---
product_id: 1187751
title: "The History of Western Philosophy"
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---

# The History of Western Philosophy

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The History of Western Philosophy [Bertrand Russell] on desertcart.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. The History of Western Philosophy

Review: 5 stars! Really well done! - This was a truly spectacular book and I rate it a solid 5 stars. I liked it much more than Will Durant’s acclaimed The Story of Philosophy, and equally as much as Leonard Peikoff’s History of Philosophy lectures. I like to think of this book as “a history of Western thought.” Russell profiles and summarizes every philosopher and philosophical movement from Thales to John Dewey and his own school of logical analysis. Each chapter was clear and interesting. I found Kant, Hegel, and Bergson less clear than other chapters, but that may just be because those philosophers themselves are hard to grasp. Russel didn’t just report on how ideas changed and impacted society, he also explained the history and workings of society in each period. I found this especially helpful for the first book about ancient philosophy and the second about the medieval ages. I also really loved how detailed Russell was in his analysis and retelling of the history of the Church. All of that was completely new to me, and I didn’t know how much I was missing by not delving into Church history! Also, I gotta say, his chapters on Rousseau, Berkeley, and Byron were exceptional. I loved the letters exchanged between Rousseau and Voltaire (I literally laughed out loud reading them). Berkeley was clearer than he’s ever been before. And even though I was never interested in Byron previously, Russell intrigued me with his description of him. I’ve already added some of his poems to my Kindle to check out! Usually long books annoy me. This one didn’t. Every sentence felt absolutely necessary, and I was often left with wanting to know more about each figure, idea, and period! Russell occasionally injected his opinion or brought up inconsistencies within the philosophies he was describing, but not nearly enough for my tastes. It was always very obvious when he was commenting as himself and when he was describing or speaking for the philosopher he was writing about though, which was great. Overall, this was an excellent survey of Western philosophy. It was great as an introduction to the ideas of these thinkers, as well as a “history of Western thought” like I mentioned at the beginning of this review. If you want something that goes deeper into the philosophies of some of these thinkers, check out Leonard Peikoff’s History of Philosophy. If you’re more interested in the history aspect, you can check out Will Durant’s Story of Philosophy . (I think Russell’s book is complimentary yet slightly superior to Durant’s.) I highly recommend this book, and the Audible version narrated by Jonathan Keeble.
Review: My first successful attempt at reading a philosophy-related book - I'm almost 40 and I've been mildly curious about philosophy throughout my adult life. Unfortunately, I had yet to read anything meaningful about it, because all the previous attempts to educate myself were thwarted by the pretentiousness of all the authors I had tried to read on the topic; I suspect one can't be accepted in this field if they speak like human beings. History of Western Philosophy, however, is different: even non-experts can read this introductory book! How amazing is that? On top of that, Russell has a delicious whimsical side to him, which transpires in this book just enough for the occasional comic relief. Although an atheist himself, he does show the necessary formal reverence to religious matters as avoid offending anyone (in fact, he even uses the appropriate jargon regarding heathens, heretics and the such, although I believe most of it is tongue in cheek). Apart from all that (which was the critical part for me), the book is obviously well respected, and it's remarkably thorough (which means you shouldn't be concerned with the content's verity or its coverage of the topic). Speaking of thoroughness, I'm quite happy that I happened upon it in digital format, because I later realized how thick the paper version must be, and that I would most likely have been intimidated by it to the point of not buying the book in the first place. The Kindle version does have a few OCR problems (typically spaces missing between words), but they're few and far apart enough not to become any meaningful hindrance to fluid reading. UPDATE: I finally finished reading the book, and I wanted to add a few things specifically for novices like myself. If you're a newcomer to philosophy AND you're just a casual reader, expect that you won't be able to understand everything, and that you will remember much less than what you understand. This is important in two ways. On one hand, knowing this, you shouldn't get discouraged when you don't understand something as well as you'd want to: you'd probably forget it anyway, so just keep on reading -- the important thing is to get an overall idea, not to remember every little detail (which is anyway impossible). On the other hand, the fact that you'll unavoidably forget a lot of stuff is quite unfortunate, because after you finish with the Antics, the cross-references become increasingly more important and relevant. So I suggest that, if your reading habits allow it, you might want to jot down a few words about each philosopher IMMEDIATELY after finishing each chapter; you probably wouldn't need more that two or three phrases with what you found most distinctive about that person, so you can later remember more about each of them at a glance. Having said all that, expect that in the end you'll leave with maybe 10% of what you've been reading -- and that's if you're lucky. But that's ok: what matters is that you leave with an understanding of what philosophy is really all about, and that you will definitely get. Plus, you'll certainly be able to place almost any Western philosopher in roughly the right period, you'll develop likes and dislikes, and you'll end up with a much better understanding of what and why it is that Western philosophers have been doing what they've been doing for the past few thousand years. And let's be honest: what more can you hope for?

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #28,322 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #15 in Modern Western Philosophy #42 in Ancient Greek & Roman Philosophy #1,667 in Reference (Books) |
| Customer Reviews | 4.7 out of 5 stars 2,011 Reviews |

## Images

![The History of Western Philosophy - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/811oTv-9xJL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ 5 stars! Really well done!
*by C***E on April 29, 2018*

