The Story of Philosophy: A Concise Introduction to the World's Greatest Thinkers and Their Ideas - Softcover

Magee, Bryan

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1465445641 ISBN 13: 9781465445643

Publisher: Dorling Kindersley, 2016

Synopsis

Now updated and with a fresh new look, the highly successful The Story of Philosophy traces more than 2,500 years of Western philosophy, from Plato and Aristotle in ancient Greece to Saint Augustine and medieval philosophy, the golden century of German philosophy, Bertrand Russell and Albert Camus of the modern era, and much more. World-renowned philosopher and professor Bryan Magee expertly guides your exploration through the major philosophical issues, the important questions, and the key contributions of the great philosophers in this illustrated, accessible guide.

Discover the great thinkers in their historical contexts and learn the influences that shaped their lives and work. In The Story of Philosophy, Revised and Updated, each philosophical movement includes profiles of key philosophers and their important works, historical contexts and influences, important quotes, and other related people and ideas. Full-color photographs, artworks, and illustrations illuminate every page.

The Story of Philosophy, Revised and Updated gives you the information you need to think about life's greatest questions, opening up the world of philosophical ideas in a way that can be easily understood by students and by anyone fascinated by the ways we form our social, political, and ethical ideas.

About this title

Review:

As a bright adolescent, Magee discovered--see his Confessions of a philosopher --that the kind of thinking he liked to do was called "philosophy". The great disappointment of his life was the realisation that, incapable of great original thoughts, he was condemned to be a populariser all his life. His loss is our gain, and this admirable illustrated book is his very partial account of philosophy for other adolescents and adults who need a handy crib. This is Whiggish history, in which everything leads to a selective group of 20th-century Greats--Wittgenstein, Russell and Popper--two of whom were Magee's personal friends; contemporary French thinkers like Foucault and Derrida are relegated to the sidelines and linguistic analysis treated as a slightly irrelevant game. It is also Eurocentric history in which we leap from Stoics and Epicureans to Thomas Aquinas taking in only Saint Augustine on the way--Muslim thinkers are no more than mentioned and the Buddha is only here as an influence on Schopenhauer. Illustrations and sidebars give a useful cultural context; Magee writes well about his intellectual heroes and this is a personal enough book to be both more and less than a mere introduction. --Roz Kaveney

Review:

"This gloriously illustrated and accessible book enables readers to embark on an adventure in philosophy.Young adults will find that the often closed doors of philosophy are now open and inviting." -- School Library Journal

"Lavishly illustrated." -- Library Journal

About this edition

• Publisher: Dorling Kindersley
• Publication date: 2016
• ISBN 10: 1465445641
• ISBN 13: 9781465445643
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 240