Socrates.--Plato.--Aristotle.--Aquinas.--Descartes.--Spinoza.--Locke.--Voltaire.--Kant.--Hegel.--Dew ey.--Russell.

Introduces history's greatest philosophers and explains their major contributions to the field of philosophy, profiling such figures as Francis Bacon, David Hume, John Stuart Mill, and Bertrand Russell.

The great philosophers missed it, and here are the reasons why, how to bring them all up to date, a woman's take on things, with new categories and concepts, like love, oneness, the feminine, the earth, Spirit, the end of the old order, and the beginning of the new.

This book is inspired by a single powerful question. What is it to be great as a philosopher? No single grand answer is presumed to be possible; instead, rewardingly close studies of philosophical greatness are developed. This is a scholarly yet accessible volume, blending metaphilosophy with the long history of philosophy and traversing centuries and continents. The result is a series of case studies by accomplished scholars, each chapter trying to understand and convey a particular philosopher's greatness: (...) Lloyd P. Gerson on Plato, Karyn Lai on Zhuangzi, David Bronstein on Aristotle, Jonardon Ganeri on Buddhaghosa, Jeffrey Hause on Aquinas, Gary Hatfield on Descartes, Karen Detlefsen on du Châtelet, Don Garrett on Hume, Allen Wood on Kant, Nicholas F. Stang on Kant, Ken Gemes on Nietzsche, Cheryl Misak on Peirce, and David Macarthur on Wittgenstein. This also serves a larger philosophical purpose. Might we gain increased clarity about what philosophy is in the first place? After all, in practice we individuate philosophy partly through its greatest practitioners' greatest contributions. The book does not discuss every philosopher who has been regarded as great. The point is not to offer a definitive list of The Great Philosophers, but, rather, to learn something about what great philosophy is and might be, from illuminated examples of past greatness -- Provided by publisher. (shrink)

Great Philosophers tells the story of Western philosophy through the thought of its main protagonists, the great philosophers. The narrative begins with the Presocratic philosophers Heraclitus and Parmenides and ends in recent times, as each philosopher wrestles with the problems and solutions of his or her predecessors. Along the way, Jeffrey Reid provides an engaging introduction to many of the principal ideas of luminaries such as Plato, Descartes, Hume, Kant, Hegel, Nietzsche and Sartre. Great Philosophers not (...) only provides an ideal introduction to philosophical thought, but also an original understanding of the discipline of philosophy itself. The book aims not only to recount an important tradition, but also to reveal something about how it has affected who we are. (shrink)

Brief, accessible, and affordable, these pocket-sized volumes offer the essential introductions to the great philosophers of the Western tradition-from Plato to Wittgenstein.

Karl Jaspers died in 1969, leaving unfinished his universal history of philosophy, a history organized around those philosophers who have influenced the course of human thought. The first two volumes of this work appeared in Jasper's lifetime the third and fourth have been gathered from the vast material of his posthumous papers. This is the fourth volume. Following his original plan of "promoting the happiness that comes of meeting great men and sharing in their thoughts," Jaspers discusses Descartes, a (...) pious Catholic who vacillated between rational philosophy and obedience to authority. Lessing, whose thought was clear, open-ended, experimental, hones. Pascal. Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, and Weber, who posed most penetratingly and urgently the "radical questionability of human Existenz." Marx was a dogmatic dreamer, and Einstein a great scientist, but limited in his insight into human existence. Jasper's method is personal, one of constant questioning and struggle, as he enters into dialogue iwth his "eternal contemporaries," the thinkers of the past. For he believes that it is only through communication with others that we come to ourselves and to wisdom. (shrink)

In the ´Introduction´ to "The Great Philosophers" Karl Jaspers explores the criteria for recognizing human greatness in general and in philosphers in particular. He comments on the historical process related to the selection and grouping of great philosophers. Jaspers acknowledges the questionable aspect of greatness, yet he affirms that such distinction is indispensable. The 1957 English translation by Ralph Mannheim and Hannah Arendt of Jaspers' Die Grossen Philosophen and all its subsequent editions did not include this Introduction. The (...) translation offered here redresses this omission and is the first ever published English translation of Jaspers' extended Introduction. (shrink)

Beginning with the death of Socrates in 399 BC, and following the strand of philosophical inquiry through the centuries to recent figures such as Bertrand Russell and Wittgenstein, Bryan Magee's conversations with fifteen contemporary writers and philosophers provide an accessible and exciting account of Western philosophy and its greatest thinkers. With contributions from A. J. Ayer, Bernard Williams, Martha Nussbaum, Peter Singer, and John Searle, the book is not only an introduction to the philosophers of the past, but gives an (...) invaluable insight into the view and personalities of some of the most influential philosophers of the twentieth century. (shrink)

Once again it is becoming fashionable to ask ‘What character traits are virtues?’ Naturally, it behooves us to try to recapture the insights of our predecessors, as well as forging ahead on our own. In this paper I shall examine one such insight.

The purpose of this text is to introduce students to great philosophy and great philosophers through an intense focus on argument. Like other topically organized introductory philosophy readers, this book is organized around the existence of God, knowledge and skepticism, mind and body, free will and determinism, ethics, and contemporary ethical debates, including abortion, euthanasia, and global hunger and poverty. 78 selections are grouped into six topical chapters-and the selections within those chapters are organized by argument. Vaughn's approach (...) focuses students' attention on argumentation, where much of the philosophical work gets done. (shrink)

von Behrens, Dierk Review of: The great philosophers, by Jeremy Stangroom and James Garvey, Arcturus Publishing, 160 pgs. 9.99 pounds Hard back. 69 pictures. 2005. Index. 978-1-84837-018-02005.

