ABSTRACT

First published in 1946, History of Western Philosophy went on to become the best-selling philosophy book of the twentieth century. A dazzlingly ambitious project, it remains unchallenged to this day as the ultimate introduction to Western philosophy. Providing a sophisticated overview of the ideas that have perplexed people from time immemorial, it is 'long on wit, intelligence and curmudgeonly scepticism', as the New York Times noted, and it is this, coupled with the sheer brilliance of its scholarship, that has made Russell's History of Western Philosophy one of the most important philosophical works of all time.

chapter |10 pages

Introduction

unit |270 pages

Ancient Philosophy

part |75 pages

The Pre-Socratics

chapter |19 pages

The Rise of Greek Civilization

chapter |5 pages

The Milesian School

chapter |8 pages

Pythagoras

chapter |9 pages

Heraclitus

chapter |5 pages

Parmenides

chapter |5 pages

Empedocles

chapter |3 pages

Athens in Relation to Culture

chapter |3 pages

Anaxagoras

chapter |9 pages

The Atomists

chapter |7 pages

Protagoras

part |122 pages

Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle

chapter |10 pages

Socrates

chapter |9 pages

The Influence of Sparta

chapter |3 pages

The Sources of Plato's Opinions

chapter |10 pages

Plato's Utopia

chapter |11 pages

The Theory of Ideas

chapter |10 pages

Plato's Theory of Immortality

chapter |6 pages

Plato's Cosmogony

chapter |9 pages

Knowledge and Perception in Plato

chapter |11 pages

Aristotle's Metaphysics

chapter |11 pages

Aristotle's Ethics

chapter |9 pages

Aristotle's Politics

chapter |7 pages

Aristotle's Logic

chapter |5 pages

Aristotle's Physics

chapter |9 pages

Early Greek Mathematics and Astronomy

part |72 pages

Ancient Philosophy after Aristotle

chapter |9 pages

The Hellenistic World

chapter |10 pages

Cynics and Sceptics

chapter |11 pages

The Epicureans

chapter |16 pages

Stoicism

chapter |12 pages

The Roman Empire in Relation to Culture

chapter |12 pages

Plotinus

unit |168 pages

Catholic Philosophy

part |71 pages

The Fathers

chapter |14 pages

The Religious Development of the Jews

chapter |15 pages

Three Doctors of the Church

chapter |12 pages

St Augustine's Philosophy and Theology

chapter |8 pages

The Fifth and Sixth Centuries

chapter |11 pages

St Benedict and Gregory The Great

part |88 pages

The Schoolmen

chapter |11 pages

The Papacy in the Dark Ages

chapter |6 pages

John the Scot

chapter |8 pages

Mohammedan Culture and Philosophy

chapter |11 pages

The Twelfth Century

chapter |9 pages

The Thirteenth Century

chapter |10 pages

St Thomas Aquinas

chapter |11 pages

Franciscan Schoolmen

chapter |10 pages

The Eclipse of The Papacy

unit |296 pages

Modern Philosophy

part |162 pages

From the Renaissance to Hume

chapter |4 pages

General Characteristics

chapter |8 pages

The Italian Renaissance

chapter |7 pages

Machiavelli

chapter |9 pages

Erasmus and More

chapter |3 pages

The Reformation and Counter-Reformation

chapter |13 pages

The Rise of Science

chapter |4 pages

Francis Bacon

chapter |10 pages

Hobbes's Leviathan

chapter |10 pages

Descartes

chapter |10 pages

Spinoza

chapter |13 pages

Leibniz

chapter |7 pages

Philosophical Liberalism

chapter |12 pages

Locke's Theory of Knowledge

chapter |20 pages

Locke's Political Philosophy

chapter |6 pages

Locke's Influence

chapter |11 pages

Berkeley

chapter |13 pages

Hume

part |132 pages

From Rousseau to the Present Day

chapter |8 pages

The Romantic Movement

chapter |14 pages

Rousseau

chapter |15 pages

Kant

chapter |14 pages

Hegel

chapter |6 pages

Byron

chapter |6 pages

Schopenhauer

chapter |11 pages

Nietzsche

chapter |8 pages

The Utilitarians 1

chapter |8 pages

Karl Marx

chapter |9 pages

Bergson

chapter |7 pages

William James

chapter |8 pages

John Dewey

chapter |7 pages

The Philosophy of Logical Analysis