A Little History of Philosophy

A Little History of Philosophy

by Nigel Warburton
ISBN-10:
0300187793
ISBN-13:
9780300187793
Pub. Date:
10/30/2012
Publisher:
Yale University Press
ISBN-10:
0300187793
ISBN-13:
9780300187793
Pub. Date:
10/30/2012
Publisher:
Yale University Press
A Little History of Philosophy

A Little History of Philosophy

by Nigel Warburton

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Overview

A lucid guide to humankind's greatest thinkers, from Aristotle to Peter Singer
 
“A primer in human existence: philosophy has rarely seemed so lucid, so important, so worth doing and so easy to enter into. . . . A wonderful introduction for anyone who’s ever felt curious about almost anything.”—Sarah Bakewell, author of How To Live: A Life of Montaigne in One Question and Twenty Attempts at an Answer
  
Philosophy begins with the nature of reality and how we should live. These were the concerns of Socrates, who spent his days in the ancient Athenian marketplace asking awkward questions, disconcerting the people he met by showing them just how little they genuinely understood.
 
This engaging Little History introduces the great thinkers in Western philosophy and explores their most compelling ideas about the universe and our place in it. Nigel Warburton guides us on a tour of the lives and work of thought-provoking philosophers – from the certainty of Descartes (‘I think, therefore I am’) to Hannah Arendt who examined crimes against humanity and taught us ‘the banality of evil’.
 
Little Histories – Inspiring Guides for Curious Minds

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780300187793
Publisher: Yale University Press
Publication date: 10/30/2012
Series: Little Histories
Pages: 272
Sales rank: 57,525
Product dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Nigel Warburton is a freelance philosopher and podcaster and bestselling author of several introductory philosophy books. He also hosts with David Edmonds the immensely popular podcast Philosophy Bites, which has been downloaded more than 48 million times by listeners all over the globe.

Table of Contents

1 The Man Who Asked Questions Socrates Plato 1

2 True Happiness Aristotle 9

3 We Know Nothing Pyrrho 15

4 The Garden Path Epicurus 22

5 Learning Not to Care Epictetus Cicero Seneca 28

6 Who Is Pulling Our Strings? Augustine 34

7 The Consolation of Philosophy Boethius 40

8 The Perfect Island Anselm Aquinas 46

9 The Fox and the Lion Niccolò Machiavelli 51

10 Nasty, Brutish, and Short Thomas Hobbes 57

11 Could You Be Dreaming? René Descartes 62

12 Place Your Bets Blaise Pascal 69

13 The Lens Grinder Baruch Spinoza 76

14 The Prince and the Cobbler John Locke Thomas Reid 81

15 The Elephant in the Room George Berkeley John Locke 87

16 The Best of All Possible Worlds? Voltaire Gottfried Leibniz 93

17 The Imaginary Watchmaker David Hume 99

18 Born Free Jean-Jacques Rousseau 105

19 Rose-Tinted Reality Immanuel Kant (1) 110

20 What if Everyone Did That? Immanuel Kant (2) 115

21 Practical Bliss Jeremy Bentham 121

22 The Owl of Minerva Georg W.F. Hegel 126

23 Glimpses of Reality Arthur Schopenhauer 132

24 Space to Grow John Stuart Mill 138

25 Unintelligent Design Charles Darwin 145

26 Life's Sacrifices Søren Kierkegaard 152

27 Workers of the World Unite Karl Marx 158

28 So What? C.S. Peirce William James 164

29 The Death of God Friedrich Nietzsche 171

30 Thoughts in Disguise Sigmund Freud 176

31 Is the Present King of France Bald? Bertrand Russell 183

32 Boo!/Hooray! A.J. Ayer 190

33 The Anguish of Freedom Jean-Paul Sartre Simone de Beauvoir Albert Camus 196

34 Bewitched by Language Ludwig Wittgenstein 202

35 The Man Who Didn't Ask Questions Hannah Arendt 208

36 Learning from Mistakes Karl Popper Thomas Kuhn 214

37 The Runaway Train and the Unwanted Violinist Philippa Foot Judith Jarvis Thomson 222

38 Fairness Through Ignorance John Rawls 228

39 Can Computers Think? Alan Turing John Searle 234

40 A Modem Gadfly Peter Singer 239

Index 246

Interviews

Why did you write this book?

Philosophy is one of the most stimulating and important subjects there is. We all philosophize some of the time when we think about how we should live, whether or not God exists, or how society should be organized. These questions have vexed the greatest minds for thousands of years. Yet some people are still daunted by philosophy. They think it's an impenetrable and obscure subject that has no relevance for them. I wanted to show this isn't true, that it's possible to write an accessible and enjoyable book without betraying the spirit of the great thinkers of the past or making them obscure or irrelevant. I decided to focus on the Western tradition in philosophy and on one or two key ideas from each philosopher discussed rather than attempt an encyclopedic overview.

How is making philosophy accessible to all a challenge?

Part of the challenge of writing a book like this was to keep the language straightforward. Many philosophers have introduced complex technical terms that make their writing hard to follow. It's easy to fall into the habit of mirroring them. Writing in a way that doesn't presuppose knowledge is an excellent discipline, though, as there's no place to hide.

Which philosophers do you personally find most engaging?

Socrates, the great fifth-century Athenian philosopher who would cross-question passersby in the marketplace and reveal how little they really knew, is one of my personal favourites. His unwillingness to accept assumptions, and his passion for discovering the truth or, failing that, how little he knew, provide a model for all philosophers. Although he wasn't the first philosopher, he was the first great philosopher. He of all the philosophers in the book is the one I'd most like to have met. My second choice would be the eighteenth-century philosopher David Hume, a remarkable thinker who was also a superb writer.

What are the major themes of your book?

A Little History of Philosophy focuses on the major themes of philosophy: appearance and reality, the nature of the self, and questions about God's existence and about how we should live, both individually and as members of society. Throughout philosophy's history these have been the perennial themes. Each era gives them a new twist, but they aren't going to go away.

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