History of Philosophy

The History of Philosophy is the exposition of philosophical opinions and of systems and schools of philosophy. It includes the study of the lives of philosophers, the inquiry into the mutual connection of schools and systems of thought, and the attempt to trace the course of philosophical progress. Topics covered include Ancient Philosophy (Babylon, China, India, Egypt, Greece and Rome) Christian Era Philosophy (St. Anselm, Thomas Aquinas, William of Ockam) and Modern Philosophy (including Descartes, Spinoza, Kant and Hegel.)

By : William Turner (1871 - 1936)

00 - Introduction



01 - Part 1, Ancient Philosophy: Babylonia, Assyria, Egypt, China



02 - Ancient Philosophy: India, Persia



03 - Greek Philosophy: Introduction and Chapter 1: Earlier Ionian School



04 - Greek Philosophy: Chapter 2: The Pythagorean School



05 - Greek Philosophy: Chapter 3: The Eleatic School



06 - Greek Philosophy: Chapter 4: Later Ionian Philosophers



07 - Greek Philosophy: Chapter 5: The Atomists



08 - Greek Philosophy: Chapter 6: The Sophists



09 - Greek Philosophy: Chapter 7: Socrates



10 - Greek Philosophy: Chapter 8: The Imperfectly Socratic Schools



11 - Greek Philosophy: Chapter 9: Plato



12 - Greek Philosophy: Chapter 10: The Platonic Schools



13 - Greek Philosophy: Chapter 11: Aristotle, Part 1



14 - Greek Philosophy: Chapter 11: Aristotle, Part 2



15 - Greek Philosophy: Chapter 12: The Peripatetic School



16 - Greek Philosophy: Chapter 13: The Stoics



17 - Greek Philosophy: Chapter 14: The Epicureans



18 - Greek Philosophy: Chapters 15-17: The Skeptics, The Eclectics and The Scientific Movement



19 - Greek Philosophy: Chapter 18: The Philosophy of the Romans



20 - Greco-Oriental Philosophy: Chapter 19: Greco-Jewish Philosophy



21 - Greco-Oriental Philosophy: Chapter 20: Neo-Pythagoreanism and Neo-Platonism



22 - Part 2, Patristic Philosophy: Chapters 21 and 22: Heretical Systems, The Ante-Nicene Fathers



23 - Patristic Philosophy: Chapter 23: The Post-Nicene Fathers



24 - Scholastic Philosophy: Chapter 24: First Masters of the Schools



25 - Scholastic Philosophy: Chapter 25: John Scotus Erigena



26 - Scholastic Philosophy: Chapters 26 and 27: Gerbert, The School of Auxerre



27 - Scholastic Philosophy: Chapters 28 and 29: The Predecessors of Roscelin, Roscelin



28 - Scholastic Philosophy: Chapter 30: St Anselm



29 - Scholastic Philosophy: Chapter 31: William of Champeaux, the Indifferentists, etc



30 - Scholastic Philosophy: Chapter 32: Abelard



31 - Scholastic Philosophy: Chapter 33: The School of Chartres



32 - Scholastic Philosophy: Chapters 34 and 35: The Eclectics, The Mystic School



33 - Scholastic Philosophy: Chapter 36: The Pantheistic School



34 - Scholastic Philosophy: Chapter 37: The Predecessors of St Thomas



35 - Scholastic Philosophy: Chapter 38, Part 1: St Thomas of Aquin



36 - Scholastic Philosophy: Chapter 38, Part 2: St Thomas of Aquin



37 - Scholastic Philosophy: Chapters 39 and 40: Thomists and Anti-Thomists, Henry of Ghent



38 - Scholastic Philosophy: Chapters 41 and 42: John Duns Scotus, Averroism in the Schools



39 - Scholastic Philosophy: Chapter 43: The Predecessors of Ockham



40 - Scholastic Philosophy: Chapters 44 and 45: William of Ockam, Follows and Opponents of Ockam



41 - Scholastic Philosophy: Chapters 46 and 47: The Mystic School, Nicholas of Autrecourt



42 - Modern Philosophy: Chapters 48 and 49: Scholars of the Transition Period, The Humanists



43 - Modern Philosophy: Chapters 50 and 51: Italian Philosophy of Nature, The Scientific Movement



44 - Modern Philosophy: Chapters 52 and 53: Protestant Mysticism, Systems of Political Philosophy



45 - Modern Philosophy: Chapter 54: Descartes



46 - Modern Philosophy: Chapter 55: Cartesianism



47 - Modern Philosophy: Chapter 56: Spinoza



48 - Modern Philosophy: Chapter 57: English Empiricism



49 - Modern Philosophy: Chapter 58: British Moralists



50 - Modern Philosophy: Chapter 59: French Empiricism



51 - Modern Philosophy: Chapter 60: The Idealistic Movement



52 - Modern Philosophy: Chapters 61 and 62: Pan-Phenomenalism, German Illumination



