Socrates to Sartre: A History of Philosophy

I'm auditioning History of Philosophy books for my retirement library, at Comparative Faiths Division. I was already working on Durant's classic book; got as far as the SPINOZA chapter. After just two chapters into this textbook, I've decided to replace the Durant book. This is a much better overview / reference work.

Many times when reading philosophy, one comes away with the idea that either the ideas in and of themselves are extremely difficult to understand, that the terminology is opaque and extremely abstract, or that the author is incapable of elucidating the ideas involved. This book overcomes all of these pitfalls, and for that reason, it is a great place to begin the study of philosophy. It follows the chronological order of the birth of philosophy in ancient Greece, and the inestimable magnitude of this development in the history of Western culture. The author then develop the major philosophical trends, from ancient to Medieval, Renaissance, Early Modern, Enlightenment, and into the Modern periods. Philosophy does not occur in a vacuum. It is deeply affected by the political, economic, religious, intellectual and social milieu in which it is created. This book sets these essential factors out. The authors also discuss individual philosophers in terms of the ideas that they addressed, as well as the other philosophers that influenced them. The authors discuss this action and reaction, and its effect upon the development of intellectual thought. The really great thing about the book is that it does so without being pedantic and abstruse. There is no narcissistic demonstration of the ability to use arcane language or impenetrable phraseology. Everything is clear, concise and correct. A perfect place to start the study of philosophy. If you don't want to study philosophy further, but want to learn enough to have a basic familiarity with this important aspect of our intellectual heritage, this book is also perfect. Other great books that delve into the same material in greater detail are A History of Western Philosophy: The Medieval Mind, Volume II (v. 2)A History of Western Philosophy: Kant and the Nineteenth Century, Revised, Volume IVA History of Western Philosophy: Kant and the Nineteenth Century, Revised, Volume IVA History of Western Philosophy: The Twentieth Century of Quine and Derrida, Volume VA History of Western Philosophy: The Classical Mind, Volume I

This is a very even handed over view treatment of western philosophy from ancient times right on up to modern times. A great deal of the pertinent subjects in philosophy are covered by many of the main thinkers through the ages. This is probably about as good as it gets in a one volume history of philosophy book. It's a bit "thick" at times, but this should be expected from the nature of the subject. It should be noted that this work does not include eastern philosophy. Some other decent one volume works are: A Short History of Philosophy, by Kathleen Higgins ( includes some eastern philosophy ); Consequences of Ideas by R.C. Sproul. Be sure not to miss this last one by Sproul. It's concise and makes some solid philosphical/theological points worth knowing. When it comes to learning about philosophy, one needs to be aware of both "spins" on philosophy- liberal and conservative, secular and religious. These types of works are good places to start serious philosophical exploration.

Stumpf's text is widely used in Introduction to Philosophy courses, a fact in no doubt due to the book's brevity and clarity. Teaching philosophy is a tricky business. It is easy to make ideas that ought to be exhilarating into dreadfully boring subjects but, on the other hand, a good philosophy teacher can take some dry and boring philosophical idea and breathe life into it so that it becomes interesting to anyone, even the casual reader. Stumpf is this latter type. He excels at clearly communicating the fundamental ideas of the major thinkers in the history of western philosophy, but more important is the efficiency with which he does it. Overview philosophy texts can often fall into one of two traps: either they bog themselves down so much with the various philosophers' canons of thought that the book becomes too bloated for the average student, or for the sake of being concise they boil down those canons until what remains are only bare bones structures of the philosophers' bodies of thought. Stumpf avoids both extremes, and when the economy with which he writes is paired with his keen understanding of philosophy, the result is an extremely effective philosophy text that comes in at a fighting weight of about 500 pages. My only criticism of Stumpf would be his choice of philosophers to include. I am not all that concerned with August Comte, for example, and in my mind the inclusion of Reid or Paley would have better represented the Enlightenment debates on epistemology. But each philosopher has a different band of thinkers that he thinks is more important than others, and I guess it's inevitable that I as a Christian would want any philosophy text to include those two. Setting that gripe in the ditch for a moment, I would heartily recommend Socrates to Sartre to anyone interested in western philosophy.

This book, now in its seventh edition, is one of the better histories of western philosophical thought and development. In this edition, Fieser takes the reins, building upon the work of the late Samuel Stumpf, respected philosopher at Vanderbilt. This is a book that is comprehensive, yet fairly accessible as well. The beginner to philosophy might have difficulty with sections dealing with the more elaborate thinkers like Hegel or even Heidegger, but on balance, I think even a beginner will be able to get a great deal out of this book.Through careful study of this book, the reader will begin to see how western society has been thoroughly shaped by the philosophies described here. While philosophy is regularly dismissed as irrelevant theorizing that has no bearing on the real world (a criticism that is not altogether invalid), what can be seen from reading this book is that ideas matter, and they have consequences that thoroughly shape the 'real world'.Stumpf/Feiser begin with the pre-Socratic philosophers, and then devote considerable time to analyzing Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle. It is Plato and Aristotle that Western thought owes its inheritance, and this can be seen in the treatment of Augustine and Aquinas and the outworkings of their philosophies/theological approaches and necessities. Modernist philosophy gets a hard look in this book as well, starting with Descartes and moving up through Kant. Existentialism, both Christian and atheist, are examined through Kierkegaard and Sartre/Camus, and the book also devotes a decent amount of attention to Nietzche and analytic philosophy, the forebears of postmodernism. In each case, the analyses in this book are solid, and while the treatment is certainly not exhaustive, many of the major ideas of the philosophers mentioned are handled quite well and in mostly understandable and accessible ways.I will register only 2 minor complaints. The book's citationing approach is not good at all. The book regularly quotes from the works of the philosophers in question, but does not have formal citations. This is very fixable and should be fixed in the next edition, there's no reason why the citations shouldn't be in here. Secondly, postmodernism itself is still not dealt with as comprehensively as it should be. While Rorty's thought is discussed, Foucault, Derrida, and others are not and they should be in order to present an adequate picture of contemporary philosophy. In addition, the work of Plantinga also deserves mention but is excluded.But overall, this is a fine survey - more advanced than Grenz's survey 'Primer on Postmodernism' (which I would recommend for those wanting a survey treatment on Derrida and Foucault), but still accessible for most anyone interested in a substantive treatment of Western philosophy.

I recommend this book to anyone studying Philosophy. I majored in Phil in college and owe a great deal to "Socrates to Sartre" for helping me understand so many abstract concepts. It is writen in contemporary english so it is much easier to understand than many of the philosophers' own writing. The reader can follow the book as a historical text or use it as an encylopedia. All major theories by all major western philosophers are concisely broken down and explained. Examples are given. The book is structured in order of schools of thought and historical order. I swear one of my instructors must used this book for his lectures beacuse I used it for his classes and did very well. I don't mean to sound like I'm related to the author but this book is the best guide around.