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A reader writes:
I'm looking for a decent history of Western philosophy (single-volume, I hope, if there is one). In high school, 25 years ago, I read the Durants' book, and parts of Russell's — but I know the latter is not well thought of, and don't how the former is regarded. Do you have any suggestions?
Comments open.
I quite enjoyed Anthony Gottlieb's book "The Dream of Reason: A History of Philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance" on Norton. And I believe he is working on a follow up that completes the History of Western Philosophy.
Richard Popkin's "Columbia History of Western Philosophy" is a very large single volume, and I would say it's not bad. It's an edited volume, so it has many different authors perspectives popping up throughout.
Anthony Kenny's four volume history of western philosophy is probably the same size (combined) as the Popkin volume, and from what I've read, very good.
If your interest is in ethics, I really like Terence Irwin's recent three volume series "The Development of Ethics".
Samuel Enoch Stumpf's "Philosophy: History and Problems" is a book that I still turn to from time to time. In my undergraduate years, it was a lifesaver. Really recommended.
There is one criterion with which I begin when looking for a general book of this sort: are there any women included? In the early 80's, my son asked why "feminist philosophy" existed, so I handed him Bertrand Russell's history of western philosophy which included no women.
Lani, which female philosophers would you have added to Russell's study?
Given the large number of superb works from the last couple of decades on key figures, I find it astonishing that there are (as far as I have seen) no general overviews that have come close to the right level of sophistication.
Nearly every book that covers early modern philosophy, for instance, insists on a naive 'rationalist'/'empiricist' division that makes sense in the context in which it was invented in the late 19th century (i.e. a context in which German Idealism reigned supreme and Kant had to be shown as the synthesis-hero), but seems very misleading in the light of today's work on these figures.
Also, while recent works on individual philosophers often do a good job of making clear why the problems the individual philosophers were working on in the broader (i.e. philosophical and extra-philosophical) context in which they worked, and hence making it clear to the reader why he/she should care about these problems, I haven't seen this sort of success in any overview.
Finally, is it just me or have others found that accounts of medieval philosophy seem to be written exclusively by people who have been indoctrinated by catholic propaganda? There were some great medieval philosophers, to be sure; but in every account I have seen (including Gottlieb's), great pains seem to be taken to downplay the fierce opposition to free enquiry the key philosophers encountered at the hands of the church.
I like Kenny's. Though it is four volumes, each of them contains about a hundred pages of historical narration, followed by about two hundred pages of philosophical discussion by topic (metaphysics, ethics, God, etc.). At about four hundred pages, just reading the historical narration of Kenny's four volumes ought to give you a pretty good taste, then from there you can easily delve into more detail as you wish.
Anthony Kenny also has a single-volume history:
_An Illustrated Brief History of Western Philosophy_.
Its target audience is "the average, educated reader" rather than academics. Less thorough than the 4 volumes, to be sure, but if it's a good single volume you're looking for, …
Roger Scruton's Modern Philosophy
A history BY a woman: 'Evil in Modern Thought: An Alternative History of Philosophy' by Susan Neiman covers the history of philosophy from the 17th century in a non-standard way I found refreshing, although perhaps not the best 'starter' history of that period.
Anthony Kenny's 4-volume work is my favorite.
I'd agree with the previous commentator; give up on the single volume dream and get the 4-volume Kenny history. (Alternatively Gottlieb finishes where Scruton begins….)
I rather like Russell's history. It's good to have intellectually honest histories. I would like a philosopher if they were writing a history to be honest and say if there's a particular philosopher they think really isn't up to much. A lot of popular philosophy books fall to easily into the Will Durant trap of reducing everything to warm vagaries and complimenting everyone on being 'interesting'. These were serious people who felt they were saying serious things and deserve the curteousy of being told they got things totally wrong. That said the clear problem with Russell's book is he's incredibly ignorant about some areas of the history of the discipline and apparently didn't care to research while writing it (given the circumstances; his lectureship having been revoked as a result of the actions of religious fanatics, having to write a lecture series to make ends meet, this is understandable) whereas Kenny does his homework.
I too like Russell's history. Though it is sometimes (often?) off the mark philosophically, it is never less than philosophically exciting. I first read it when I was a physics undergraduate, and it helped me switch disciplines.