53 - Modern Philosophy: Chapter 63: German Philosophy - Kant



54 - Modern Philosophy: Chapter 64: German Philosophy - The Romantic Movement



55 - Modern Philosophy: Chapter 65: German Philosophy - Hegel



56 - Modern Philosophy: Chapter 66: German Philosophy - Schopenhauer



57 - Modern Philosophy: Chapter 67: The Scottish School



58 - Modern Philosophy: Chapter 68: French Philosophy



59 - Modern Philosophy: Chapter 69: English Philosophy



60 - Modern Philosophy: Chapter 70: Italian Philosophy



61 - Modern Philosophy: Chapter 71: American Philosophy



62 - Modern Philosophy: Chapter 72: Catholic Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century



63 - Modern Philosophy: Chapter 73: Contemporary Philosophy



64 - Modern Philosophy: Chapter 74: Conclusion


The History of Philosophy is the exposition of philosophical opinions and of systems and schools of philosophy. It includes the study of the lives of philosophers, the inquiry into the mutual connection of schools and systems of thought, and the attempt to trace the course of philosophical progress or retrogression. The nature and scope of philosophy furnish reasons for the study of its history. Philosophy does not confine its investigation to one or to several departments of knowledge; it is concerned with the ultimate principles and laws of all things. Every science has for its aim to find the causes of phenomena; philosophy seeks to discover ultimate causes, thus carrying to a higher plane the unifying process begun in the lower sciences. The vastness of the field of inquiry, the difficulty of synthesizing the results of scientific investigation, and the constantly increasing complexity of these results necessitated the gradual development of philosophy. To each generation and to each individual the problems of philosophy present themselves anew, and the influences, personal, racial, climatic, social, and religious, which bear on the generation or on the individual must be studied in order that the meaning and value of each doctrine and system be understood and appreciated. Such influences are more than a matter of mere erudition; they have their place in the praenotanda to the solution of every important question in philosophy; for, as Coleridge says, "the very fact that any doctrine has been believed by thoughtful men is part of the problem to be solved, is one of the phenomena to be accounted for." Moreover, philosophical doctrines, while they are to be regarded primarily as contributions to truth, are also to be studied as vital forces which have determined to a large extent the literary, artistic, political, and industrial life of the world. To-day, more than ever, it is clearly understood that without a knowledge of these forces it is impossible to comprehend the inner movements of thought which alone explain the outer actions of men and nations.

The dangers to be avoided in the study of the history of philosophy are Eclecticism, which teaches that all systems are equally true, and Scepticism, which teaches that all systems are equally false. A careful study of the course of philosophical speculation will result in the conviction that, while no single school can lay claim to the entire truth, certain schools of thought have adopted that world-concept which can be most consistently applied to every department of knowledge. False systems of philosophy may stumble on many important truths, but a right concept of the ultimate meaning of reality and a correct notion of philosophic method are the essentials for which we must look in every system; these constitute a legitimate standard of valuation by which the student of the history of philosophy may judge each successive contribution to philosophical science.

The method to be followed in this study is the empirical, or a posteriori, method, which is employed in all historical research. The speculative, or a priori, method consists in laying down a principle, such as the Hegelian principle that the succession of schools and systems corresponds to the succession of logical categories, and deducing from such a principle the actual succession of schools and systems. But, apart from the danger of misstating facts for the sake of methodic symmetry, such a procedure must be judged to be philosophically unsound; for systems of philosophy, like facts of general history, are contingent events. There are, indeed, laws of historical development; but such laws are to be established subsequently, not anteriorly, to the study of the facts of history.

The historian of philosophy, therefore, has for his task: (1) To set forth the lives and doctrines of philosophers and systems and schools of philosophy in their historical relation. This, the recitative or narrative portion of the historian's task, includes the critical examination of sources. (2) To trace the genetic connection between systems, schools, and doctrines, and to estimate the value of each successive contribution to philosophy. This, the philosophical portion of the historian's task, is by far the most important of his duties: Potius de rebus ipsis judicare debemus, quam pro magno de hominibus quid quisque senserit scire.

The sources of the history of philosophy are: (1) Primary sources, namely, the works, complete or fragmentary, of philosophers. It is part of the historian's task to establish, whenever necessary, the authenticity and integrity of these works. (2) Secondary sources, that is, the narration or testimony of other persons concerning the lives, opinions, and doctrines of philosophers. In dealing with secondary sources the rules of historical criticism must be applied, in order to determine the reliability of witnesses.

The division of the history of philosophy will always be more or less arbitrary in matters of detail. This is owing to the continuity of historical development: the stream of human thought flows continuously from one generation to another; like all human institutions, systems and schools of philosophy never break entirely with the past; they arise and succeed one another without abrupt transition and merge into one another so imperceptibly that it is rarely possible to decide where one ends and another begins. The more general divisions, however, are determined by great historical events and by obvious national and geographical distinctions. Thus, the coming of Christ divides the History of Philosophy into two parts, each of which may be subdivided as follows:

PART I -- ANCIENT OR PRE-CHRISTIAN PHILOSOPHY

SECTION A -- ORIENTAL OR PRE-HELLENIC PHILOSOPHY
SECTION B -- GREEK AND GRECO-ROMAN PHILOSOPHY
SECTION C -- GRECO-ORIENTAL PHILOSOPHY

PART II -- PHILOSOPHY OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA

SECTION A -- PATRISTIC PHILOsOPHY
SECTION B -- SCHOLASTIC PHILOSOPHY
SECTION C -- MODERN PHILOSOPHY

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