A History of Western Philosophy: The Twentieth Century of Quine and Derrida, Volume V

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Summary: An excellent synthesis of philosophy and history
Review: This book is wonderful, as are all in the series by Jones. He makes philosophy come alive by placing it in the context of it's contemporaneous civilization. The great questions asked by humanity, to which philosophy addresses itself, do not come out of thin air (please excuse the cliche.) These questions are born of the search for meaning, whether it be metaphysical, epistemological, ontological, ethical, political, or so forth. The sociocultural and political milieu beg questions of meaning and truth to each generation and individual, and each must answer for themselves. Jones places twentieth century philosophy in perspective. He scrutinizes, defines and explains the great philosophical movements of our century in the context of the times. The trauma of two world wars, the challenges of scientific discovery, the alienation of the individual, the seeming futility to grasp ultimate reality are inherent in our culture, and our great philosophers have attempted to formulate theories to make sense of these phenomena. A great book which puts flesh and breath into philosophy.

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Summary: Even more modern...
Review: This book, 'The Twentieth Century to Quine and Derrida', is the revised fifth volume of a five-volume series on the history of Western Philosophy by W.T. Jones, professor of philosophy in California. For this edition of the fifth volume, Robert Fogelin helped in the recent revision. This series is a very strong, thorough introduction to the course of Western Philosophy, beginning at the dawn of the philosophical enterprise with the pre-Socratics in ancient Greece to the modern thinkers such as Wittgenstein and Sartre. It has grown, over the three decades or so of its publication, from one to four then to five volumes. It has remained a popular text, and could serve as the basis of a one-year survey of philosophy for undergraduates or a one-semester survey for graduate students. Even advanced students in philosophy will find this valuable, all major topics and most minor topics in the course of philosophy are covered in these volumes.

Jones states that there are two possible ways for a writer to organise a history of philosophy -- either by addressing everyone who ever participated in philosophy (which could become rather cumbersome if one accepts the premise that anyone could be a philosopher), or to address the major topics and currents of thought, drawing in the key figures who address them, but leaving out the lesser thinkers for students to pursue on their own. Jones has chosen the latter tactic, making sure to provide bibliographic information for this task.

This volume, 'The Twentieth Century to Quine and Derrida', starts where the last volume leaves off, as philosophy enters the turbulent twentieth century. The first major philosophical school Jones looks at is the idea of Process philosophy, which tends to take a nod from science and modern ideas of how we know things, and a realistic idea of what we do not, and perhaps cannot, know. Process philosophy often tends to get ignored now, save in theological circles, where the work of Whitehead have been taken on board.

Other philosophers covered in this volume on the twentieth century include Dewey, Bergson, Moore, Frege, Russell, Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Wittgenstein, Quine and Derrida. One of the primary fields of philosophy is epistemology -- how we know what we know, and do we know anything? All major philosophers have dealt with this, as metaphysics tended to take a back seat, and fields such as politics, ethics, and religion retreated to the background, at least as far as philosophy is concerned (the fields of political theory, etc., gained much ground in the twentieth century as separate from philosophy).

Wittgenstein is the point at which Jones opted to end the series originally, as it becomes difficult, from an historical standpoint, to decide what of the past few decades should be incorporated. Philosophy is a slow-moving enterprise, and the 'hot' publications and thinkers today may fade quickly tomorrow, so predicting who will stand the test of time is difficult. Wittgenstein is also an appropriate philosopher to end with, given that when he wrote his magnum opus, the Tractatus, he thought he had finally resolved all major philosophical problems; reflecting later in life, he realised he was not correct, and this in and of itself may represent the embodiment of the philosophical project. However, as this volume shows, enough time has passed to make the explorations of language itself as a medium of philosophy an important part of the philosophical discipline, necessitating the addition of chapters on language and the philosophers Quine and Derrida (others who might have been included are Paul Ricoeur, among others).

Each volume ends with a glossary of terms, and a worthwhile index. The glossary warns against short, dictionary-style definitions and answers to broad terms and questions, and thus indicates the pages index-style to the discussion within the text for further context. The one wish I would have would be a comprehesive glossary and index that covers the several volumes; as it is, each volume has only its own referents.

This is minor criticism in a generally exceptional series. It is not easy text, but it is not needlessly difficult. The print size on the direct quotes, which are sometimes lengthy, can be a strain at times, but the reading is worthwhile.