History of Western Philosophy

Bertrand Russell

Jun 2008 · Sold by Simon and Schuster

About this ebook

Hailed as “lucid and magisterial” by The Observer, this book is universally acclaimed as the outstanding one-volume work on the subject of Western philosophy.

Considered to be one of the most important philosophical works of all time, the History of Western Philosophy is a dazzlingly unique exploration of the ideologies of significant philosophers throughout the ages—from Plato and Aristotle through to Spinoza, Kant and the twentieth century. Written by a man who changed the history of philosophy himself, this is an account that has never been rivaled since its first publication over sixty years ago.

Since its first publication in 1945, Lord Russell’s A History of Western Philosophy is still unparalleled in its comprehensiveness, its clarity, its erudition, its grace, and its wit. In seventy-six chapters he traces philosophy from the rise of Greek civilization to the emergence of logical analysis in the twentieth century.

Among the philosophers considered are: Pythagoras, Heraclitus, Parmenides, Empedocles, Anaxagoras, the Atomists, Protagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, the Cynics, the Sceptics, the Epicureans, the Stoics, Plotinus, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, Benedict, Gregory the Great, John the Scot, Aquinas, Duns Scotus, William of Occam, Machiavelli, Erasmus, More, Bacon, Hobbes, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, Locke, Berkeley, Hume, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, the Utilitarians, Marx, Bergson, James, Dewey, and lastly the philosophers with whom Lord Russell himself is most closely associated—Cantor, Frege, and Whitehead, coauthor with Russell of the monumental Principia Mathematica.

Ratings and reviews

Logician, mathematician, athiest, and either the poorest or most biased reader in the history of philosophy. I received this book just as I entered graduate school. As I would be reading many of those represented in the book throughout the semester, I thought that I would read the famed Russell along with them. It did not take me long to begin to question whether the publisher had mislabeled the chapters. Admittedly, everyone has their idiosyncratic readings. It is not unreasonable, however, for a scholar to keep his biases to him or herself when putatively introducing philosophers, often to new comers or relative new comers. Russell is not the only such writer to allow his own views to bleed into such works; after all, there is no doubt that F. Coppleston has his Catholic bias. Yet, to say that Russell's views bled into the text is something of an understatement. He must have had some serious wounds, perhaps having been attacked by his rabid dogmatism. This is not a book for those who want to learn the views of philosophers. If you want to know what Russell thought of the history of Western philosophy, more power to you. But you will be misled, if you rely upon his interpretations, not to mention his failure to interpret. I am speaking in particular of his failure to even mention Nietzsche, in 895 pages on the topic of philosophers. Be kind to Mother Earth, save a bunch of trees by ignoring this work into the dustbins of philosophical tripe.

Prodigious

About the author

Bertrand Arthur William Russell was a philosopher, logician, essayist and social critic best known for his work in mathematical logic and analytic philosophy. His most influential contributions include his championing of logicism.