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Summary: great book -- horrible print
Review: The collection of stars this book has amassed speaks for itself. Durant is a wonderful read. This print, however, is terrible -- it bleeds ink like an old newspaper. Unless you read with gloves or prefer to use smears to tell your place in the book, get another edition.
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Summary: Truely Enlightening Reading
Review: The Story of Philosophy was a true delight to read. I found each page to be a delightful and all together enlightening history of a very interesting subject. A thorough and in depth investigation of classical to modern philosophical theories takes the novice or advanced reader inside the lives and ideas of all the great thinkers. I give this book five stars and highly recommend it to anyone with a mild or intense interest in the subject.
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Summary: Beautiful
Review: The title of this article is the perfect one to describe the fantastic nature of this book. Not only does Durant summarize some of the most important ideas of the past three millennia, but he does it with incredible style. He'll make you laugh, he'll make you cry, but most of all he'll make you think... Perhaps the most interesting parts of The Story are those concerning the lives of the philosophers. He does a great amount of analysis on the context of the development of the ideas within these thinkers - case studies that are insightful into the evaluation of certain concepts. Of course, it is not an infallible work. He doesn't cover Nietzsche with the fairness that he deserves; Durant misses many of the reasons Nietzsche is considered great and is well remembered and focuses mostly on the superman and the "death of God." This may be a popular work of philosophy, but that does not discredit its merits for even the most knowledgeable of philosophy enthusiasts. The history of philosophy is too much for one person to ever handle by themselves, so such a interweaved "story" as Durant tells assists in providing a basic understanding of the evolution of thought...important regardless of what realm of thought one prefers - from rationalism, to romanticism, to idealism, to pessimism, to pragmatism, to post-modernism. After reading about each great mind, Durant's narration makes one sincerely saddened at the death of each of the philosophers and the great loss society suffered as a result. Beautiful...
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Summary: The words of the wisest men in history
Review: There is no pre-requisite to the enjoyment of philosophy, and there is no pre-requisite to the Story of Philosophy. Simply bring a mind that is famished for an injection of joy. "That is very good; but there is an infinitely worthier subject for philosophers than all these trees and stones, and even all those stars; there is the mind of man. What is man, and what can he become? (Durant summarizing Socrates)" Philosophy is the night that you looked up at those 100 billion stars and 100 billion galaxies and realized that you were beginning to ask the right questions. "To know what to ask is already to know half. (Durant summarizing Aristotle)" Philosophy is the one great conversation in your past that echoes in every conversation since. When will that time come again? "All excellent things are as difficult as they are rare. (Durant summarizing Spinoza)" That phenomenon of wonder will return when you open the "Story of Philosophy". A further taste of Durant's warming liquor: "Every science begins as philosophy and ends as art; it arises in hypothesis and flows into achievement."
"How many a debate would have been deflated into a paragraph if the disputants had dared to define their terms."
"Political science does not make men, but must take them as they come from nature."
"The chief condition of happiness, barring certain physical prerequisites, is the life of reason--the specific glory and power of man." Durant's approach is linear in time, but immense in breadth. Beginning with Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, we are not only granted access to their treasure chests of wisdom, we are also given insights into the men. Durant introduces the era before he introduces the philosopher, for humanity inspires humanity, and these giants have benefactors of their own. Durant considers history as important an aspect of philosophy as metaphysics, and here he shines with a polished historian's touch (see Will Durant - "Story of Civilization"). "Athens became a busy mart and port, the meeting place of many races of men and of diverse cults and customs, whose contact and rivalry begot comparison, analysis, and thought."
