Philosophy: History & Problems [Hardcover]

Samuel Enoch Stumpf (Author), James Fieser (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0072406356 | ISBN-13: 978-0072406351 | Publication Date: August 1, 2002 | Edition: 6th

This text brings together Stumpf's and Fieser's SOCRATES TO SARTRE AND BEYOND, Seventh Edition (2003) and PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEMS, Fifth Edition (2003) in one hardcover volume. It offers an accessible historical survey of philosophical ideas and a wealth of primary source readings at an excellent value.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Samuel Enoch Stumpf was Emeritus Professor of Philosophy and Emeritus Professor of Law at Vanderbilt University prior to his death in 1998, at the age of eighty. He earned a B.S. in Business and Finance from the University of California at Los Angeles, a B.D. in Theology from Andover Newton Theological School, and a Ph.D. in Philosophy from the University of Chicago. He joined the Vanderbilt faculty in 1948 and served as Chair of the Philosophy Department from 1952 to 1967. After a five-year term as President of Cornell College, Professor Stumpf returned to Vanderbilt, where he remained until his retirement in 1984. Professor Stumpf’s publications include Democratic Manifesto (1954), Morality and the Law (1966), and four McGraw-Hill textbooks: Socrates to Sartre: A History of Philosophy (1966; 6th ed., posthumous, 1999); Philosophical Readings: Selected Problems (1971; 4th ed., 1994); Philosophy: History and Problems (1971; 5th ed., 1994); and Elements of Philosophy: An Introduction (1979; 3rd ed., 1993).

James Fieser is an Assistant Professor of philosophy at the University of Tennessee at Martin. He received his Ph.D. from Purdue University’s Department of Philosophy (1983, 1986). He has published articles on the topics of the philosophy of religion, rights theory, environmental ethics, moral skepticism, David Hume, and Thomas Aquinas. He has created several World Wide Web sites in philosophy, including the Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 976 pages
• Publisher: McGraw-Hill Humanities/Social Sciences/Languages; 6th edition (August 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0072406356
• ISBN-13: 978-0072406351
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.6 x 1.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #375,673 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Examined Life starts here..., January 20, 2005

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FrKurt Messick "FrKurt Messick" (Bloomington, IN USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Philosophy: History & Problems (Hardcover)

This philosophy book by Stumpf and Fieser is used at Ivy Tech State College as the primary text for the introduction to philosophy courses (100 level). It is a good survey of all the major topics in philosophy (from a classical Western standpoint), and includes many of the major thinkers over time, both in the narrative discussion presented by the authors, as well as in primary source readings from major philosophers themselves.

As the book's self-description states, this is a combination of two previous texts - 'Socrates to Sartre and Beyond: A History of Philosphy' by Stumpf, and 'Philosophical Problems' by Fieser. These books are presented one after the other, both under one cover. The readings selected and edited by Fieser are grouped topically, generally following an early-to-late chronology of ordering. Thus, with judicious planning, the reader of philosophy can develop from both segments a good general survey from the earliest times (the timeline on the backplate begins with Thales, from 624-546 B.C.) to the present (again from the timeline, current thinkers listed include John Rawls, John Hick, and Carol Gilligan).

The Stumpf text is divided into five major sections: I - Ancient Greek Philosophy; II - Hellenistic and Medieval Philosophy; III - Early Modern Philosophy; IV - Late Modern and 19th Century Philosophy; and V - 20th Century and Contemporary Philosophy. Section I looks at the major ancient Greek thinkers, such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, as well as lesser-known important figures and schools such as Thales, Pythagoras, the Sophists, and more. This is the time that philosophy began to be broken into certain topical areas (ethics, politics, metaphysics, logic, etc.) but also a time when the disciplines of science, mathematics and what we would call social sciences and arts and humanities were all directly and explicitly tied to the overall philosophical enterprise.

