Customer Reviews

The Dream of Reason: A History of Philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The subtitle of this book is a history of philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance, but that can be slightly misleading. It is in fact what it claims but it is also much more and a little less. The little less is that only the book's last two chapters cover the period after the death of Aristotle but anyone who has slogged through medieval philosophy will appreciate and understand the author's choices. The good news is how deftly the author, Anthony Gottlieb, covers the topics and philosophers selected. The Dream of Reason is a wonderfully comprehensible volume that glorifies the Greeks, certainly not for getting it precisely right, but for expanding the attempts to actually get it (it, of course, being a simple word covering a multitude of complex ideas.) This book is always intelligent and very entertaining. There is no better single place for a reader to go to cover this vast period of time.

I am currently reading both The Dream of Reason AND A History of Western Philosophy in tandem. While the claims can be made of one's superiority to the other, I find it immensely helpful to read them together. Gottlieb references Russell a number of times, so having the work right there to read is a must. What Gottlieb lacks in deep understanding, Russell is there to fill in. Likewise, what Russell lacks in outright readability (brilliant beyond belief, but it does tend to get dry), Gottlieb makes up for in his flowing writing style.

I cannot and will not mar either work, as I think they (begrudgingly or not) feed off of and make each other that much better.

I actually find it hard to put a grade on Anthony Gottlieb's "The Dream of Reason: A History of Philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance." Gottlieb handles the Greeks in an accessible and witty way. He breathes life into the pre-Socratics and spends an extraordinary amount of time and care in rendering Greek thought. In demonstrating the relevance of the pre-Socratics, Gottlieb pontificates, in effect, that it was wrong to minimize their contributions to philosophy.

Then, Gottlieb in a blink of an eye, minimizes over 1000 years of philosophy. He scoffs at Augustine as if Augustine were a child writing philosophy with a crayon. Anselm and William of Ockham fare no better. Aquinas warrants half a page. Forget about Machiavelli. His treatment was not just one of omission, Gottlieb affirmatively debases everything not Greek in thought.

The hard part comes with deciding the value of "The Dream of Reason." It does have value for its treatment of the Greeks. It does have value in the fact it makes Greek philosophy accessible to the uninitiated. If "The Dream of Reason" only sought to handle the Greeks, it may warrant a 4 or even 5 star review. However, whatever good is achieved in the first 300 or so pages, is completely undone by the injustice Gottlieb does to the other 1000 years of philosophy. You certainly can't call the title of the book a "HISTORY of Philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance." I get it, Gottlieb does not like philosophy after the Greeks but you cannot call your work a HISTORY if you are unwilling to treat your subject with at least a grudging objectivity.

I could not put it down. It hit me at some point that I was at the intersection of readability and scholarship. Clearly the value of this book lies beyond its readability: Gottlieb is both a philosopher and a journalist (in the good sense), not a journalist who writes about philosophy. He investigates and provides a fresh look at the material: For instance what we bemoan as the flaws of Aristotelianism during the scholastic period came 2000 years after his work. Aristotle had an empirical bent --his followers are the ones to blame.
I liked his constant questioning of the labels put on philosophers and philosophies by the second hand readers.
Clearly he missed a few authors who deserve real coverage like Algazali, but I take what I can get.
The only other readable history of philosophy is Russell's. This one was less hurriedly put together.

Someone should bug the author to hurry with the sequel on Locke, Hume, etc.

Anthony Gottlieb is an 'amateur' philosopher in the best sense of the word: a person who engages in an activity, pursuit, study, or science for pleasure rather than for financial benefit, as an avocation rather than as a profession. Gottlieb, author of THE DREAM OF REASON, is the executive editor of THE ECONOMIST. He studied philosophy at Cambridge University and University College, London, and has been a Visiting Professor at Harvard University. He writes regularly on philosophy for the NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW. Writing with zestful wit and wisdom, the author of this marvelous history of Western philosophy caused me to chuckle and laugh out loud at his humorous insights into the bizarre behavior and believes of many philosophers. I suspected that this book would be different when I read in the Introduction, 'Any subject [philosophy] that is responsible for producing [Martin] Heidegger owes the world an apology.' The book, howver is not amateurish in the sense of being unskilled, inept, or incompetent. Gottlieb has an amazing grasp not only of philosophy and philosophers but also of modern science. He brings clarity to muddled, and muddled, waters. He opens the windows of a musty room and lets in fresh air. THE DREAM OF REASON has three main divisions: (1) The Pre-Socratics; (2) Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle; and (3) From Aristotle to the Renaissance (with emphasis on the Epicureans, the Stoics, and the Skeptics). Gottlieb makes short shrift of the Middle Ages, giving a thousand years less than 100 pages. He writes provocatively: 'Philosophy in the West remained more or less the slave of Christianity for about a millennium. From the perspective of modern thought, it is tempting to see that lengthy interlude in terms of the tale of Sleeping Beauty. Having pricked its finger on Christian theology, philosophy fell asleep for about a thousand years until awakened by the kiss of Descartes.' Gottlieb promises a second volume: From Rene Descartes ('the father of modern philosophy' to the present time. I eagerly await its publication. THE DREAM OF REASON is Exhibit #1 in evidence that a philosophical work need not be dour, dry, and dull, but instead can be a delightful reading experience. I recommend this book highly.

