Istoria Filosofiei

A.C. Grayling traces 2,500 years of change in philosophy. He looks at more than 100 thinkers. Some are famous, while others are less well known. He starts with early Greek thought, Buddha and Confucius. He then looks at Christianity’s role in Europe. Next come the Renaissance and Enlightenment. Later thinkers include Mill, Nietzsche and Sartre. The account goes on to reach our own time.

This history comes in one volume. It is for students, scholars and general readers. Grayling compares Western thought with thought from other lands. These include Indian, Chinese and Arab-Persian traditions. He covers African philosophy too. He keeps philosophy apart from theology, the study of God.

He explores epistemology, which asks how we know things. He covers metaphysics, which asks what is real. Ethics asks how we should act. Aesthetics looks at art and beauty. Logic deals with sound ways to reason. He also looks at the mind, language and politics. He asks what past debates have taught us. He asks where philosophy still needs to move forward.

Grayling is a British philosopher. His research looks at knowledge, metaphysics and philosophical logic. He taught at Birkbeck, University of London. He worked there from 1991 to 2011. In 2011, he founded London’s New College of the Humanities. He also directs Prospect Magazine. He serves as vice-president of the British Humanist Association. He sees himself as part of the left. He also identifies with Britain’s new atheist movement. He writes on philosophy in the British press.

Louis Ulrich and Tudor Ulrich translated this edition. Its source text is The History of Philosophy.