A Little History of Philosophy

A Little History of Philosophy offers a well-paced and accessible introduction to key philosophers and their ideas. Nigel Warburton presents complex concepts clearly and engagingly, making this an excellent book for anyone curious about philosophy, whether new to the subject or looking for a refresher. Each chapter focuses on a different thinker, giving just enough context and explanation to understand their main contributions without getting bogged down in jargon. The writing is concise but never dull, and the historical flow helps show how these ideas built upon one another over time. Highly recommended for readers who want to better understand the big questions that have shaped human thought.

The book is great, very entertaining. Short chapters make it easily digestible and the examples and analogies are clear for anyone to understand. It gives you a good overview of each philosopher without going into too much detail (which is kind of the point). The only reason I don't give it 5 stars is because sometimes the author's personal opinions can be seen throughout the book in a way that slightly taints what the philosopher tries to express. It would be better if he were completely impartial and just stuck to what each philosopher thinks.

This book provides a concise and illuminating history of philosophy. It is a sort of super Cliff Note, in that its 40 chapters cover 46 philosophers (Kant has two chapters) from Socrates to Peter Singer, and they are linked together over time. My own demographic is that of a retired but still curious civil servant who is still trying to catch up on the great span of my own life and learning. My only philosophy course at Yale was taught by the renowned Professor Rorty, and it was incomprehensible to me at the time. This book clarifies and organizes the course of western philosophy from its beginnings in readable chapters. The author is very articulate and even handed. Every one of these thinkers was controversial in their times, and the author notes and balances their thoughts with competing thoughts and shows how they were linked to each other and to the history of their respective times. I give copies of this book to friends, one of whom remarked that it would help him with his cocktail conversation for all time. This is true, but the book is much better than that!

Loved it!! First time I read a book this way. Highly recommend! Promise you won't regret. It's hard to leave the book unread.

Wonderful Book explaining very difficult concepts in a simple way

This is a real neat Philosophy 101 book. Well written and easy to read for a basic understanding of some of the recognized best philosophers. I found it especially interesting how the author could condense into just a few pages the essence of what these " great minds" took an entire book (s) to expound. It seems evident that some, like Aquinas and Augustine are now more or less meaningless. My favorite is Charles Darwin, not a bona fide philosopher for sure, but who had a real good response to a question asked of him about the existence of God. He said: The entire subject is too profound for the intellect of man. Pretty good answer, heh?

I love this book. It's fascinating... before talking about their ideas, the author shares interesting details about what the philosophers were like as people: how they lived, what inspired them, and sometimes how they thought about each others' work. The narratives are fun and memorable, and really help frame philosophy not as an abstract academic subject but more as a practical effort by real human beings to make sense of the big questions we all wrestle with in life. I hope Nigel Warburton makes more of these books. A Little History of Philosophy offers a friendly overview of some big ideas in Western philosophy, and I'd love to read his take on some of the great Eastern philosophers' lives and ideas.

Reading Nigel Warburton's A Little History of Philosophy makes me appreciate even more (if that is possible) EH Gombrich's A Little History of the World. In about 300 pages, Gombrich relayed just about every event of significance in world history in an erudite, extraordinarily humane way. His book has been in print for so long and in so many languages, it has inspired an attempt to do the same for philosophy. Unfortunately, Warburton's efforts fall short in many respects, despite providing a delightful entre for true neophytes. A Little History of Philosophy tries to accomplish its task by breaking the development of philosophy up into 40 chapters, each focused on one or two philosophers. Each contains some brief biographical material and a discussion of one or two ideas associated with him or her. After reading A Little History, a reader will know the "big names" and become familiar with some of the more interesting questions and ideas raised over the millennia since Socrates hectored his fellow Athenians about what they really understood and believed. Warburton is careful to illustrate philosophical concepts in a manner that assumes no prior knowledge of philosophy. More specifically, he covers both the famous (e.g. Plato, Aristotle, Kant, etc.) and some lesser known figures to the general public (Spinoza, Pierce, Foot, etc.), and includes even the most modern thinkers such as Rawls and Singer. His concept of "philosophy" is broad enough to cover ethics, political philosophy, economic philosophy, theology, ontology, and even some philosophy of science. He generally tries to pair different approaches or variations (e.g., Bentham and Mill on utilitarianism). A true beginner will certainly finish the book knowing a good deal more than she did when she started, is unlikely to be confused, and will likely be inspired to take a "deeper dive" into those topics or philosophers she found most engaging. This is the good news. Those who are even a little better versed in philosophy, however, will find less of interest. Even assuming the book is geared towards beginners, though, Warburton could have done even better in certain respects. He fails to introduce readers to the basic vocabulary of philosophy in many cases. A glossary at the end would be helpful. Opportunities to compare one philosopher's views on a particular subject with another are sometimes missed. And, in some cases, Warburton chooses a particularly odd concept to discuss in a chapter. For example, a reader will not learn anything about John Locke's Second Treastise of Government and Locke's views on the contractual nature of government and the consent of the governed. Curiously, Warburton chooses to focus on Locke's views on memory and humanity. The political philosophy of Rousseau is well presented, however, and one wishes Warburton had paired him with Edmund Burke in a chapter that covered both views on 18th century political developments. He omits Peter Singer's most controversial thesis altogether (that perhaps we should permit the killing of severely disabled newborns) despite the point of his final chapter being that philosophy is still a vital force in forcing us to rethink the comfortably familiar. In sum, A Little History is best left to those looking for a gentle introduction to philosophy in general, with readers looking for depth in any particular subject better off elsewhere.

The author mentions a lot of philosophers, from Socrates to Piter Singer. Each chapter is four or five pagese long. So you can read one chapter easily within a few minutes. Of course, the length of the book is too short to cover such a long history of philosophy and a few philosophers are unfortunately omitted such as Husserl and Heiddegar. But on the whole I'm content with the book. Any way what I like most in this book is that it deals with contemporary philosophers like Peter Singer. It'll be helpful when I read and understand his thoughts!

Very interesting reading.

This is how one should write a book The author has clarity and knowledge But he also has the skill set to write it in simple jargon-free manner which is quite rare Highly recommend...great coverage of list of philosophers

I had a career in business, and had no prior knowledge of philosophy when I picked up this book. What I was looking for is a quick read, a businesslike introduction, to the things I needed to know about. This book proved just right, and more: It created an interest which I intend to follow up on. This is a relatively short book, 250 pages in all, given that it attempts to present the ideas of more than 40 major philosophers dating back to Socrates and ending with the living ones like Peter Singer. Written for the lay reader, it is full of examples, presented in plain language, in sections not more than six or seven pages long. There is a conscious attempt to put everything in perspective, each section ends with a prelude to the next, and at other times, there are references made to ideas and works of other philosophers as we read about another one. As I mentioned, this book goes beyond the basic introduction and generates an interest in the subject. It does so by being practical and establishing relevance to everyday life. A number of questions are explored in the context. People like Darwin, Freud and Kuhn find sections of their own. I ended up recommending this book to friends in other disciplines as a good read and great enabler of intelligent conversations.