Georg Hegel (1770-1831) ................................ 30 Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) ................. 32 Ludwig Andreas Feuerbach (1804-1872) ...... 32 John Stuart Mill (1806-1873) .......................... 33 Soren Kierkegaard (1813-1855) ..................... 33 Karl Marx (1818-1883).................................... 34 Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862) ................ 35 Charles Sanders Peirce (1839-1914).............. 35 William James (1842-1910) ............................ 36 The Modern World 1900-1950 ............................. 36 Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) .................... 37 Ahad Ha'am (1856-1927) ............................... 38 Ferdinand de Saussure (1857-1913) ............. 38 Edmund Husserl (1859–1938) ....................... 39 Henri Bergson (1859-1941) ............................ 39 Contents John Dewey (1859–1952) ............................... 39 Introduction....................................................... 1 THE PHILOSOPHY BOOK George Santayana (1863-1952) ..................... 40 The Ancient World 700 BCE-250 CE..................... 3 Miguel de Unamuno (1864-1936) ................... 40 Introduction Thales of Miletus (c.624-546 BCE)................... 3 William Du Bois (1868-1963) .......................... 41 Laozi (c.6th century BCE) ................................. 4 Philosophy is not just the preserve of brilliant Bertrand Russell (1872-1970) ........................ 41 Pythagoras (c.570-495 BCE) ............................ 4 but eccentric thinkers that it is popularly Max Scheler (1874-1928) ................................ 42 supposed to be. It is what everyone does when Siddhartha Gautama (c.563-483 BCE)............ 5 they're not busy dealing with their everyday Karl Jaspers (1883-1969 ................................ 42 Confucius (551-479 BCE) ................................. 6 business and get a chance simply to wonder what Jose Ortega y Gasset (1883-1955) ................. 42 life and the universe are all about. We human Heraclitus (535–475 BCE) ................................ 6 Hajime Tanabe (1885-1962) ........................... 42 beings are naturally inquisitive creatures, and Parmenides (515-445 BCE) .............................. 7 can't help wondering about the world around us Ludwig Wittgenstein (1889-1951) .................. 43 and our place in it. We're also equipped with a Protagoras (c.490-420 BCE) ............................. 7 Martin Heidegger (1889-1976) ....................... 44 powerful intellectual capability, which allows us to Mozi (470–391 BCE) ......................................... 7 reason as well as just wonder. Although we may Tetsuro Watsuji (1889-1960) .......................... 45 Democritus (460-371 BCE) and Leucippus (5th not realize it, whenever we reason, we're thinking century BCE) ..................................................... 7 Rudolf Carnap (1891-1970) ............................ 45 philosophically. Philosophy is not so much about coming up Socrates (469-399 BCE) ................................... 8 Walter Benjamin (1892-1940) ........................ 45 with the answers to fundamental questions as it Plato (c.427-347 BCE) ...................................... 8 Herbert Marcuse (1898-1979) ........................ 45 is about the process of trying to find these Aristotle (384-322 BCE).................................... 9 Hans-Georg Gadamer (1900-2002) ................ 45 answers, using reasoning rather than accepting without question conventional views or traditional Karl Popper (1902-1994) ................................. 46 Epicurus (341-270 BCE) ................................. 11 authority. The very first philosophers, in ancient Diogenes of Sinope (404-323 BCE) ................ 11 Theodor Adorno (1903-1969) .......................... 46 Greece and China, were thinkers who were not satisfied with the established explanations Zeno of Citium (332-265 BCE)........................ 11 Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) ........................ 47 provided by religion and custom, and sought The Medieval World 250-1500 ............................ 12 Hannah Arendt (1906-1975) .......................... 48 answers which had rational justifications. And, Augustine of Hippo (354-430 CE) .................. 12 Emmanuel Levinas (1906-1995) .................... 48 just as we might share our views with friends and colleagues, they discussed their ideas with one Maurice Merleau-Ponty (1908-1961) .............. 48 Boethius (c.480-525 CE) ................................ 12 another, and even set up “schools" to teach not Avicenna (980-1037) ...................................... 13 Simone de Beauvoir (1908-1986) ................... 48 just the conclusions they had come to, but the way they had come to them. They encouraged St. Anselm (1033-1109).................................. 