the history of philosophy ac grayling review

And, since the story of philosophy is incomplete without mention of the great philosophical traditions of India, China and the Persian-Arabic world, he gives a comparative survey of them too. Grayling takes the reader from the world-views and moralities before the age of the Buddha, Confucius and Socrates, through Christianity's dominance of the European mind to the Renaissance and Enlightenment, and on to Mill, Nietzsche, Sartre, and philosophy today. With his characteristic clarity and elegance A. But since the long-popular classic Bertrand Russell's History of Western Philosophy, first published in 1945, there has been no comprehensive and entertaining, single-volume history of this great intellectual journey. The story of philosophy is an epic tale: an exploration of the ideas, views and teachings of some of the most creative minds known to humanity. What Grayling hails as philosophy’s progress may appear problematic, though, to readers reluctant to join him in embracing scientific materialism (born of Baconian experimentalism) as a replacement for religious thought. A capacious and stimulating chronicle of philosophical endeavor.The History of Philosophy: Three Millennia of Thought from the West and Beyond - Softcover

In John Locke’s decision to explore “the origin, certainty, and extent of human knowledge,” Grayling recognizes an epoch-making episode in the grand intellectual adventure we call philosophy. As readers begin that adventure in ancient Greece with Thales’ speculations about water as the primal substance and press forward through Locke and on to the dozens of other thinkers carrying the enterprise to today’s global investigations of poststructuralism and hermeneutics, they gain a deep appreciation for the unfolding dynamics of the philosophical project. Readers see, for instance, how Aristotle reacted against Plato’s transcendent metaphysics in developing his theory of matter and form how Locke reworked Hobbes’ conception of the human state of nature, so safeguarding individual liberty and limiting state authority and how Wittgenstein borrowed from Russell’s logic to articulate his analysis of language. As evidence that successive generations of philosophers have actually advanced human understanding, Grayling points not only to the ever-richer content of philosophy itself but also to new disciplines-including physics, psychology, and linguistics-incubated by philosophical inquiry.

The history of philosophy ac grayling review