Philosophy: History and Problems

Rating:
Summary: The Examined Life starts here...
Review: This philosophy book by Stumpf and Fieser is used at Ivy Tech State College as the primary text for the introduction to philosophy courses (100 level). It is a good survey of all the major topics in philosophy (from a classical Western standpoint), and includes many of the major thinkers over time, both in the narrative discussion presented by the authors, as well as in primary source readings from major philosophers themselves.

As the book's self-description states, this is a combination of two previous texts - 'Socrates to Sartre and Beyond: A History of Philosphy' by Stumpf, and 'Philosophical Problems' by Fieser. These books are presented one after the other, both under one cover. The readings selected and edited by Fieser are grouped topically, generally following an early-to-late chronology of ordering. Thus, with judicious planning, the reader of philosophy can develop from both segments a good general survey from the earliest times (the timeline on the backplate begins with Thales, from 624-546 B.C.) to the present (again from the timeline, current thinkers listed include John Rawls, John Hick, and Carol Gilligan).

The Stumpf text is divided into five major sections: I - Ancient Greek Philosophy; II - Hellenistic and Medieval Philosophy; III - Early Modern Philosophy; IV - Late Modern and 19th Century Philosophy; and V - 20th Century and Contemporary Philosophy. Section I looks at the major ancient Greek thinkers, such as Socrates, Plato and Aristotle, as well as lesser-known important figures and schools such as Thales, Pythagoras, the Sophists, and more. This is the time that philosophy began to be broken into certain topical areas (ethics, politics, metaphysics, logic, etc.) but also a time when the disciplines of science, mathematics and what we would call social sciences and arts and humanities were all directly and explicitly tied to the overall philosophical enterprise.

The section on Hellenistic and Medieval Philosophy looks at later Greek schools (Stocism, Skepticism, Epicureanism) as well as the advent of Christianity and Christian influence in philosophical development. Key figures here include Augustine (heavily influenced by the twin sources of Christianity and Neoplatonism), Boethius, Anselm, Aquinas (influenced greatly by the European rediscovery of Aristotle), and late medieval figures such as Scotus, Ockham and Eckhart.

Early Modern Philosophy begins at the time the various Renaissance and Reformation periods began, looking at key philosophers such as Machiavelli, Bacon, Hobbes, Descartes, Spinoza, Leibniz, and the British Empiricists; this was also the advent of the scientific revolution and prelude to the Enlightenment, so there were philosophies of politics, religion, science, knowledge and ethics significantly different from anything before.

Late Modern and 19th Century Philosophy looks at primary Enlightenment figures such as Kant and Hegel, with fundamentally new ideas in the areas of metaphysics and epistemology (and, accordingly, new philosophies in other areas that reflect the new developments). This is also the period that saw the advent of Utilitarianism (Bentham, Mill, and Comte), and radical thinkers such as Kierkegaard, Marx and Nietzsche, whose direct influence in areas of religion, politics, and culture are still being felt.

Key areas covered in the final chapter on Contemporary Philosophy include Pragmatism (Pierce, James, Dewey, Bergson, Whitehead), Analytic Philosophy (Russell and Wittgenstein), Phenomenology and Existentialism (Husserl, Heidegger, Sartre, Merleau-Ponty), and very new ideas that are only now coming to full expression (postmodernism, structuralism and post-structuralism, mind-body problems, etc.). Overall, this text includes a 500-page narrative of the principle ideas and patterns of development that have shaped the many dimensions of Western philosophy.

Added to this narrative text is a 400-page collection of articles and edited tracts organised by Fieser into seven categories: I - The Meaning of Life; II - Philosophy of Mind; III - Philosophy of Religion; IV - Epistemology; V - Free Will and Determinism; VI - Ethics; and VII - Political Philosophy. Each of these sections is introduced by Fieser with a short essay (a few pages each, at most); these set the stage for the readings, and provide connecting material where appropriate, but for the most part, Fieser lets the primary documents speak for themselves. These sections include traditional philosopher-authors (Plato, Aristotle, Locke, Hume, James, Rawls), but also some authors/writings not generally included in such collections (Leo Tolstoy, Chuang-tzu, Katha Upanishad).

Together, these make a wonderful one-volume, portable philosophy library. Sufficient for an introductory course, it should also serve to whet the appetite of readers who are seeking more in particular philosophical areas. The combination of both Stumpf's and Fieser's texts means that the appeal and ease of use will be enhanced - those students who find primary documents difficult to follow can rely more on the narrative history/explanatory section; those who find the latter less gratifying and interesting can pay more attention to the primary documents.

In the Stumpf section, there is a useful glossary of key philosophical terms, a select bibliography arranged chronologically by chapter, divided into original documents and critical studies, and an index including names, terms and concepts. There are no such indexes or bibliographies following the Fieser section, but that section does list the citation for each excerpt at the beginning of each article, so that the reader may follow up with further reading in the same document.

Philosophy is rarely easy reading; there will be parts that appeal to a particular reader that will leave another bewildered or bored (or both!), but there tends to be in the philosophical discipline something somewhere of interest to most. This gives a good, broad layout of philosophy as done in the primary Western, academic tradition, and serves as a good text for classrooms, as well as use for a personal study.