A History of Philosophy: The Condensed Copleston

by Anthony Carroll, Frederick Copleston

Overview

A history of philosophy from the origins of reason in Ancient Greece to the most influential philosophers working today, this long-awaited single volume companion to Frederick Copleston's historic 11-volume series is a must-have for any aspiring philosopher.

Frederick Copleston's 11-volume A History of Philosophy has been the go-to reference for philosophers and students for decades. It is universally recognized as a classic and sits on the shelf of countless leading thinkers today. This companion to Copleston's landmark work contains clear and succinct analyses of the major events and texts in philosophy, exploring the foundational principles and ideals that drove the development of Western thought. It grapples with the sometimes complex views and teachings of the greatest minds in philosophy, explaining their work with clarity and elegance.

An accessible journey through this epic and deeply human history, Carroll succinctly condenses Copleston's thought while expanding on contemporary and world philosophy. From the early teachings of Socrates to the medieval philosophies of Christian Europe, the Enlightenment and the radical arguments of the Existentialists, Carroll adeptly explores the common threads and themes that have united all rational enquiries into the fundamental nature of reality.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781472950772
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Publishing
Publication date:	02/13/2025
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	496
File size:	816 KB

About the Author

Anthony J. Carroll is a philosopher, theologian and parish priest in Andalusia, Spain. His previous books include Protestant Modernity; Religion and Atheism: Beyond the Divide; and Modernity and Transcendence: A Dialogue with Charles Taylor.

Frederick Copleston (died 1994) was Professor of the History of Philosophy and Dean of the Faculty of Theology at London University. His work A History of Philosophy is one of the most remarkable single-handed scholarly enterprises of modern times.
Anthony J. Carroll is a philosopher, theologian and parish priest in Andalusia, Spain. His previous books include Protestant Modernity: Weber, Secularisation, and Protestantism; Il Giardiniere Invisibile: Credere, Non Credere, Cercare; Religion and Atheism: Beyond the Divide; and Modernity and Transcendence: A Dialogue with Charles Taylor.

He was Senior Lecturer in Philosophy and Theology at Heythrop College, University of London. In 2016 he was Robert Bellah Fellow at the Max Weber Centre, University of Erfurt, Germany.
Frederick Copleston was born in Somerset in 1907. After studying at Oxford, he held a number of academic posts, including Professor of the History of Philosophy and Dean of the Faculty of Philosophy at London University. He died in 1994.

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1: THE HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY
Why Study the History of Philosophy?
Why Study Copleston's A History of Philosophy?
Copleston's A History of Philosophy as Ignatian Humanism
How Should One Organize the History of Philosophy?
Postscript: A Short Biography of Frederick Charles Copleston
Bibliography

CHAPTER 2: GREECE AND ROME
Introduction
The Birth of Greek Philosophy
The Pioneers: The Philosophical Cosmologists of Ionia
The Socratic Period
Plato
Plato's Doctrine of the Forms
Aristotle's Metaphysics and Ethics
Post-Aristotelian Philosophy
Conclusion
Bibliography

CHAPTER 3: MEDIEVAL PHILOSOPHY
Introduction
Early Christian Thought in the Patristic Period
St Augustine and the City of God
The Pseudo-Dionysius
Boethius and the Consolation of Philosophy
The Carolingian Renaissance
John Scottus Eriugena
From the Tenth to the Twelfth Centuries
The Thirteenth Century Syntheses of Reason and Revelation
St Thomas Aquinas and the Great Synthesis of Faith and Reason
Scotus and the Franciscans
Conclusion
Bibliography

CHAPTER 4: LATE MEDIEVAL AND RENAISSANCE PHILOSOPHY
Introduction
William of Ockham and the end of the Great Synthesis of Faith and Reason
Marsilius of Padua on the Church and the State
Meister Eckhart and the Speculative Mysticism of the Fourteenth Century
The Philosophy of the Renaissance
Suárez and the Scholasticism of the Renaissance
Conclusion
Bibliography

