The Story of Philosophy sees philosophy for what it is: a passionate, exhilarating quest for human understanding that cannot be reduced to dry categories or simple definitions. Accessible writing, brilliant scholarship and over 150 colour illustrations combine to form a richly informative and highly entertaining work of narrative history. Packed with intriguing anecdotes and fascinating detail, James Garvey and Jeremy Stangroom bring us face to face with the most important philosophers in western history. The story begins with the Ancient Greeks, Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, great thinkers who set the philosophical agenda to this day. It continues with Greek and Roman philosophers--slaves and emperors who found consolation in deep thoughts about life and death--and moves on to the religious thinkers of the Middle Ages. The origins of modern science, politics, and morality are examined, alongside theories of knowledge, logic, mind and matter. Along the way, you'll discover Descartes' evil demon, Locke on the limits of knowledge, Rousseau and Hobbes on human nature, Hume's scepticism, Kant on duty, Nietzsche's Superman, Marx on class struggle, Russell's logic, Wittgenstein on meaning, Sartre on bad faith, Foucault's take on power, and much more. Rigorous, refreshingly free of academic jargon, and highly accessible, this is the ideal introduction for anyone who wants to gain a new perspective on philosophy's deepest mysteries and most intriguing discoveries.

Written by a team of distinguished scholars, this is an authoritative and comprehensive history of Western philosophy from its earliest beginnings to the present day. The book is illustrated with over 150 colour and black-and-white pictures, chosen to illuminate and complement the text. Now in paperback, this lively and readable volume is an ideal introduction to philosophy for anyone interested in the history of ideas. An outstanding team of contributors... Stephen. R. L. Clark on Ancient Philosophy Paul Vincent Spade on Medieval Philosophy Anthony Kenny on Descartes to Kant Roger Scruton on Continental Philosophy from Fichte to Sartre David Pears and Anthony Kenny on Mill to Wittgenstein Anthony Quinton on Political Philosophy - ;Written by a team of distinguished scholars, this is an authoritative and comprehensive history of Western philosophy from its earliest beginnings to the present day. The book is illustrated with over 150 colour and black-and-white pictures, chosen to illuminate and complement the text. Lively and readable, this is an ideal introduction to philosophy for anyone interested in the history of ideas. `a wonderfully lucid exposition of difficult ideas' Tablet `Anthony Kenny, the editor of this courageously erudite compendium, reminds us that philosophy has always been fascinated by the interweaving of words and images, while artists have played upon philosophic concepts.' Observer - ;Preface; Ancient Philosophy; Medieval Philosophy; Descartes to Kant; Continental Philosophy from Fichte to Sartre; Mill to Wittgenstein; Political Philosophy; Conclusion: Contemporary Philosophy. - ;a wonderfully lucid exposition of difficult ideas - Tablet;Anthony Kenny, the editor of this courageously erudite compendium, reminds us that philosophy has always been fascinated by the interweaving of words and images, while artists have played upon philosophic concepts. - Observer

A classic treatment of philosophy and Christianity... Volume II of The Story of Western Philosophy: The Rise and Fall and Return of Reason continues the theme of Rational knowledge truth claims concerning both the Natural Revelation of Reason and the Special Revelation of the Bible, and these themes are explored in terms of Augustine's classic work The City of God and its implication for philosophy, history, good government, and true religion in spirit and truth. All of these things raise the question of what is Kingdom Era Christianity as defined and prophesied in the Bible from the promises made to Abraham to the book of Revelation, where ""the kingdoms (or nations) of this world become the kingdoms of our Lord and of His Christ."" Again, in Volume II, this study is done in terms of Justin Martyr's Logos Christology where the Logos of Heraclitus is the Wisdom of Solomon, is the Logos of John, is the second Person of the Trinity, and when this Logos Rationality rules over the nations on earth, this is the reign of Christ in a Kingdom Era under ""the Laws of Nature and of Nature's GOD."" This volume looks at length at the three main currents of philosophy and religion that came out of the Renaissance Reformation era, namely, atheistic humanism, Protestant Bible Christianity, and Roman Catholicism and how each of these three philosophical worldviews had an attendant political theory for a supposedly desirable state, as seen in the American (Protestant Christian) Revolution of 1776 and in the French (atheist humanist) Revolution of 1789 against the Roman Catholic Church and its absolute monarchy. Further, after the 18th century Enlightenment, the validity of the Bible revelation in its main story line (the Creation, Sinai, and the Resurrection) is called into question by what is called ""higher criticism."" This position is generally the basis for today's Christian and Jewish Liberalism as well as today's political Liberalism.

Here readers will find not only an authoritative guide to the history of philosophy, but also a compelling introduction to every major area of philosophical inquiry.

This illustrated edition of Sir Anthony Kenny’s acclaimed survey of Western philosophy offers the most concise and compelling story of the complete development of philosophy available. Spanning 2,500 years of thought, An Illustrated Brief History of Western Philosophy provides essential coverage of the most influential philosophers of the Western world, among them Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Jesus, Augustine, Aquinas, Machiavelli, Descartes, Hobbes, Spinoza, Berkeley, Hume, Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, Marx, Mill, Nietzsche, Darwin, Freud, Frege, Russell, and Wittgenstein. Replete with over 60 illustrations - ranging from Dufresnoy’s The Death of Socrates, through to the title page of Thomas More’s Utopia, portraits of Hobbes and Rousseau, photographs of Charles Darwin and Bertrand Russell, Freud’s own sketch of the Ego and the Id, and Wittgenstein’s Austrian military identity card - this lucid and masterful work is ideal for anyone with an interest in Western thought.

Here is the concluding volume of Sir Anthony Kenny's monumental four-volume history of philosophy, the first major single-author narrative history to appear for several decades.Here Kenny tells the fascinating story of the development of philosophy in the modern world, from the early nineteenth century to the end of the millennium. Alongside extraordinary scientific advances, cultural changes, and political upheavals, the last two centuries have seen some of the mostintriguing and original developments in philosophical thinking, which have transformed our understanding of ourselves and our world. In the first part of the book, Kenny offers a lively narrative introducing the major thinkers in their historical context. Among those we meet are the great figures ofcontinental European philosophy, from Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, and Nietzsche to Heidegger, Sartre, and Derrida; the Pragmatists such as C.S. Pierce and William James; Marx, Darwin, and Freud, the non-philosophers; and Wittgenstein and Russell, friends and colleagues who set the agenda for analyticphilosophy in the twentieth century. Kenny then proceeds to guide the reader lucidly through the nine main areas of philosophical work in the period, offering a serious engagement with ideas and arguments about logic, language, epistemology, metaphysics, ethics, aesthetics, politics, and theexistence of God.