Customer Reviews

A History of Philosophy, Vol. 5: Modern Philosophy - The British Philosophers from Hobbes to Hume

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Copleston's series, "The History of Philosophy", is quite possibly the best introduction to the history of philosophical thought that has ever been published and certainly the best currently in print.

You will be hard pressed to find a better collection of solid philosophical surveys in one place. The beauty of the series is that Copleston has clearly done his research on each period and each thinker of Western philosophy.

I cannot recommend this series any more highly. It is a must-have collection for anyone who is a scholar (professional or casual) of philosophy, theology or any of the arts.

If this isn't on your bookshelf, it should be!

"A History of Philosophy" by Frederick Copleston,S.J., is a very complete work. All volumes, including #5 - Modern Philosophy The British philosophers from Hobbes to Hume, are first class. I recomend with emphasis!

mgs

This is series is a good way to get involved in the thought of the world. You'll want to go further than what is discussed in the book but it is a very good start.

The philosophers stated here were brilliant minds, no doubt about it. The scientific revolution created a new way of thinking about and carrying out solutions to problems that was attempted(poorly) by Descartes and their ilk. It's takes a while for good thinking to develop when one starts from a completely new framework. This starts the era when something substantial is said outside the school of classical greek thought that isn't completely idiotic.

The first empricist is Locke, who is really quite mind numbingly dull to read, but very important in how the empricists after him build off of(and subsequently demolish much of) what he said. His philosophy, even if not very agreeable, is straightforward and quite logically fleshed out.

Berkeley, in contrast, was a joy to read. The funny part about him is that he wanted to save philosophy from abstract notions that have no application to real life, then expounds a philosophy that denies the meterial world in its entirety! It must be said that his critique was phenomenal, and rightly states many of the things taken for granted such as substance have no empiricial basis, as well as rightfully stating objects have no qualities in themselves, but only what we perceive as qualities, thereby refuting much of Aristotle.

Hume goes even further than Berkeley in refuting spiritual substance, doubting cause and effect, in essence doubting everything. He does so with lucidity and style that makes for another enjoyable section. His views on morality is his main weakness, and essentially boils down to Pain=Bad, Happiness=Good.

There were a couple others also, but after those three guys I can't remember anything substantial they said. Reading this History was akin to watching a wrecking crew destroy an entire village, laughing gleefully as they do it. The problem is they left next to nothing to rebuild it with. For that we have to wait for Kant.

At one point I went throught a British Empiricist phase. This book was an invaluable resource. I've never noticed any misinterpretations of the author's original texts in this volume.