Isn't "A New History of Western Philosophy" a one-volume consolidation of Kenny's four volume history? It's 1,000 pages long, but hasn't yet been released. (Sounds ideal for an e-reader!)
Oops! In the above comment, I meant to say that Russell's history is sometimes off the mark TEXTUALLY, but always philosophically exciting.
Though it is an albatross–11 volumes!!–I still look to Fr. Copleston's history when I am researching an area, or historical era, outside of my primary research fields. It is incredibly thorough, but accessible.
A related question might be: what about a good substantive introduction to contemporary philosophy? I have many perfectly intelligent friends and family members who are completely perplexed at what it is "to do" philosophy. It would be nice if it had both methodological discussions about, say, naturalism, conceptual analysis, etc, as well as leading questions in ethics, political philosophy, m&e, (maybe) logic, and philosophy of language and mind.
I like Jakob Brucker's Critical History of Philosophy (5 vols., Leipzig, 1742-4, second edition 1767), especially in the shorter two volume English edition by Enfield (1791). No replacement for Bayle's, of course, but more reliable.
Adding another recommendation for Kenny. I recently read the third volume, and I thought it was just wonderful. It covers roughly the 15th through 19th centuries. I'm pretty familiar with much of that period and I thought the level of sophistication was impressive (and the breadth of his engagement with the figures and issues discussed is sort of astounding)—yet it wouldn't be at all overwhelming to an intelligent reader coming at this stuff for the first time. Of course there are plenty of interpretive issues to quibble with, and if I used the book as a textbook I would take issue with quite a bit. But he tells a terrific, engaging story that is close enough to accurate most of the time. I'm planning on reading the medieval volume soon; I know much less about that stuff and am really looking forward to it.
I am also a huge fan of Russell's history, which I think is a masterpiece, though it's clearly not reliable as a work of scholarship. But it is an absolute delight to read, at least if you are a fan of Russell's prose, humor, and philosophical style. And it's not as if he's completely out to lunch; many of his summaries and critiques are, I think, totally right on (the problem is that if you don't have any independent knowledge, it's hard to know when he's trustworthy and when he's just kind of winging it).
I remember Bernard Williams, in a lecture at Cambridge about 32 years ago, comparing Russell's History to a history of the Catholic Church written by Voltaire. A bit extreme, perhaps, but he had a point.
I second Stephen Krogh's vote for Frederick Copleston. The volumes are many, but the writing is elegant. And although Copleston's religion influenced his writing, the influence is visible on the surface and one can allow for it.
It may be worth stopping to ask why a history is to be read. If the point is to be able to locate the philosophers relative to one another when one comes to study their ideas in order to decide what they got right and what they got wrong from our current point of view, then any respectable history will do. If the point is to study the history of philosophy for its own sake, or to come to appreciate what the philosophers meant in their own times, then as with any other historical study, it would be folly to rely on just one or two history book.
My favorite remains Kenny's single-volume history — http://www.amazon.com/Brief-History-Western-Philosophy/dp/0631201327 (my brief review of the book is on Amazon).
Anders Wedberg's old three-volume work is efficiently rendered, thorough for its length. Don't know whether it's still in print. Used to be published by Blackwell.
It's been ages since I took a look, but I remember D. W. Hamlyn's *A History of Western Philosophy* as a helpful concise history. I leave judgments regarding interpretation of particular figures to the experts, of course — although I am fairly confident that the particular figures remain dead.
Jonathan Israel's Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity 1650-1750 and Enlightenment Contested: Philosophy, Modernity, and the Emancipation of Man 1670-1752 are excellent works in the History of Modern Philosophy.
Re: Mohan Matthen's comment above-
According to the OUP website, Kenny's recent four volume "New History of Western Philosophy" is being released in October as a single volume, at a reasonable $40 list for the 1000 page hardback.
After posting my recommendation last night, I picked up the fourth volume (which I hadn't read yet) and starting reading it, and I think it does serve as a nice introduction to some of the main issues in philosophy.
Wilhelm Windelband's History of Philosophy (trans. James Tufts, 1893), available only second-hand, remains a superb account in a single volume. Though dated in many ways, it was the first history-of-ideas approach. His explanations are clear and concise and yet learned and very rich with implication. He also provides good guides to the texts. I virtually always profit from looking at it.
The 'Short History of Philosophy' by Kathleen Higgins and the late Robert Solomon is one I recommend, particularly for its integrating Western philosophy with other philosophical and religious traditions. There's also a condensed 'Very Short' version of this already short introduction.