Also recommended: FREUD: DARKNESS IN THE MIDST OF VISION, by Louis Breger.

Gottlieb is a sharp, smart writer who has done a great job of packaging a big-picture history of philosophy for the general reader. His voice is chatty and personal; this is like getting the story of civilzation from your Uncle Ed on the back porch.

How can you not love a book that includes lines like: "There is no denying that philosophers' attempts to think clearly have often rudely backfired. (Any subject that is responsible for producing Heidegger, for example, owes the world an apology)."

Gottlieb puts philosophy back into the study of the world, pointing out that philosophy gets a bad rap in part because as soon as a philospoher discovers something useful, such as planetary movement, he's reclassified a scientist.

This gives a great overview of some lesser-known philophers and provides a nice, clear picture of better-known thinkers such as Socrates and Plato. He's refreshingly clear of cant and doesn't appear to be intent on selling any particular school or point of view. This is great teaching in book form-- clear, understandable, and direct.

This is a great introduction to philosophy up to the Renaissance, and for those who are already familiar with the territory, it's a great work for putting everyone into place in the bigger picture. Highly recommended.

In the "Dream of Reason," Gottlieb tells the story of philosophy from its origins through the Renaissance in a warm, entertaining and cogent way. This book is a wonderful read. I have always wanted to understand the broad sweep of philosophy, but have found the books that try to provide this information to dense and unreadable. I have to admit I never made it through Bertrand Russell's famous "History of Western Philosophy."

Finally, there is book that is both entertaining and informative. In Gottlieb's book I never felt like I was "getting stuck" in minutiae. Clearly, the challenge for Gottlieb was deciding what to leave out, and while I am by no means an expert, from the areas I do know well I found his focus fair and informative. This book is a treat.

As other reviewers have mentioned, Anthony Gottlieb's competition is Bertrand Russell, whose potboiler History of Philosophy has turned out to be his most enduring work, and (not mentioned) Will Durant's popularizing Story of Philosophy, much disdained by people who've never read it, and fondly remembered by those who, usually in youth, were through it glad to discover that philosophy could be more stimulating, and in the end less dogmatic, than religion. Gottlieb has directly earned a place in Russell and Durant's company, and one can only hope he'll someday bring the tale into the 20th century. His exposition is masterly--free of jargon, funny, common-sensical--and his feel for metaphor almost always perfect. A lone example: "While Plato wanted to leave the dark Cave of physical reality and find something better, Aristotle said that the Cave was not so bad once you turned the lights on--particularly if you started dissecting the animals in it. The beauty which Plato appreciated best in unrealized, unworldly ideals, Aristotle saw all around him" (p. 233). Your garden-variety philosophy professor isn't half so good. Take her course if you must, but read Gottlieb's book.

Anthony Gottlieb delivers a readable, enjoyable history of philosophy from the Greeks to the Renaissance in The Dream of Reason, although the history is predominantly of the Greeks, particularly the big three, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle (only the last two chapters cover the period after the death of Aristotle but the author makes a healthy, believable excuse for this). The book makes the ideas comprehensible and, often, funny which four years of medieval and classical studes at university often failed to do. Passing over the more scholastic medieval arguments now seems like a wise choice the author made. The history of philosophy, in this author's capable hands, seems important, relevant and, most suprising, quite interesting. At times he may seem a tad generous to each of the ancient philosophers but he cleverly backs up everything he states. A good book for those looking to plunge into this topic.

Anthony Gottlieb's "The Dream of Reason" is a fair general survey of philosophy in the ancient world. He does an admirable job in covering the pre-Socratics, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle and the schools of epicureanism, stoicism, and scepticism. His writing is not too detailed for the beginner. Gottlieb falls down, however, in two areas. His all too occasional flip personal comments are not welcome and his coverage of the early and late Middle Ages is really disappointing, as is his treatment of the Renaissance. Here he skims across a few thinkers just to give the appearance that he is treating them seriously (when in fact he is not)and he dwells only on the cultural changes of those eras. Gottlieb's lack of appreciation of the philosophy of the Middle Ages is a reflection upon his lack of appreciation of what philosophy really is. Don't you know, Mr Gottlieb, that the medieval tradition is every bit as much part of Western culture as the Greek? You cannot hope to understand what it means to be "Western" without understanding the Middle Ages. Hopefully, his next volume will not suffer from the neglect of thinkers he does not admire nor understand.