"Traditions and dogmas rub one another down to a minimum in such centers of varied intercourse; where there are a thousand faiths we are apt to become skeptical of them all." Durant runs the gauntlet of great thinkers (Plato, Aristotle, Bacon, Spinoza, Voltaire, Kant, Nietzsche), and introduces you to some odd-looking but strong-eyed and delightful strangers (Schopenhauer, Spencer, Bergson, Croce, Russell, Santayana, James, Dewey). "How can we explain mind as matter, when we know matter only through mind? (summarizing Schopenhauer)"
"We often forget that not only is there a soul of goodness in things evil, but generally also a soul of truth in things erroneous. (summarizing Spencer)"
"In ourselves, memory is the vehicle of duration, the handmaiden of time; and through it so much of our past is actively retained that rich alternatives present themselves for every situation. As life grows richer in its scope, its heritage and its memories, the field of choice widens, and at last the variety of possible responses generates consciousness, which is the rehearsal of response... Free will is a corollary of consciousness; to say that we are free is merely to mean that we know what we are doing. (summarizing Bergson)" How many of these men have you missed in the crowd of history? And how many days will pass before you make their acquaintance? What will your future be like once you hold their wisdom in your hands? Durant believes it will be a far richer one. The Story of Philosophy actually contains more summary than quote, and we would normally cringe at such an announcement. Only the bravest of souls would wade into the brine of further philosophical précis. But Durant is the encapsulation of the finest teachers you have met in this lifetime, and his abridgements multiply the reader's comprehension while encouraging cross-referencing with the originals, making the entire experience savory and thoroughly digestible. Durant is the rare case of a man who can interpret wisdom and also construct it anew. The result is maybe the highest ratio of wisdom-to-words of any book in the Library of Humanity. Compare his extractions of Kant with an original text of the babbling scholar: "Sensation is unorganized stimulus, perception is organized sensation, conception is organized perception, science is organized knowledge, wisdom is organized life: each is a greater degree of order, and sequence, and unity. (summarizing Kant)"
"The real church is a community of people, however scattered and divided, who are united by devotion to the common moral law. (summarizing Kant)"
"Kant was too anxious to prove the subjectivity of space, as a refuge from materialism; he feared the argument that if space is objective and universal, God must exist in space, and be therefore spatial and material." After 50 pages of Durant on Kant, you will be praying for the entire translation. But Durant moved on to other fine thinkers, and, after 500+ pages of wisdom, you will rejoice that the balance of his substantial catalog is over 10,000 pages (Lessons of History, Story of Civilization - 11 vols.). Within one year of the original printing (1926), the work found its way onto the nightstands of the scholarly and the coffee tables of the middle-class. It inspired a flood of "Story of ..." books whose words are now lost to the past. It was, and still is, the primary text for many university philosophy curricula. For those who have read it, Story of Philosophy is probably their "trapped on a desert island with one book" selection. That the work remains in print and in demand three generations later is a testament to the author and to the subject... both mighty fine creations.
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Summary: Great Western Philosophy Intro.
Review: This book provides a great overview of western philosophy through discussion of the lives and opinions of the various philosophers. It insightfully draws connections between the events of the times and the way they helped shape each philosophy. It traces the development of western philosophy, showing how the differing views built upon each other. This is a great way to learn the core ideas of the philosophies, as a possible branching out place for further study; it does, however, require a bit of basic historic and literary knowledge for full comprehension.
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Summary: Makes one want to delve deeper into philosophy
Review: This great introduction to western philosophy is easy to read and includes colorful biographies of the philosophers. These help in understanding how certain ideas of the various thinkers evolved.
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Summary: Excellent introduction to philosophy
Review: This is a great introduction for anyone that wants to start learning about philosophy. It gives you sections on the major philosophers from Plato to John Dewey and is a great gateway to other philosophical reading. However, the book seemed to drag on after about 400 pages. I think the really black, bold print my copy had took away from the enjoyment (it also kept smearing on my hands and on the pages). If you can find a better copy, buy that one instead. It's not impossible to read the bold print, but it can get annoying. Some of the terms in the book can be confusing. It would be helpful to make sure you know them very early so you can understand the book. Overall very good and a great intro to philosophy.
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Summary: Good Introduction
Review: This is a great introduction to the philosophy. While this is more a biographical book of the popular philosophers, it is still a very good read. You will not find much information on the philosophies themselves in this book. If you read this however, you will find out reasons behind the philosophies that they developed. IT is a very easy read, so you do not need any previous training in the subject.
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Summary: Wonderful Starter to Philosophy
Review: This is a wonderful book and fun read! It is a very simple introduction to philosophy and the lives of some of its most important contributors. The author provides us with a glimpse into the lives of these men and also a touch of their teachings. It is, in all honesty, one of the best books I have ever read. I loved it all!
The style is friendly and coherent. The presentaton of the teachings and ideas are made simple and direct. The lives of the men are well researched and interesting. Durant, in all his texts, has a way of always bringing to the top, the things that are of greatest interest and value. If you are intersted in quick but intelligent glimpses into history, then Durant ought to be your Virgil; he can guide you.
Although this is not a book suited for a college course in philosophy (it is just a glimpse, for a detailed discussion of logic and reason are not conducted), there would be no better start for such a study than here. It leaves you pleasantly fed while hungry enough for more.
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Summary: Great reading.!!!
Review: This is such a great book...not just for people interested in Philosophy but also in general History...It is interesting ,FUN ...really a pageturner.....Im not finished reading it yet , but I am really enjoing it...and learning a lot!!!!.
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