This was a truly spectacular book and I rate it a solid 5 stars. I liked it much more than Will Durant’s acclaimed The Story of Philosophy, and equally as much as Leonard Peikoff’s History of Philosophy lectures. I like to think of this book as “a history of Western thought.” Russell profiles and summarizes every philosopher and philosophical movement from Thales to John Dewey and his own school of logical analysis. Each chapter was clear and interesting. I found Kant, Hegel, and Bergson less clear than other chapters, but that may just be because those philosophers themselves are hard to grasp. Russel didn’t just report on how ideas changed and impacted society, he also explained the history and workings of society in each period. I found this especially helpful for the first book about ancient philosophy and the second about the medieval ages. I also really loved how detailed Russell was in his analysis and retelling of the history of the Church. All of that was completely new to me, and I didn’t know how much I was missing by not delving into Church history! Also, I gotta say, his chapters on Rousseau, Berkeley, and Byron were exceptional. I loved the letters exchanged between Rousseau and Voltaire (I literally laughed out loud reading them). Berkeley was clearer than he’s ever been before. And even though I was never interested in Byron previously, Russell intrigued me with his description of him. I’ve already added some of his poems to my Kindle to check out! Usually long books annoy me. This one didn’t. Every sentence felt absolutely necessary, and I was often left with wanting to know more about each figure, idea, and period! Russell occasionally injected his opinion or brought up inconsistencies within the philosophies he was describing, but not nearly enough for my tastes. It was always very obvious when he was commenting as himself and when he was describing or speaking for the philosopher he was writing about though, which was great. Overall, this was an excellent survey of Western philosophy. It was great as an introduction to the ideas of these thinkers, as well as a “history of Western thought” like I mentioned at the beginning of this review. If you want something that goes deeper into the philosophies of some of these thinkers, check out Leonard Peikoff’s History of Philosophy. If you’re more interested in the history aspect, you can check out Will Durant’s Story of Philosophy . (I think Russell’s book is complimentary yet slightly superior to Durant’s.) I highly recommend this book, and the Audible version narrated by Jonathan Keeble.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ My first successful attempt at reading a philosophy-related book
*by B***U on June 23, 2013*

I'm almost 40 and I've been mildly curious about philosophy throughout my adult life. Unfortunately, I had yet to read anything meaningful about it, because all the previous attempts to educate myself were thwarted by the pretentiousness of all the authors I had tried to read on the topic; I suspect one can't be accepted in this field if they speak like human beings. History of Western Philosophy, however, is different: even non-experts can read this introductory book! How amazing is that? On top of that, Russell has a delicious whimsical side to him, which transpires in this book just enough for the occasional comic relief. Although an atheist himself, he does show the necessary formal reverence to religious matters as avoid offending anyone (in fact, he even uses the appropriate jargon regarding heathens, heretics and the such, although I believe most of it is tongue in cheek). Apart from all that (which was the critical part for me), the book is obviously well respected, and it's remarkably thorough (which means you shouldn't be concerned with the content's verity or its coverage of the topic). Speaking of thoroughness, I'm quite happy that I happened upon it in digital format, because I later realized how thick the paper version must be, and that I would most likely have been intimidated by it to the point of not buying the book in the first place. The Kindle version does have a few OCR problems (typically spaces missing between words), but they're few and far apart enough not to become any meaningful hindrance to fluid reading. UPDATE: I finally finished reading the book, and I wanted to add a few things specifically for novices like myself. If you're a newcomer to philosophy AND you're just a casual reader, expect that you won't be able to understand everything, and that you will remember much less than what you understand. This is important in two ways. On one hand, knowing this, you shouldn't get discouraged when you don't understand something as well as you'd want to: you'd probably forget it anyway, so just keep on reading -- the important thing is to get an overall idea, not to remember every little detail (which is anyway impossible). On the other hand, the fact that you'll unavoidably forget a lot of stuff is quite unfortunate, because after you finish with the Antics, the cross-references become increasingly more important and relevant. So I suggest that, if your reading habits allow it, you might want to jot down a few words about each philosopher IMMEDIATELY after finishing each chapter; you probably wouldn't need more that two or three phrases with what you found most distinctive about that person, so you can later remember more about each of them at a glance. Having said all that, expect that in the end you'll leave with maybe 10% of what you've been reading -- and that's if you're lucky. But that's ok: what matters is that you leave with an understanding of what philosophy is really all about, and that you will definitely get. Plus, you'll certainly be able to place almost any Western philosopher in roughly the right period, you'll develop likes and dislikes, and you'll end up with a much better understanding of what and why it is that Western philosophers have been doing what they've been doing for the past few thousand years. And let's be honest: what more can you hope for?

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Three-in-One
*by N***M on April 30, 2011*

It amazes me that some people have given this book a low rating. I know that among professional philosophers this is not considered a great book, but that's probably because Russell makes the ideas clear and fun instead of using jargon to make things seem more complicated that they really are. Before you read this book you should be sure of your motives. If you want an introduction that is more of a textbook, then this is not the book for you. If you want an objective survey, again, you should go somewhere else. I must say though, do you really buy a book written by Russell not expecting to read what he had to say about the issues at hand? Finally, if you want a detailed review of some specific philosopher then you will be disappointed if you read this book. With that out of the way let me say who I think this book is for: everyone who wants to read about philosophy and enjoy it. Russell's style is truly unmatched by any other philosopher, while at the same time respecting the reader's intelligence. In this book Russell connects the philosophers to the time and space which they occupied thus shedding light on why some of them thought the way they did. This book can easily pass as a brief review of history because there are whole sections dedicated to describing the political atmosphere at specific times. Russell's comments about some philosophers made me laugh. I loved the part on Rousseau although Russell was extremely harsh. I believe that Russell has a love/hate relationship with Plato, therefore the section about Plato was the best in my opinion. I also liked it when Russell said that he doesn't understand a certain part of Kant's philosophy. If he can't understand it, what can the rest of us say? I really liked the fact that he included a small section on Islamic philosophy even though I disagree with his assessment in that area. All in all, a beautiful book that you should read if you want to: -Have fun -Study philosophy -Read Russell -All of the above

## Frequently Bought Together

- The History of Western Philosophy
- The Conquest of Happiness
- The Problems of Philosophy

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