the history of philosophy by ac grayling

In a chapter on Analytic Philosophy, for instance, Grayling writes: “If a sentence is composed of expressions that ‘mean’ meant entities then the sentence ‘Plato is thinking of the Forms’ requires each element of the sentence to ‘mean’ (respectively) a human being, a mental activity, an abstraction - and in each case a particular instance of the thing ‘meant’ - and further, the expressions that ‘mean’ them must so combine as to ‘mean’ that Plato is thinking of the forms.” Granted, this sentence is taken from the middle of a paragraph-long explanation of Donald Davidson’s theory of meaning, and Grayling is clearly trying to do his best to convey a complex idea, but light bedtime reading it is not. Of course, no real philosopher is going to think 12 pages on Kant, no matter how lucid, are sufficient for an understanding of his work, but this book is more for the intelligent beginner than the seasoned expert.Īlas, ideas become more difficult to follow the closer we get to the present. Grayling may find a particular philosopher less than satisfactory, but he never fails to point out what is worth considering in each person’s work. Boethius has his turn, as does William of Ockham, and later, Spinoza, Locke, and Hume. While the book is long - 600 pages, not including notes - philosophy itself is even longer, so the thinkers speed by. Grayling makes pre-Socratic philosophers such as Anaximander, Parmenides, and Anaxagoras feel unexpectedly relevant, and he concisely covers the Greek trinity of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, each of whom receives his own chapter. Grayling is in his new book, The History of Philosophy.

It’s surprisingly fun to immerse oneself in the tradition of Western philosophy, especially when the guide proves to be as thoughtful and clear-sighted as Oxford professor A.

The history of philosophy by ac grayling