Any comments on the history by Frank Thilly?
I'd second Peter G's recommendation of The Dream of Reason, though I believe we've been waiting for years for the follow-up volume. Like you, I quite enjoyed the Durants' book, though I share your ignorance of how it's generally regarded. It might also be helpful to know what purpose you have in mind in soliciting recommendations. If you're hoping to teach a course out of the volume, neither of these would be ideal; for pleasure reading, I'd recommend both highly.
Albeit a German one (and still incomplete, and quite unaffordable), among the multi-volume works the Ueberweg ('Grundriss der Geschichte der Philosophie') should not be forgotten (as it is arguably more comprehensive and authoritative than most of the above recommendations).
Re: Axisaudio's comment-
I'd caution against Israel's books. While they make for great intellectual history, their scope is too broad for someone looking for an overview of the history of philosophy.
"Finally, is it just me or have others found that accounts of medieval philosophy seem to be written exclusively by people who have been indoctrinated by catholic propaganda?"
I think there's a bit of a (self-)selection bias going on there. I'm sure there's a reason to do medieval besides extreme interest in Catholic or other fundamentalist-Christian thought. For the life of me, though, I can't think of what that reason could be.
As far as I can see, the only value exhibited by Anon's comment is that it raises the interesting question of how ignorant and pointless an anonymous comment has to be before Brian will refrain from approving it.
BL COMMENT: There's a simple answer to this question: if the ignorance and pointlessnessness isn't obvious in the first couple of lines, and/or Brian is preoccupied with an elderly parent in the hospital, then it's likely to get published…alas.
Obviously they don't cover all of philosophy, but for ethics, both Sidgwick's _Outline of the History of Ethics_ and MacIntyer's _A Short History of Ethics_ have real virtues, and, despite some predictable problems in each, are good introductions to the subject, I think.
Anon: Ockham and Scotus were as careful, rigorous, and sharp philosophers as ever have lived. If you haven't read them you've missed out.
I'd recommend 'A Short History of Modern Philosophy' by Roger Scruton… (obviously, it only covers modern philosophy and is short)
I like Russell's too, because it was really the first philosophy I ever read and is elegantly written. He's sometimes wrong and certainly dated, but he's hardly alone in this!
Anyone else like W.T. Jones's five-volume series? It's unreasonably expensive, but I read used copies of the first two volumes as an undergrad and felt I profited from it.
I too think Russell's work is a good read, even if it would not stand up to any historian's standards of an acceptable historical text, it is still worthwhile. This may not be the case if it were to have been written by many other philosophers, but this is coming from the man who published "What I Believe".
@ Anonymous, June 16, 4:09 pm:
I'm also a fan of the W.T Jones history. It is outrageously expensive, and some of Jones' commentary bears the mark of its time all too clearly (i.e., the linguistic philosophy of the 1950s-60's). But most of the commentary avoids that problem, and I like that it that includes so much primary-source material(in the form of sometimes pages-long quotations). It does in written form what a good prof does for a class: give careful commentary on key passages from central primary-source texts while weaving it all into a running historical narrative.
I have read Kenny's Volume 4 and would recommend his fans to look at the section "Evolution and Ceation" (pp. 299-305).
There are some ignorant criticisms of Darwinism and an attempt to make creationism look good!
I would suggest David E. Cooper's 'World Philosophies: An Historical Introduction' (1996, rev. ed. 2003). Although as its title suggests it covers *world* philosophies it is important to locate Western philosophies relative to the world's other philosophical traditions.
My vote here would be for specific histories with broad import and connections— I still look to Lovejoy's The Great Chain of Being, MacIntyre's Whose Reason, Which Rationality?, and Taylor's Sources of the Self when I need to place my ideas historically.
It's been a while since I thought about this, but I really liked Copleston's volumes in graduate school (he has his biases, but he's a true scholar); Passmore's *Hundred Years of Philosophy* and also History of Philosophy in America (2 volumes) by Elizabeth Flower & Murray G. Murphey
just bite the bullet and read Copleston's 8 or nine volume history. he's light on modern continental thought, but anything less is likely to be so cursory and confusing as to be worthless.
The comprehensive four volume history of western philosophy by Sir Anthony Kenny is now available, as of a few days ago, as a single volume!
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