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WillowOne's Positions

A History of Western Philosophy

Overview

A single-volume survey of Western philosophy from the pre-Socratics to the early twentieth century, written by a working philosopher rather than a historian. Russell sets each thinker in the political and social circumstances that produced them, which is the book's distinctive feature, and he does not hide his own opinions: Aristotle is treated with respect and impatience, Nietzsche and Hegel with open hostility, and Hume with affection. The book was cited when Russell was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1950.

Notes

This is the map. Nearly every position in this vault has a history, and this is the quickest honest way to learn it. Specialists complain that Russell is unfair to the people he disliked, which is true, and the complaint is a feature: you are reading an argument, not a catalogue, and you can see where he puts his thumb on the scale. Read it before, not instead of, the primary texts.

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