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 20th 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 60 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 20th 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.
Johannes Baagøe –
Russell est toujours agréable à lire, drôle et pertinent à la fois.Et il prend position – ça agacera les spécialistes qui estiment que le travail des philosophes est d’expliquer les auteurs sans juger, mais ravira celles et ceux qui voient la philosophie comme une discipline vivante susceptible de progrès, plus scientifique que littéraire, où plus personne ne croit comme Descartes que le cœur se dilate parce que le sang y est le plus chaud.
[...]Amazon Kunde –
Das beste Buch zum Einstieg in die Philosophie bis zum Beginn des 20. Jahrhunderts, das ich kenne!
[...]Avaren –
There is little to say about what Russell wrote. It’s great and classic, albeit rather biased in some parts. The book itself, however, does not match its contents. I will never understand why the use of blindingly white pages are so common in books published in the USA and the UK. Combine that with the small font size, and reading this book becomes rather taxing on the eyes. Spending some more money and ordering the hardcover copy might be preferable.
[...]Guilherme Delacio –
Bertrand Russell is in My Opinion unique!This Book is a Bible simply saying. A Rare and True Contribution To Mankind.This Book Will always Be My Bedtime Reading.
[...]Amazon Customer –
Very good!
[...]Bogdan Stancescu –
My first successful attempt at reading a philosophy-related book
[...]I’m almost 40 and I’ve been mildly curious about philosophy throughout my adult life. Unfortunately, I had yet to read anything meaningful about it, because all the previous attempts to educate myself were thwarted by the pretentiousness of all the authors I had tried to read on the topic; I suspect one can’t be accepted in this field if they speak like human beings.History of Western Philosophy, however, is different: even non-experts can read this introductory book! How amazing is that? On top of that, Russell has a delicious whimsical side to him, which transpires in this book just enough for the occasional comic relief. Although an atheist himself, he does show the necessary formal reverence to religious matters as avoid offending anyone (in fact, he even uses the appropriate jargon regarding heathens, heretics and the such, although I believe most of it is tongue in cheek).Apart from all that (which was the critical part for me), the book is obviously well respected, and it’s remarkably thorough (which means you shouldn’t be concerned with the content’s verity or its coverage of the topic). Speaking of thoroughness, I’m quite happy that I happened upon it in digital format, because I later realized how thick the paper version must be, and that I would most likely have been intimidated by it to the point of not buying the book in the first place.The Kindle version does have a few OCR problems (typically spaces missing between words), but they’re few and far apart enough not to become any meaningful hindrance to fluid reading.UPDATE: I finally finished reading the book, and I wanted to add a few things specifically for novices like myself. If you’re a newcomer to philosophy AND you’re just a casual reader, expect that you won’t be able to understand everything, and that you will remember much less than what you understand. This is important in two ways. On one hand, knowing this, you shouldn’t get discouraged when you don’t understand something as well as you’d want to: you’d probably forget it anyway, so just keep on reading — the important thing is to get an overall idea, not to remember every little detail (which is anyway impossible). On the other hand, the fact that you’ll unavoidably forget a lot of stuff is quite unfortunate, because after you finish with the Antics, the cross-references become increasingly more important and relevant. So I suggest that, if your reading habits allow it, you might want to jot down a few words about each philosopher IMMEDIATELY after finishing each chapter; you probably wouldn’t need more that two or three phrases with what you found most distinctive about that person, so you can later remember more about each of them at a glance.Having said all that, expect that in the end you’ll leave with maybe 10% of what you’ve been reading — and that’s if you’re lucky. But that’s ok: what matters is that you leave with an understanding of what philosophy is really all about, and that you will definitely get. Plus, you’ll certainly be able to place almost any Western philosopher in roughly the right period, you’ll develop likes and dislikes, and you’ll end up with a much better understanding of what and why it is that Western philosophers have been doing what they’ve been doing for the past few thousand years. And let’s be honest: what more can you hope for?
LOVE DAVE –
Warm, Beguiling, Biased, and Brilliant. Just like Russell.
[...]Bertrand Russell. The man was a giant. Philosopher, historian, nobel laureate, activist unto his death, and now posthumous comic-book hero[1]. He was an Earl. He rewrote most of mathematics, but considered that a failure, as he aimed at reworking the basis of all thought. Even there, he was only foiled by some Austrian proving it to be impossible. By all accounts, a warm and charming man. Very tall, as well. A giant.This is his book about those giants whose shoulders he stood on. The book covers about two thousand five hundred years of smart people saying reasonably smart things (most the time). This is done in a dry and British fashion. It was the first work of academic philosophy I had read. I was 16. I was on my friend’s couch. It was summer. I killed it in a week or so — that’s not a brag, it goes quickly because it’s clear and clever. Russell clearly enjoyed writing it. I loved reading it. I was hooked. A bit later, I ended up with a highly marketable bachelor’s degree in philosophy, and a set of cognitive tools that better prepared me for the myriad of random things I’ve had to do to eat (such as: children’s parties, graphic design for a porn site, wearing a Cash4Gold sign while jumping, and software engineering) than any *real* coursework could have done. And I thank Bertie for his part in that.Since I’ve walked that road on the cover, too, I can say I agree with the other learned reviewers that Russell makes no effort to be balanced. I had a VERY Catholic upbringing, and I was a bit surprised at his outright hostility to the great doctors of the church. Like, Augustine, he was a pretty okay bloke, you know? He was the only one I liked! (Still, I have to admit I was both honestly surprised *and* vindictively pleased — as you might expect of a 16-year-old boy. Yeah Bertie! Stick it too ’em! I wanna go drink Zima and catch crabs like St. A, but they won’t let me!) I also agree it gets a bit ponderous as it creeps toward modernity. Gone are the days of our public intellectuals jumping into volcanos to prove their godhood. In exchange we get John Dewey, mostly famous for inventing a slightly better system for cataloging libraries. Alas and alack!So I clearly love the book. It’s like an extremely eccentric uncle: acerbic, vastly opinionated, but even when you’re 16 and think old people are merely repositories for funny smells, you still realize he says really, *actually* profound things between the rants about the Capitalists and the Imperialists.At the end of the day, this is an imperfect work of *philosophy* we’re talking about. The whole point is to self-referentially explore our own knowledge, ruthlessly hunting for fallacies, failings, and pedantic technicalities, all whilst sipping slowly upon a snifter of brandy near the fireplace in your study. As an introduction, I think perhaps we’re all the better off for Bertie’s flaws. They give the novice something to chew on. They did a good job getting a 16-year-old to think.[1] Search up “Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth” for another fun traversal of western history involving The Right Honourable The Earl Russell, OM, FRS.