Important and inspiring. I actually listened to the audio book, which took a week. And to my surprise, at the end of each day I found myself reluctant to turn it off. In gulping it down so quickly I think I was able to see big picture more clearly than if i had read it slowly and focused the individual philosophies. Russel is eloquent, easy to understand and engaging. One leaves this book inspired with a deep desire for more, which is clearly the author's intent. ( )

An encyclopedic account of the main thinkers of the Western tradition from a brilliant thinker. ( )

I started this book after having it on my shelves since college, although I vaguely remember a spasm of self improvement in which I had read the first chapter. I spent many airplane hours with a copy of it on the Kindle, and found that that eased the process of highlighting and saving favorite passages, of which there were many. Russell’s style is clear, opinionated, acerbic, and he has a tremendous erudition. Starting with the ancient Greeks, stopping with William James and John Dewey, philosophers that Russell knew, he tries to put the thoughts of the philosophers in the context of their times. He obviously has prejudices against Communism, and is neutral to hostile to religion, but he covers the great church fathers of early medieval times and Thomas Aquinas with care. This book was prepared from public lectures delivered at the Barne’s foundation in 1943, and probably is too breezy to satisfy the professional philosopher. It is necessarily dated, but Russell’s voice remains clear and compelling. ( )

If one only read one book on western philosophy, this should be the one. A true classic. ( )

Philosophy

Still one of the best introductions to western philosophy. ( )

Acerbic, comprehensive, and completely accessible. In addition to providing lively precis of the ideas of all the major figures of western philosophy, Russell shows how substantive ideas can be discussed without lapsing into needless obscurantism and proper name worship. If only the rest of academia shared his admirable lack of B.S.

Russell takes us through the Western philosophical tradition from the Classical period down to the mid-twentieth century.

I am no philosopher. I have no formal training in the matter. Russell's work astounds me. I drink it in thirstily and still want more. He has the facility for explaining without condescending or diluting. ( )

Russell, Bertrand. A History of Western Philosophy. Touchstone, New York, 1972. This is perhaps the most important book I've read in a long time. I picked it up to read at the beginning of Christmas vacation 2000 because I'm making myself read through the books I have but have never read. I expected something dry that would be a torture to get through and be a burden for six months or more (the book is 800+ pages, and I remember how long it took to get through Ulysses. glad to say this wasn't the case at all. I was pleasantly surprised on several levels. First, Bertrand Russell's writing style is incredibly witty and for the most part easy to follow. Second, the subject matter was intensely interesting. The book really operates on two levels: philosophy (of which I know much of the basics) and history (of which I'm embarassingly ignorant). The book is surprisingly light on the philosophy; those looking for a primer will be better off with Durant's The Story of Philosophy. What I found both enjoyable and fascinating was seeing the philosophy put into a historical context. This book was so interesting on the historical front, in fact, that it's inspired me to read my eight volumes of Gibbon. Finally, the fact this book was written in 1945 illustrates the importance of philosophy and clear thinking like nothing else. From the perspective of 2001, philosophy seems a dry subject, isolated in the Ivory Tower, with no bearing on reality. It's a good reminder that 56 years ago, differences of political philosophy tore the world apart. This book traces the development of those philosophical ideas through the millenia. Just as it is important to never forget the Holocaust, it is important to understand the philosophies that made the Holocaust possible, to understand their fallacies, and to fight against those fallacies as they threaten to emerge again. ( )

'Almost all the questions of interest to speculative minds are such that science cannot answer . . . Is the world divided into mind and matter, and if so, what is mind and what is matter?' In this engrossing book, Bertrand Russell set out to 'exhibit philosophy as an integral part of social and political life, not as the isolated speculations of remarkable individuals'. His approach is bold, comprehensive and chronological: with its accessible, lively summaries of exemplary ideas and thinkers, the History of Western Philosophy can be used as an encyclopaedia or read as social history. It compares and explains general trends not only in philosophy but in the development of human society, relating individuals to their historical context and describing each philosopher's impact on their cultural and political spheres of life. From the rise of Greek civilisation and the ideas of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, through Machiavelli, Descartes, Locke, Rousseau, Nietzsche and Schopenhauer, to Einstein (Russell's distinguished contemporary) and the world of quantum theory, 2,500 years of philosophy are boldly, lucidly, and entertainingly made available to anyone interested in the most fundamental questions posed by the world and mankind's place in it. Russell, whose own appetite for life was prodigious, filled his book with history, humour and anecdote. If you can only read one book about philosophy make sure it is this one.

A very good book. Russell can be an engaging writer, and he is here. I love this particular book because it is written for smart people who don't neccessarily know a lot about philosophy. It's a great introduction. That said, Russell is openly biased for and against certain philosophers and schools, and this may turn some readers off. ( )

This book, along with Will Durant's 'The Story of Philosophy', are the worst histories of philosophy ever written. I'm not much of an environmentalist, but publishers of these books ought to apologize for destroying so many trees in printing these books, and should apologize to those who wasted money and time purchasing and reading this book.

Russell clearly has absolutely no idea how to condense the vast information of particular philosophers for the sake of characterizing them, and it is clear that he has never studied 90% of these philosophy beyond perhaps a class equivilent to Philosophy101, or himself reading a brief introductary works. He likes to pass over quick, sly judgements and remarks over insignificent parts of a philosopher's philosophy, probabley because he fails to understand the general gist of particular philosophers. He utterly fails to understand basic concepts of history (he presents it as this rigid set-definatory time period with clearly defined distinctions between governments, various peoples, has horrible anachronistic characterizations of anything before the 20th century, etc.) tends to romanticize and mythologize philosophers and eras at almost every single instance he is able to, and worst of all this book is the popular standard introduction to Western philosophy. I highly recommend completely avoiding this work, and if you made the mistake of purchasing it, try to sell it as soon as possible before they become aware of the criticism attached to this book. ( )

This book is a terrific overview of philosophy and good introduction into individual schools and thinkers. ( )

While 'the' modern book on Western Philosophy, this is a hard-going tome - not really something you read for fun, or even for a bit of enlightenment or introduction. Rather, this is a reference book, and best used by either students of Philosophy or students that need a philosophy reference for work they are doing on other subjects (history and politics in this reader's case) ( )

This is a monolithic work, and, as far as I'm concerned, the best of it's kind for tone and readability. Goes in-depth without dragging each chapter down and surveys a massive amount of material. Just as good as any intro to philosophy course I ever took. I read a chapter every now and then just to brush up. ( )

Russell's History is a fun and entertaining survey but it should be read only as a prequel or sequel to more serious and rigorous studies. ( )