History of Philosophy, Vol. 6: From the French Enlightenment to Kant (Modern Philosophy) [Paperback]

Frederick Copleston S.J. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1993

Conceived originally as a serious presentation of the development of philosophy for Catholic seminary students, Frederick Copleston's nine-volume A History Of Philosophy has journeyed far beyond the modest purpose of its author to universal acclaim as the best history of philosophy in English.



Copleston, an Oxford Jesuit of immense erudition who once tangled with A.J. Ayer in a fabled debate about the exiatenceof God and the possibility of metaphysics, knew that seminary students were fed a woefully inadequate diet of theses and proofs, and that their familiarity with most of history's great thinkers was reduced to simplistic caricatures. Copelston sets out to redress the wrong by writing a complete history of Western philosophy, one crackling with incident and intellectual excitement - and one that gives full place to each thinker, presenting his thought in a beautifully rounded manner and showing his links to those who went before and to those who came after them.

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

Conceived originally as a serious presentation of the development of philosophy for Catholic seminary students, Frederick Copleston's nine-volume A History Of Philosophy has journeyed far beyond the modest purpose of its author to universal acclaim as the best history of philosophy in English.

Copleston, an Oxford Jesuit of immense erudition who once tangled with A.J. Ayer in a fabled debate about the exiatenceof God and the possibility of metaphysics, knew that seminary students were fed a woefully inadequate diet of theses and proofs, and that their familiarity with most of history's great thinkers was reduced to simplistic caricatures. Copelston sets out to redress the wrong by writing a complete history of Western philosophy, one crackling with incident and intellectual excitement - and one that gives full place to each thinker, presenting his thought in a beautifully rounded manner and showing his links to those who went before and to those who came after them.

About the Author

Frederick Copleston grew up in England. He was raised in an Anglican home but converted to Catholicism while a student at Marlborough College. He later became a Jesuit and then pursued a career in academia. He studied and lectured at Heythrop College and wrote an eleven-volume History of Philosophy, which is highly respected. He also spent time teaching at Gregorian University in Rome and, after he retired, lectured at Santa Clara University in California. He was appointed a member of the British Academy in 1970. He is famouse for debating Betrand Russell over the existence of God in a 1948 BBC broadcast.

Product Details

• Paperback: 528 pages
• Publisher: Image (December 1, 1993)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385470436
• ISBN-13: 978-0385470438
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 1.4 x 8.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #121,924 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good intro to Kant, September 13, 2005

By 

meadowreader (Sandia Park, NM USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: History of Philosophy, Vol. 6: From the French Enlightenment to Kant (Modern Philosophy) (Paperback)

More than 200 pages of Copleston's Vol. 6 is devoted to the notoriously difficult writings of Immanuel Kant, in effect a book within the book. You will find there a detailed explication of what Kant wrote, what he was trying to accomplish, and why. The discussion is both scholarly and very readable.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Kant get enough, August 7, 2008

By 

Richard Stone "Author" (Grand Rapids, Michigan) - See all my reviews

This review is from: History of Philosophy, Vol. 6: From the French Enlightenment to Kant (Modern Philosophy) (Paperback)

The two main players in this volume is Rosseau and Kant, whose mentality is about as different as one can fing in the field of philosophy.

Rosseau has his idealistic notion of The Noble Savage, The Social Contract, amongst other things that one can clearly see is more how he wished the world was than how it actually operated. His ideas are so blatantly wrong even given the knowledge of the times it makes one wonder why he gets so much prominence. It does make for an interesting psychological study of how a social misfit tries to justify being inept for common society.

Kant is where one finds some real meat to chew on, whether or not you agree with him. There's no doubt he created a revolution in Philosophy, but the question remains.... is he right? Is time and space an a priori construct that allows humanity to experience phenomena. Is substance an a priori construct to discern objects from one another? His argumentation for some is solid, like his ideas on substance, which has been largely substantiated through neuroscience. The notions of time and space are much more difficult, and his ideas on these are much more debatable.

The main issue is his severance of the phenomenal world of he experience with the noumenal world which is not directly experienced. He never really sufficiently links the thing-in-itself with the object as experience, which later philosophers jumped on rather rapidly.

His moral theory while claiming to be completely on reason, is really mostly emotive(as Copleston rightly states), essentially saying that do an action only if you would think it justified for another to do the same. Hence, it's wrong to lie because you wouldn't wanyt everybody to lie. While okay, it's not a good enough foundation to really make a solid base. His views on aesthetics and art are fascinating, and surprisingly the most interesting of what he wrote.

Copleston bares his teeth a little more than usual with Kant, which took this reader a little bit by surprise. Now, Copleston was a Thomist, and Kant essentially tried to destroy metaphysics as it was understood by the ancients, so it's understandable. Mostly Copleston attacked Kant because of the philosophers after Kant who took his Critique to its logical conclusion, with ridiculous results. Needless to say, a mindblowing read, and his best since Volume 3.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Best Introduction to Philosophy Ever!, June 8, 2006

By 

D. Horan "Franciscan Friar" (Washington, DC USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: History of Philosophy, Vol. 6: From the French Enlightenment to Kant (Modern Philosophy) (Paperback)

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!