‘A Cartoon Introduction to Philosophy’ illustrates Western philosophy’s biggest ideas 

“Upon those who step into the same rivers, different and again different waters flow,” said pre-Socratic Greek philosopher Heraclitu, emphasizing the trickiness of navigating our way through an environment of constant change. 

Lucky for us, in “The Cartoon Introduction to Philosophy,” Heraclitus is not just a philosopher but a cartoon guiding us down an illustrated river of philosophy. In this graphic novel, author Michael F. Patton and author-illustrator Kevin Cannon provide readers an accessible first encounter with philosophy, a word that draws its etymological roots from the Greek term “sophophilia” (“love for wisdom”). However, for an almost universally applicable field, philosophy’s relevance is severely limited by the academic papers and heady writings its ideas reside in. A work that translates those ideas to a graphic novel format, where illustrations can support thought experiments and multi-part theses, seems apt.

And — spoilers — Patton and Cannon execute this concept quite effectively. For starters, their cartoon book introduces readers to over 20 philosophers from 700 B.C.E. to the present, with each scholar receiving each receiving a title card of sorts that provides helpful context for their philosophical views.

But this hall of fame is hardly complete; unfortunately, Patton and Cannon hand-wave their exclusion of non-Western and female philosophers. However, given the authors have no open plans for an Eastern philosophy edition, I remain disappointed at the substantial ideas we’re missing out on. Moreover, Patton and Cannon justify the lack of women philosophers by referencing the desire to keep “A Cartoon Introduction” brief. I’d actually prefer if the book was a bit longer. It took me well under three hours to perform a close reading. But I do understand the specific vision Patton and Cannon had, and I can accept these omissions given the circumstances.

“A Cartoon Introduction” covers a broad range of ideas, from the fundamental principles of a logical argument to the debate on the existence of free will (shoutout, Sapolsky). The work is structured based on the branches of philosophy, progressing through logic, epistemology (the theory of knowledge) and metaphysics (including debates on free will and God) before ending with axiology (the study of ethics). Organizing the work by branches ends up being a smart move, as the reader naturally pits conflicting theories against each other.

This leads me into potentially my favorite aspect of the work: it remains relatively objective in its presentation of ideas. Patton and Cannon offer multiple viewpoints whenever possible and point out the strengths and weaknesses of any given idea. As a reader, it’s a great opportunity to critically examine each philosophical tenet. I came away from the work aware of my inclinations towards particular ideas but understanding that no philosophical view is empirically true (an important takeaway of much of Western philosophy). I am now much better prepared to engage in a critical discussion of these ideas than if I had only been presented with the strengths of any given theory.

The decision to structure this philosophical overview as a graphic novel is nothing short of a stroke of genius. Not only does it force a low word count, meaning that explanations are typically efficient and easy to follow, but there’s also a plethora of visual metaphors to support the ideas at play. On one set of pages, Heraclitus and Aristotle scale a mountain using logical claims as “stakes” with each premise facilitating one more step in their ascent. This illustration makes Aristotle’s argument regarding deductive reasoning very easy to understand. It’s natural to conclude that if one of the premises Aristotle uses is faulty, he will fall back to the base and his argument will be invalid. 

In more metaphysical chapters, however, the frequency of visual metaphors decreased greatly and I found it much more tedious to understand the ideas being presented. Every argument is still explained moderately well, but it’s a bit jarring when I start seeing full pages of written premises halfway through a graphic novel. The large majority of the work does keep up the visual ingenuity, though.

As a whole, “The Cartoon Introduction to Philosophy” is a phenomenal introduction to a field with an infamously high barrier to entry. There’s a good deal of breadth and depth for the brevity of the work, and the graphic novel form is more than justified. If you’re looking for a jumping off point to discover what Western philosophical concepts you might want to learn more about, I challenge you to find a more accessible option (once I return my copy to the philosophy library).

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