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Product Details
Paperback: 895 pages
Publisher: Simon & Schuster/Touchstone (October 30, 1967)
It took a while before I finally finished "The History of Western Philosophy." There is a lot of history and Bertrand Russell covers a lot of history very quickly and briefly and still the book is 900 pages thick. That said, it was well written and not too hard to read. The hardest for me was to keep track of all the relationships explained. To truly understand all of them, I'd need to read it a couple more times.
Summarizing "The History of Western Philosophy" is not possible in a book review and I won't attempt it. One important topic in this book is that it is as much "history" as "Philosophy" Thus at the times where there was less important contributions to the field of philosophy, the author still summarizes the history that happened and how that influenced later philosophers. In fact, how the history influenced philosophy and how philosophy influenced history is a key theme throughout the book. Russell shows has they are intertwined and caused each other.
The book has three large parts (each about 300 pages). They are 1) Ancient (mostly Greek) Philosophy, 2) Catholic Philosophy, and 3) Modern Philosophy. The book is chronological with sometimes forward references and a lot of backward references. Of all the philosophies, most of the time is spend on the Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle philosophies as their influence is so huge. Even though Bertrand Russell is quite critical of them and considers them overvalued... I guess he contributes to that by focusing on it much again :) That said, it is also a central theme that Bertrand Russell is not shy whatsoever to give his own opinion about the philosophies, changing his book partly to the philosophies of Bertrand Russell.Read more ›
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He wrote in the Preface to this 1945 book, “Many histories of philosophy exist, and it has not been my purpose merely to add one to their number.Read more ›
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He wrote in the Preface to this 1945 book, “Many histories of philosophy exist, and it has not been my purpose merely to add one to their number.Read more ›
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