It should be reminded, however, that one should be prepared to read this work with patience and diligence. As said, Kenny introduced substantial philosophical concepts and so it can be very academic at times. His logic chapters are, for example, very difficult to understand for a general reader who has never undertaken any formal logic course. I myself relied extensively on other secondary materials (e.g. Very Short Introduction series and Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy) to make sense some of the ideas. This meant that the section on the middle ages with mercifully short compared to Russell's book, although certainly not devoid of content! Regrettably I felt that while sparing the reader these angels-on-pins debates, we are served an oversized portion when it comes to Grayling's own area of study: the philosophy of language in 20th century Analytical philosophy. This section seemed to get much more into the weeds compared to the other sections and I found myself unable to keep up with the jargon here and tuning out as a result. (And for the record I find the philosophy of language and its neighbouring pursuits - like computer science - particularly interesting). This was happily the exception rather than the rule for the book, which for the most part seemed to keep things at a reasonable difficult level for a motivated layperson.

This is an extremely good optimization of what may be deemed a history of philosophy. Having recently read various popular attempts at exploring all of philosophy, only this one seemed thorough yet clear. The contents vary from events in society, the lives of the individuals, the ideas themselves, the periods or movements in general, and the various relations and interactions among these factors. In particular, enclosed in here are explanations of philosophies that go beyond good introductions and actually explain, summarize, and clarify philosophies (for example, I finally started to understand Kant). In regards to periods and movements, multiple times Kenny made helpful points of clarification such as, among other examples, points at the beginning or end of presenting each period or philosophers having been credited for saying things they had not.Despite those additions, I also found Grayling's treatment of the classic philosophers common to all these histories to be fresh and engaging - such that I still felt I was almost always learning something new. So if you've read Russell's book and are wondering whether this one will be redundant: I would say no. Ancient Philosophy has two distinct parts - historical and theoretical. The first part of the book takes on the task to convey general succession of philosophers and development of their thought in relation to historical events and their interconnections. The second part is mainly focused on the ideas and is separated into several chapters called, God, Physics, Metaphysics, Ethics, Soul and so on. Here every chapter accumulates the positions of different philosophers of the era on a certain topic, brings them together and shows how they influenced one another and the modern thought. It is certainly worthwile to plow through a history of philosophy (or science) every once in a while. It helps to put things into context, to relativize the often quite considerable egos of these creative, solitary writers.

Philosophers’ views may not be so tight-knit as to form a system of thought, but certainly their takes on different issues should form a coherent view that are distinctive to that particular philosopher. For example, Kant’s Critique of Pure Reason is one closely-argued thesis and is then followed by his two other critiques on practical reason and judgment. Yet the impression that Kenny gave me is that Kant’s philosophical views are torn into different pieces in different thematic chapters, so that terms like a priori, a posteriori, analytic, synthetic, antinomies and mathematical/dynamic sublimity are, to me, loosely connected words with Kant’s views but their relationships with each other remain obscure to me. Publisher description:One of the great unexplained wonders of human history is that written philosophy flowered entirely separately in China, India and Ancient Greece at more or less the same time. These early philosophies have had a profound impact on the development of distinctive cultures in different parts of the world. What we call ‘philosophy’ in the West is not even half the story. Julian Baggini sets out to expand our horizons in How the World Thinks, exploring the philosophies of Japan, India, China and the Muslim world, as well as the lesser-known oral traditions of Africa and Australia’s first peoples. Interviewing thinkers from around the globe, Baggini asks questions such as: why is the West is more individualistic than the East? What makes secularism a less powerful force in the Islamic world than in Europe? And how has China resisted pressures for greater political freedom? Offering deep insights into how different regions operate, and paying as much attention to commonalities as to differences, Baggini shows that by gaining greater knowledge of how others think we take the first step to a greater understanding of ourselves. In Grayling’s guide, continental thinkers such as Walter Benjamin, Jacques Lacan and Simone Weil don’t merit enough attention to have their ideas mangled. Instead, they receive honorary mentions as “having made a difference to the wider landscapes of recent and contemporary thought”, language more suitable to a blurb writer than to the self-styled Master of the New College of the Humanities. The eminent Jewish thinker Emmanuel Levinas takes religion seriously, which clearly disqualifies him from being a philosopher; but Grayling, still in blurbish mode, is gracious enough to describe him as “an attractive figure whose ethical concerns exerted a life-transforming influence on some”. He could be talking about Bernie Sanders.Kenny, A. (2010) A New History of Western Philosophy, Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-958988-3 Kenny divided the book into four parts correlating to four epochs of philosophical history. Within each part are two sections, one devoted to the historical narrative and flow of ideas, the other devoted to an analysis of the key ideas within the period as they fall under the various sub-disciplines of philosophy.

Kenny was made a Knight Bachelor by Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom in 1992 and has been an Honorary Bencher of Lincoln's Inn since 1999. Originally published in 2005, this part covers the post-Augustinian period up to the Lateran Council on 1512, including: In addition to more focused content, you might think that Grayling would have the edge on Russell for no other reason than the fact that his history was published 74 years after Russell’s, incorporating the latest research and progress in philosophy over the last three quarters of a century. But it’s not only for this reason.Nevertheless, I would stress that these are relative minor criticisms in comparison to the task that Kenny has set for himself and has, to certain extent, succeeded. Kenny can write in lucid prose and supplied his own examples to concretise the abstract ideas. He did not attempt to ‘dumb down’ his materials to suit the tastes of some casual readers. Very substantively, he outlined the philosophical concepts that one might encounter in a philosophy course, albeit in a much more interesting and readable prose. Modern Philosophy” дотор жишээ нь: философичдын танилцуулга (нийт 3 бүлэг), Logic, Language, Epistemology, Metaphysics, Philosophy of Mind, Ethics, Aesthetics, Political Philosophy, God гэсэн бүлгүүд байна.