontalise beings, namely that minerals, plants, animals and human beings are essentially the same essence with human beings merely differing in terms of complexity. For Schumacher, such thinking (such as the designation: "the naked ape") is catastrophic for man; armed with such thinking, man gravitates to his nether regions and abandons the search for the lofty heights of communion with God.

Pausing here, this book was written 30 years ago and the pace of horizontalism has increased (with a consequent deterioration in the behavior of persons in the public sphere). Thus, in the UK at this time, Parliament is legislating for the creation for experimentation purposes of hybrid humans, providing for saviour siblings, and removing the need for a father figure for IVF procedures. When will this catastrophic descent into the abyss end? who knows!



0 of 0 people found the following review helpful:

Reading This Book Could Be the Turning Point in Your Life, 2008-06-13
If you were raised in Europe or the USA during the last fifty years, then you know the drill. The entire universe and everything in it sprang out of nowhere with no sense, meaning, or purpose. Human beings are a bunch of hairless, upright-walking monkeys with a major ego problem. Because primitve people were ignorant, fearful, and just plain stupid, they invented religion to explain things that they couldn't understand. Today, of course, everybody knows that there is no God, no soul, no life after death, and nothing supernatural of any kind. Our wise and fully secular leaders know everything, and we should listen only to them.

Well, E. F. Schumacher doesn't quite agree with this viewpoint. He has an different theory to propose, and he lays it out with perfect logic, careful references, and outstanding prose. His title, "A Guide for the Perplexed", is a actually a gross understatement. He is describing the world as it truly is.

Schumacher begins with a necessary point. Our society pounds us with certain prejudices right from the beginning. It does not educate us about the alternatives, or even let us know that alternatives exist. Hence the first step to wisdom is to step back and "see the world whole". In other words, we must be willing to investigate and question everything, even things that are taken for granted at the present time. Before we begin to study, we must ask the question: what should we study?

Because we are humans, we must study humans. Because we perceive the world around us, we must study our own perceptions, how they work and how they often fail to work. Because there is a world around us, we must study that world. And because we must live within the world, we must investigate how we do so.

From that starting point, Schumacher takes us on a beginner's course in being human. He begins with the levels of being. In our age it is fashionable to say that livings things are merely chemical, that humans are merely animals, and so forth. But no matter how much we say it, no one really believes it. Everybody is aware of the differences between animals and humans. We have capabilities that no animal has any trace of. We can study ourselves, apply ourselves, improve ourselves, and create a better world for ourselves. Hence humans are at a higher level than animals.

The levels of being also show us that humans have a purpose. Our goal in life to become the highest beings that we can, by pursuit of wisdom, unity, love, and self-awareness. To do this, we need the four fields of knowledge, which are the meat of Schumacher's book. He delves into each field, carefully explaining what it is, why it's important, and how a person can explore it. Schumacher makes his case with an bookcase full of references to both modern science and ancient philosophy. He then wraps up with a chapter about how to apply our wisdom to the world around us.

"A Guide for the Perplexed" is among the greatest books of our age, because it is of our age yet not of our age. Schumacher understands the world we live in now, but also the larger world that we have always lived in. Schumacher's only mistake was an insistence on keeping things short. At 140 pages, he is forced to zoom past vitally important points in a few sentences. This is probably why he called it a "Guide"; those who understand the book will have a lifetime to explore the riches that Schumacher introduces here.

"A Guide for the Perplexed" will not convince everyone. Those who have chosen to view their fellow creatures with scorn and their world with derision will convince themselves that it is worthless. But for those who have an open mind and are willing to explore intellectually, this book could be the starting point of something grand. Do you feel a deep-seated need that your current world can't satisfy? Do you suspect that our wise masters in government, business, and academia are not quite as smart as they claim to be? Have you felt called to something more than making money and worldy praise? Or you distressed by what you see around you: greed, intellectual dishonesty, cruelty, and the crude exploitation of nature, art, and human sexuality? Have you wondered whether something more is out there? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then I have three words for you: READ THIS BOOK. It might be a turning point in your life. It certainly was in mine.


1 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

A guide for perplexed ostriches, 2008-06-13
Ostriches have become a metaphor for those who want to ignore reality by sticking their head in the sand. This metaphor reminds me of this silly, childish book. Are you bothered by the fact that the world is a complex, chaotic place that doesn't make much sense? Well, then, says the author, I have the solution for you!! Simply pretend that the world is not in fact so. Hogwash.

I want this review to serve one purpose: to serve as a WARNING for those who were told, like I was, that this book is a serious discussion of scientism. It is not. "Scientism" is a term that is widely misused today. It was coined by Hayek in his Nobel acceptance speech. He meant it to describe certain disciplines that try to bask in the halo effect of the successes of physics. The social sciences, for instance, are not "science" in the way that physics is, despite many claims to the contrary. Hayek's point was that economics was really philosophy, not science. Today, the term "scientism" tends to be used to describe the treating of science as a religion. The book, A Guide for the Perplexed, is not a serious discussion of scientism. It is instead more of a self-help book of the pro-religion variety, and, I might add, a rather silly one at that.

Price is accurate as of the date/time indicated. Prices and product availability are subject to change. Any price displayed on the Amazon website at the time of purchase will govern the sale of this product.