CHAPTER 5: THE RATIONALISTS: DESCARTES TO LEIBNIZ
Introduction
Descartes on the Mind and the Body
Pascal, Cartesianism and Malebranche
Spinoza and the Philosophy of God or Nature
Leibniz and the Substance of Reality
Conclusion
Bibliography

CHAPTER 6: BRITISH PHILOSOPHY: HOBBES TO HUME
Introduction
Thomas Hobbes on Materialism, Mechanism and Power
John Locke and the Empirical Foundations of British Philosophy
Berkeley and the Lockean Legacy
David Hume and the Experience of Scepticism
Conclusion
Bibliography

CHAPTER 7: THE ENLIGHTENMENT: VOLTAIRE TO KANT
Introduction
Rousseau and the Origins of Society
The German Enlightenment and the Rise of the Philosophy of History
Kant and the Modern Vision of Reason
Kant on Morality and Religion
Aesthetics, Teleology and the Opus Postumum
Conclusion
Bibliography

CHAPTER 8: EIGHTEENTH- AND NINETEENTH-CENTURY GERMAN PHILOSOPHY: FICHTE TO NIETZSCHE
Introduction
Fichte and the Fundamental Principles of Philosophy
Schelling and the Idea of Nature, Schleiermacher and the Feeling of Dependence
Hegel and the Adventure of Spirit
Schopenhauer's Reaction Against the Transformations of Metaphysical Idealism
Feuerbach's Turn to Anthropology
Marx and Engels and the Critique of Capitalism
Kierkegaard and the Search for Authenticity
Nietzsche and the Spiritual Crisis of Modernity
Conclusion: Retrospect and Prospect
Bibliography

CHAPTER 9: UTILITARIANISM AND EARLY ANALYTIC PHILOSOPHY
Introduction
The Utilitarianism of Jeremy Bentham and John Stuart Mill
The Legacy of British Empiricism and the Philosophy of Herbert Spencer
The Idealist Movement in Great Britain
Idealism in America
The Pragmatist Movement
The Revolt Against Idealism
Bertrand Russell and the Pursuit of a Logical and Scientific Philosophy
Conclusion
Bibliography

CHAPTER 10: NINETEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURY FRENCH PHILOSOPHY
Introduction
From the Revolution to Auguste Comte
From Auguste Comte to Henri Bergson
From Bergson to Sartre
Phenomenology and Structuralism
Conclusion
Bibliography

CHAPTER 11: RUSSIAN PHILOSOPHY
Introduction
Historical and philosophical themes
Peter Chaadaev: Philosophy and the Problem of Russia
Slavophile and Westernizing Developments
Literature, Religion and Philosophy: Dostoevsky, Tolstoy and Solovyov
Russian Marxism: Plekhanov, Lenin and the Soviet Union
Russian Philosophers in Exile and the Westernizer-Slavophile Legacy
Conclusion
Bibliography

CHAPTER 12: LOGICAL POSITIVISM AND EXISTENTIALISM
Introduction
Contemporary British Philosophy
Logical Positivism and Verification
Existentialism
Conclusion
Bibliography

CHAPTER 13: CONCLUSIONS, OMISSIONS AND PROSPECTS
Introduction
Habermas and the Unfinished Project of Modernity
MacIntyre on Virtue, Character and Community
Charles Taylor on the Self and Transcendence
Towards a Philosophy of the Future
Bibliography

Index

Editorial Reviews

A consummate success… Carroll has done sterling work in bringing Copleston's comprehensive work to a new generation.” —Church Times

“[The] book is excellently documented from the scholarship on these books, so that as a resource for introductory issues in each case it performs brilliantly.” —Theological Studies

“If you're looking for wisdom, you need a sense of history. And a deeper sense of the history of the Western philosophical mind and its inbuilt patterned challenges is what you get from Tony Carroll's informative and insightful book on F.C. Copleston's legacy.” —Paolo Costa, author of The Post-Secular City