14 Willard Van Orman Quine (1908-2000) ......... 49 their students to disagree and criticize ideas as a Averroes (1126-1198) ..................................... 14 Isaiah Berlin (1909-1997) ............................... 49 means of refining them and coming up with new Moses Maimonides (1135-1204) .................... 14 Arne Naess (1912-2009) ................................. 49 and different ones. A popular misconception is that of the solitary philosopher arriving at his Jalal ad-Din Muhammad Rumi (1207-1273) . 15 Albert Camus (1913-1960) ............................. 50 conclusions in isolation, but this is actually Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225-1274) .................... 15 Contemporary Philosophy 1950-Present ............. 50 seldom the case. New ideas emerge through Roland Barthes (1915-1980) .......................... 51 discussion and the examination, analysis, and Nikolaus von Kues (1401-1464)..................... 16 criticism of other people's ideas. Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536) .................. 17 Mary Midgley (1919-) ...................................... 51 Debate and dialogue Renaissance and Age of Reason 1500-1750 ...... 17 Thomas Kuhn (1922-1996) ............................. 51 The archetypical philosopher in this respect Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527) .................... 17 John Rawls (1921-2002) ................................ 51 was Socrates. He didn't leave any writings, or even Michel de Montaigne (1533-1592) ................. 18 Richard Wollheim (1923-2003) ....................... 52 any big ideas as the conclusions of his thinking. Indeed, he prided himself on being the wisest of Paul Feyerabend (1924-1994) ........................ 52 Francis Bacon (1561-1626) ............................ 19 men because he knew he didn't know anything. Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) ......................... 19 Jean-Frangois Lyotard (1924-1998)............... 52 His legacy lay in the tradition he established of debate and discussion, of questioning the Rene Descartes (1596-1650) .......................... 20 Frantz Fanon (1925-1961) .............................. 53 assumptions of other people to gain deeper Blaise Pascal (1623-1662) ............................. 21 Michel Foucault (1926-1984) .......................... 53 understanding and elicit fundamental truths. The Benedictus Spinoza (1632-1677) ................... 21 Noam Chomsky (1928-) .................................. 53 writings of Socrates' pupil, Plato, are almost invariably in the form of dialogues, with Socrates Jurgen Habermas (1929-) ............................... 54 John Locke (1632-1704) ................................. 22 as a major character. Many later philosophers Gottfried Leibniz (1646-1716) ........................ 23 Jacques Derrida (1930-2004) ......................... 54 also adopted the device of dialogues to present their ideas, giving arguments and George Berkeley (1685-1753) ........................ 24 Richard Rorty (1931-2007) ............................. 55 counterarguments rather than a simple statement The Age of Revolution 1750-1900 ....................... 24 Luce Irigaray (1932-) ....................................... 56 of their reasoning and conclusions. Voltaire (1694-1778)....................................... 25 Edward Said (1935-2003) .............................. 56 The philosopher who presents his ideas to the world is liable to be met with comments beginning Helene Cixous (1937-) ..................................... 56 David Hume (1711-1776) ............................... 25 “Yes, but ..." or “What if ..." rather than Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712-1778) ........... 26 Julia Kristeva (1941-)...................................... 56 wholehearted acceptance. In fact, philosophers have fiercely disagreed Adam Smith (1723-1790) ............................... 27 Henry Odera Oruka (1944-1995) ................... 57 with one another about almost every aspect of Immanuel Kant (1724-1804) .......................... 28 Peter Singer (1946-)......................................... 57 philosophy. Plato and his pupil Aristotle, for Edmund Burke (1729-1797) .......................... 29 Slavoj Zizek (1949-) ......................................... 57 example, held diametrically opposed views on fundamental philosophical questions, and their Jeremy Bentham (1748-1832) ....................... 29 different approaches have divided opinions among Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797) .................. 30 philosophers ever since. This has, in turn, provoked more discussion and prompted yet more Johann Gottlieb Fichte (1762-1814) .............. 30 fresh ideas. Friedrich Schlegel (1772-1829) ...................... 30 Philosophy 1 But how can it be that these philosophical