Charles Norwood's
Epistemology Bloody Epistemology is a novel(la) beyond
comparison. Its body consists of six interconnected stories which
trace the activities of philosophy students at a fictional university
wherein preferences for different schools of thought have essentially
degraded into gang affiliations. What follows is pure mayhem
interspersed with thoughtful philosophical debate—imagine, if you
will, that the script for Mad Max had been written by Bertrand
Russell. The result is not always for the faint-of-heart, as the
brutality gradually escalates throughout the piece, allowing for some
truly demented—but unfailingly thought-provoking—scenes of
hyperbolic carnage. Norwood delivers the narrative(s) in accessible
prose, which occasionally proves artful, certainly surpassing that of
your average e-book. And while Norwood may not solve the perennial
debates of philosophy, he certainly lampoons the folly of embodying
any given perspective in said debates too righteously. The "solipsist
community" section is especially brilliant, reminiscent of
something in a David Foster Wallace novel, and probably warrants a
purchase for anyone who fancies extended literary elaborations of
philosophical thought experiments. A few minor peccadilloes had this
assessor considering a four-star review rather than a five. Norwood
employs, for instance, more than a few overly conventional similes.
Additionally, some passages are a bit didactic, but that may actually
be the book's beauty. Altogether, the various interwoven stories
converge upon something that resembles a structuring narrative for
western philosophy as a whole, and the grisly scenes may even prove
to be a useful mnemonic device for helping make the rudiments of
various schools of thought stick. Thus, the book is of particular
interest for students of philosophy, both undergraduate and graduate.
Given the originality of the content, I am left with little choice
but to give it my highest recommendation. EBE is well worth the low
cover price, and perhaps even the psychological toll it may take on
the reader.