“Anthony Carroll's reconstruction of the famous 11 volumes of A History of Philosophy is both a compelling introduction into Copleston's comprehensive studies of Philosophy in the West and the East as well as a convincing invitation into the search for truth through discursive reason in the humanist tradition of the Jesuit order. The strong systematic approach to the broad material allows Anthony Carroll to build an intellectual bridge from Copleston's work to modern philosophers like Jürgen Habermas, Alasdair MacIntrye and Charles Taylor. It is an extraordinary and excellent piece of philosophical work!” —Professor Dr Matthias Lutz-Bachmann, Professor for Philosophy at Goethe University, Frankfurt

“A bold new version of Frederick Copleston's magnificent history of philosophy condensed to a single volume. Carroll dedicates a chapter to each of the original 11 volumes and offers an introduction and conclusion which puts the original work in perspective and makes explicit its philosophical significance for our time. A wonderful opportunity for the general reader and the student of philosophy to become acquainted with this important work. It will be of interest to all those working and studying in the fields of history of philosophy and theology.” —Professor Fiona Ellis, University of Nottingham.

“By engaging with Frederick Copleston's groundbreaking multi-volume A History of Philosophy, this book offers a stimulating overview of a philosophical conversation that spans several centuries and is still ongoing. It demonstrates how humanity has explored fundamental questions from various perspectives and how our present thinking and self-understanding depend on foundations laid down by previous generations. The book thus helps overcome the tendency to teach philosophy with little reference to its rich history. It will fit in wonderfully within the standard philosophical curriculum. Anthony Carroll has produced a thrilling account of the entire journey of human intellectual achievement, written in unusually clear and accessible language.” —Louis Caruana SJ, Professor of Philosophy, Pontifical Gregorian University, Rome

“Readers approaching Anthony Carroll's A History of Philosophy: The Condensed Copleston in the expectation of an authoritative, lucid, single-volume account of Copleston's multi-volume classic history will not be disappointed. The Condensed Copleston is, however, much more than this. Carroll deftly weaves into his exposition of Copleston's text much illuminating commentary that, among other things, encompasses developments in philosophy since the original was completed. The result is an incomparable backward glance through 2,500 years of Western philosophy. I cannot recommend it too highly.” —Professor Raymond Tallis, author of The Kingdom of Infinite Space and Aping Mankind

“In the middle of the last (20th) Century, Father Copleston wrote a multi-volume history of Western philosophy which a wide range of students and researchers, well beyond the range of those who shared his Catholic faith and admiration for Aquinas, found extremely helpful. Anthony Carroll has written a condensed single-volume version which shares the same quality of clarity and comprehensiveness. A truly striking achievement.” —Charles Taylor, author of The Secular Age and Professor Emeritus in the Department of Philosophy at McGill University

“By offering a condensed reconstruction of Copleston's eleven-volume masterpiece within the confines of a single handy volume, Carroll has produced a useful and stimulating resource for a range of courses in the history of philosophy.” —John Cottingham, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy, University of Reading.

“Why study a history of philosophy? Why condense eleven volumes into one? Anthony Carroll's work answers, in a brilliant way, both questions. His reconstruction of the eleven volumes of Copleston's History of Philosophy offers the reader a clear and deep understanding of the history of philosophy from the Greeks until today (Habermas, McIntyre, Taylor…).

Anthony Carroll not only has the ability to systematize and condense Copleston's work without losing its depth, but he is also capable of providing keys to understanding Copleston's work and the history of philosophy. Lastly, the Ignatian humanism underlying Copleston's thought and perspective is taken up as a key to fundamental understanding in the search for truth and the deeper meaning of philosophy in Carroll's work.” —Prof. Dr. Ignacio Sepúlveda del Río, Professor of Philosophy and Head of the Humanities Department, Loyola (Jesuit) University in Andalucía, Spain

“In an age of increasing cultural and political polarisation philosophy could be of great help - but only if it does not reproduce the deficiencies of many public debates. This condensed history of philosophy is a model of what reasonable, open-minded and fair argumentation can achieve.” —Hans Joas, Humboldt University, Berlin

From the Publisher