A 2600-year journey (give or take a few)
Reviewing A.C. Grayling's "The History of Philosophy"
Somehow, I managed to make it through college and grad school without ever taking Philosophy 101.
A few months ago, I decided that it was time to rectify that. Though we surveyed moral philosophy in my Journalism Ethics class, and certainly hit some of the high points in other courses along the way, I realized recently that my general education in philosophy was seriously lacking.
That’s how I found myself in front of the surprisingly tiny philosophy section at my local Barnes and Noble, looking for an introduction to the topic that would walk me through the major schools of thought and introduce me to the biggest names. With no prior research, I landed on A.C. Grayling’s The History of Philosophy.
It took me a little more than a month and a half, but I finally finished the book last week. Read on for my thoughts.
What’s it about?
Grayling’s journey through the history of philosophy begins somewhere around the 600s BCE and ends in modern times. Though the book primarily focuses on developments in the West, there is a section dedicated to the big names and schools in Chinese, Arabic-Persian, Indian, and African philosophy.
He takes care to walk through the largest movements of philosophy, from the Socratic era to the Scholastics, the Enlightenment, and modern-era Analytic and Continental philosophy. I appreciated the book’s journey through time and found it particularly interesting to observe which questions humanity has been wrestling with since the dawn of philosophy as we know it.
What I loved
The History of Philosophy checked all the boxes I was hoping it’d check when I first picked it off the Barnes & Noble shelf in April. It introduced every major player in philosophy from antiquity to today, and it didn’t shy away from complex concepts.
Grayling’s writing was clear and concise, and the book was organized in a way that will make it a go-to reference manual for me. He also explained his methodology and selection criteria throughout, so readers were not left wondering why certain philosophers were featured while others were not.
This was especially important as he approached the modern era, as it’s impossible to say without the benefit of hindsight which thinkers will merit a few pages—or even an entire chapter—of their own.
That’s not to say that I fully understood everything discussed. I’m still a newbie when it comes to metaphysics, and I left some pages (and chapters) more confused than I started. But, the challenge was part of what made it so worthwhile for me.
As I had to remind myself after reading a few particularly difficult sections, I wanted to find a book that I could learn from, and learning requires realizing what you don’t know. Though it can be uncomfortable to stretch the limits of your knowledge, I found it to be so rewarding. I am far from an expert on many of the topics discussed in the book, but I feel like the exposure to more complex ideas helped me build mental scaffolding that I can attach new ideas to in the future.
I also greatly enjoyed the discussions of ethics, moral philosophy, and political philosophy that came up throughout the book. These were more familiar topics, sure, but they’re also the topics that interest me the most—it was often rewarding to realize, after working through several pages of dense metaphysics, that another ethics section was on its way.
What I didn’t love
A New Atheist and self-proclaimed humanist, Grayling shows his hand early and often throughout the book.
He routinely miscasts religion as a sort of philosophical Band-Aid, which covers up metaphysical questions instead of actually answering them. Religion stifles philosophy, he argues, because it simply posits a deity to solve the problems that philosophers are working on.
Consider this excerpt, from the last paragraph of the book:
“We still wrestle with problems about what is good and right, about how society should be organized, about meaning and value, and especially about the quest for the good and worthwhile life. Many people do not think about these things, preferring instead to take a prepacked set of views from some tradition, typically a religion, from which most of them cherry-pick what is convenient, and ignore what is inconvenient.”
I’ll be the first to admit that “religious” people don’t always live up to the standard they proclaim, and I agree with Grayling’s point that a lack of curiosity can easily result in a sort of intellectual atrophy.
But, it’s also intellectually lazy to suggest that individuals who subscribe to a religious tradition don’t, or worse, can’t, wrestle with humanity’s biggest questions—especially when we’re experiencing such a renaissance of Christian philosophy, spearheaded by individuals like Alvin Plantinga (who gets one mention, in a footnote), William Lane Craig, J.P. Moreland, and countless others, who are addressing these issues head-on.
To be clear, I don’t take issue with Grayling’s decision—discussed often, at appropriate points throughout the book—to separate the sometimes intertwined disciplines of philosophy and theology. What I do take issue with is the way his derision toward theology and religion encroached on otherwise productive philosophical discussions.
Final thoughts
Historically, I’ve had a hard time giving books ratings because I typically enjoy everything I read (and who am I to say a book isn’t good?? My Goodreads account bears evidence of this.).
That said, I would give Grayling’s The History of Philosophy an easy 4 out of 5 stars.
If you’re looking for a solid introduction to the topic, I’d wholeheartedly recommend it. You’ll come away with an arsenal of new vocabulary terms and a great who’s who of the last 3 or so millennia.
At 600ish pages of material, it is lengthy, and it’s certainly difficult to understand at times (please don’t quiz me on metaphysics or the work of George Berkeley). But, if you’re willing to undertake the task, I think it’s worthwhile. I had several mini breakthroughs and revelations while I read, and I found it beneficial to learn the lingo of philosophy from the people who invented it.
More book reviews + currently reading
This is the second book review I’ve published on Warranted. Find my 5 takeaways from C.S. Lewis’ satire The Screwtape Letters here.
Right now, I’m taking a break from nonfiction and reading some of Lewis’ Chronicles of Narnia series. I’m loving The Magician’s Nephew, and also loving the excuse to enjoy a fairytale for a while.
My book club is also working through William Hasker’s Metaphysics and the Tri-Personal God—it’s an enlightening work, if much more intensely philosophical than we realized when we picked it out. I’m looking forward to sharing our thoughts when we finish.
What are you reading? Let me know so I can add it to my “Want to read” stack!