A History of Western Philosophy: And Its Connection with Political and Social Circumstances from the Earliest Times to the Present Day

Book arrived as described. Good customer orientated seller. Came with a very polite message to get in touch with the seller if there was at all anything amiss with the product.

Very good!

It took a while before I finally finished "The History of Western Philosophy." There is a lot of history and Bertrand Russell covers a lot of history very quickly and briefly and still the book is 900 pages thick. That said, it was well written and not too hard to read. The hardest for me was to keep track of all the relationships explained. To truly understand all of them, I'd need to read it a couple more times. Summarizing "The History of Western Philosophy" is not possible in a book review and I won't attempt it. One important topic in this book is that it is as much "history" as "Philosophy" Thus at the times where there was less important contributions to the field of philosophy, the author still summarizes the history that happened and how that influenced later philosophers. In fact, how the history influenced philosophy and how philosophy influenced history is a key theme throughout the book. Russell shows has they are intertwined and caused each other. The book has three large parts (each about 300 pages). They are 1) Ancient (mostly Greek) Philosophy, 2) Catholic Philosophy, and 3) Modern Philosophy. The book is chronological with sometimes forward references and a lot of backward references. Of all the philosophies, most of the time is spend on the Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle philosophies as their influence is so huge. Even though Bertrand Russell is quite critical of them and considers them overvalued... I guess he contributes to that by focusing on it much again :) That said, it is also a central theme that Bertrand Russell is not shy whatsoever to give his own opinion about the philosophies, changing his book partly to the philosophies of Bertrand Russell. That also means that if you are looking for a neutral summary of philosophers, then this book is not it. The opinions of the author did probably made the book more readable and accessible as it is at times as if he joins the philosophical discussion... except that the other philosophers are not able to argue back to Bertrand Russell. Unfair... I thoroughly enjoyed the History of Western Philosophy. It was thorough in breath though sometimes shallow in depth. That caused me to learn a huge amount about history and the role of philosophy. For anyone interested in that and not bothered by the lack of neutrality, this book is highly recommended. For people looking for a practical book, this is not it.

Para los que ya estudiaron y conocen bien la historia de la filosofia. NO apto para lo que no tienen una fuerta base. La presentaciòn de Russel es unilateral, tende a evidenziar el dificil florecer del pernsamiento scientifico de la red de los dogmas, de la metafisica, de la religion y por eso ignora muchos filosofos que tienen importancia en la historia de la cultura

El mejor recuento histórico de la filosofía occidental escrito por un genio incomparable. Una fiesta de erudición y conocimiento extraordinario.