The section on Hellenistic and Medieval Philosophy looks at later Greek schools (Stocism, Skepticism, Epicureanism) as well as the advent of Christianity and Christian influence in philosophical development. Key figures here include Augustine (heavily influenced by the twin sources of Christianity and Neoplatonism), Boethius, Anselm, Aquinas (influenced greatly by the European rediscovery of Aristotle), and late medieval figures such as Scotus, Ockham and Eckhart.

Early Modern Philosophy begins at the time the various Renaissance and Reformation periods began, looking at key philosophers such as Machiavelli, Bacon, Hobbes, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, and the British Empiricists; this was also the advent of the scientific revolution and prelude to the Enlightenment, so there were philosophies of politics, religion, science, knowledge and ethics significantly different from anything before.

Late Modern and 19th Century Philosophy looks at primary Enlightenment figures such as Kant and Hegel, with fundamentally new ideas in the areas of metaphysics and epistemology (and, accordingly, new philosophies in other areas that reflect the new developments). This is also the period that saw the advent of Utilitarianism (Bentham, Mill, and Comte), and radical thinkers such as Kierkegaard, Marx and Nietzsche, whose direct influence in areas of religion, politics, and culture are still being felt.

Key areas covered in the final chapter on Contemporary Philosophy include Pragmatism (Pierce, James, Dewey, Bergson, Whitehead), Analytic Philosophy (Russell and Wittgenstein), Phenomenology and Existentialism (Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty), and very new ideas that are only now coming to full expression (postmodernism, structuralism and post-structuralism, mind-body problems, etc.). Overall, this text includes a 500-page narrative of the principle ideas and patterns of development that have shaped the many dimensions of Western philosophy.

Added to this narrative text is a 400-page collection of articles and edited tracts organised by Fieser into seven categories: I - The Meaning of Life; II - Philosophy of Mind; III - Philosophy of Religion; IV - Epistemology; V - Free Will and Determinism; VI - Ethics; and VII - Political Philosophy. Each of these sections is introduced by Fieser with a short essay (a few pages each, at most); these set the stage for the readings, and provide connecting material where appropriate, but for the most part, Fieser lets the primary documents speak for themselves. These sections include traditional philosopher-authors (Plato, Aristotle, Locke, Hume, James, Rawls), but also some authors/writings not generally included in such collections (Leo Tolstoy, Chuang-tzu, Katha Upanishad).

Together, these make a wonderful one-volume, portable philosophy library. Sufficient for an introductory course, it should also serve to whet the appetite of readers who are seeking more in particular philosophical areas. The combination of both Stumpf's and Fieser's texts means that the appeal and ease of use will be enhanced - those students who find primary documents difficult to follow can rely more on the narrative history/explanatory section; those who find the latter less gratifying and interesting can pay more attention to the primary documents.

In the Stumpf section, there is a useful glossary of key philosophical terms, a select bibliography arranged chronologically by chapter, divided into original documents and critical studies, and an index including names, terms and concepts. There are no such indexes or bibliographies following the Fieser section, but that section does list the citation for each excerpt at the beginning of each article, so that the reader may follow up with further reading in the same document.

Philosophy is rarely easy reading; there will be parts that appeal to a particular reader that will leave another bewildered or bored (or both!), but there tends to be in the philosophical discipline something somewhere of interest to most. This gives a good, broad layout of philosophy as done in the primary Western, academic tradition, and serves as a good text for classrooms, as well as use for a personal study.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great book, July 8, 2011

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rblessedtx - See all my reviews

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This review is from: Philosophy: History and Problems (Paperback)

Book is great makes philosophy a little easier to digest. I need the book for a philosophy class that i took.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Philosophy History and Problems, February 13, 2009

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Christine Vineyard "Little Shop" - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Philosophy:History and Problems (Hardcover)

For someone who loves history, this book of philosophy is presented in historical form. Mentions Socrates, Plato, Aristotle. Moves onto the Medieval period and St. Augustive's Christian Philosophy. Other subjects cover Karl Marx, ethics, religion, political philosophy, and theory of knowledge and metaphysics. Provides many, many examples of philosophical beliefs. Good book to use as research for a student of philosophy or anyone seeking to improve their knowledge and understanding of human nature. Contains 353 pages.