The question is, of whether alongside a theme and method concentrated philosophy teaching it would be sensisible for young people to have a teaching form where great philosophers themselves are the centre of interest and are presented as personalities engaged in philosophical research. As an illustration the philosophers Plato, René Descartes, John Locke and Immanuel Kant, who essentially laid down the foundations of modern scientific thinking, would be presented in relationship to teaching practice. This train of thought can be (...) extended without exception for all nations and all forms of culture so long as the conditions of peaceableness and civilizing productivity are met with. Exemplary biographies could play a large role for young people with regard to their psychological development. (shrink)

Ideas of Human Nature, now revised and updated in this second edition, presents twelve of the most influential Western thinkers on the topic of human nature.

[1] The Western World.--[2] The Eastern World.

Part 1. lecture 1. Free will and determinism-- the basic debate -- lecture 2. Fate and karma -- lecture 3. Divine predestination and foreknowledge -- lecture 4. Causal determinism -- lecture 5. Ancient and medieval indeterminism -- lecture 6. Agent causation -- lecture 7. Ancient and classical compatibilism -- lecture 8. Contemporary compatibilism -- lecture 9. Hard determinism -- lecture 10. Free will impossibilism -- lecture 11. The belief in free will -- lecture 12. Physics and free will --.

Consciousness and the Great Philosophers addresses the question of how the great philosophers of the past might have reacted to the contemporary problem of consciousness. Each of the thirty two chapters within this edited collection focuses on a major philosophical figure from the history of philosophy, from Anscombe to Xuanzang, and imaginatively engages with the problem from their perspective. Written by leading experts in the field this exciting and engaging book explores the relevance of the history of philosophy (...) to contemporary debates and therefore is essential reading for students and scholars studying the history of philosophy, contemporary philosophy of mind and consciousness, or both. ". (shrink)

_The World's Great Philosophers _provides an introduction to and overview of some of the most profound and influential thinkers in the history of philosophy. Presents an introduction to and overview of some of the most profound and influential thinkers in the history of philosophy. Contains 40 essays, written by an outstanding international assembly of scholars. Provides cogent and accessible discussion of key philosophers from around the world. Conveys the historical panorama of philosophical thought on the nature of reality, the (...) human condition, and basic human values. (shrink)

_The World's Great Philosophers _provides an introduction to and overview of some of the most profound and influential thinkers in the history of philosophy. Presents an introduction to and overview of some of the most profound and influential thinkers in the history of philosophy. Contains 40 essays, written by an outstanding international assembly of scholars. Provides cogent and accessible discussion of key philosophers from around the world. Conveys the historical panorama of philosophical thought on the nature of reality, the (...) human condition, and basic human values. (shrink)

Magnanimity is a virtue that has led many lives. Foregrounded early on by Plato as a philosophical virtue par excellence, it became one of the crown jewels in Aristotle's account of human excellence and was accorded equally salient place by other ancient thinkers. It is one of the mostdistinctive elements of the ancient tradition to filter into the medieval Islamic and Christian worlds. It sparked important intellectual engagements and went on to carve deep tracks through several of the later philosophies (...) to inherit from this tradition. Under changing names and reworked forms, itwould continue to breathe in the thought of Descartes and Hume, Kant, and Nietzsche. Its many lives have been joined by important continuities, yet they have also been fragmented by discontinuities - discontinuities reflecting larger shifts in ethical perspectives and competing answers to questionsabout the nature of the good life, the moral nature of human beings, and their relationship to the social and natural world they inhabit. They have also been punctuated by moments of intense controversy in which the vision of human greatness has itself been called into doubt.The aim of this volume is to provide an insight into the complex trajectory of a virtue whose glitter has at times been as dazzling as it has been divisive. By exploring the many lives it has lived, we will be in a better position to evaluate whether this is a virtue we still want to make central toour own ethical lives, and why. (shrink)

If you never understood why Plato's philosophy of Ideal Forms is called Realism, Ideas of the Great Philosophers makes ideal reading. This compact book provides a veritable brief history of philosophy, offering precise descriptions of the major branches of philosophical thought and exploring the contributions of great thinkers to the various fields of philosophic inquiry. -- Amazon.

The wisdom of famous philosophers distilled into practical takeaways for modern readers For centuries, philosophers have considered the "big questions" of human life, mulling over everything from ethics to the definition of reality. Their ideas and insights are powerful and innovative, but often inaccessible and far too academic for most readers. In The Philosophy Cure: Lessons on Living from the Great Philosophers, scholar and expert on Cartesian philosophy, Laurence Devillairs has stripped away the convoluted language, translating the core ideas (...) and wisdom of some of the most prominent philosophers into simple concepts for modern readers. She skillfully reveals that far from being impractical or distantly academic, philosophy is, at its heart, a deeply useful discipline ultimately concerned with what it means to live a good and fulfilling life. Perfect for readers who are intrigued with philosophy, but who are uninterested in reading dense academic texts, The Philosophy Cure reveals the true wisdom of the best-known philosophers-from Socrates to Kant and Descartes. (shrink)

This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work was reproduced from the original artifact, and remains as true to the original work as possible. Therefore, you will see the original copyright references, library stamps (as most of these works have been housed in our most important libraries around the world), and other notations in the work.This work is in the public domain in (...) the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work.As a reproduction of a historical artifact, this work may contain missing or blurred pages, poor pictures, errant marks, etc. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant. (shrink)

Volume 2 presents the great metaphysicians of West and East, the substance and character of their ideas, and their historical position in philosophy, including Anaximander, Plotinus, Spinoza, Heraclitus, Anselm, Lao-Tzu, Parmenides, Nicholas of Cusa, and Nagarjuna.

First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Traces the major movements of and contributors to philosophic thought by examining such major issues as fate, immortality, education, and society.

Short biographies of twenty world famous philosophers.

First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

First published in 1999. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.