The Story of Philosophy

Summary

The Story of Philosophy is Will Durant's account of the Western philosophical tradition, published in 1926 and revised in a second edition of 1933. Durant organizes the book around biographies rather than problems: each chapter introduces a thinker's life and times, sets out his central ideas with long extracts from his writings, and ends with a brief appraisal of strengths and weaknesses. An opening essay, "On the Uses of Philosophy," argues that philosophy deals with questions not yet settled by science, such as good and evil, beauty, order and freedom, and that it aims at a coherent view of the whole of experience. Durant states that he will stay with ideas bearing on conduct and society and avoid the more technical disputes of metaphysics and theology. The first chapters move through antiquity: Plato, introduced through Socrates and centered on the Republic, and Aristotle, presented as an encyclopedic organizer of the sciences, logic, ethics and politics. The book then jumps to the early modern period with Francis Bacon and his program for the reform of learning, and Spinoza, preceded by a short section on Descartes, whose Ethics and Theologico-Political Treatise are summarized at length. The eighteenth century is represented by Voltaire, whose life is traced from Paris and London to Cirey, Potsdam and Ferney, with sections on Candide, the Philosophical Dictionary and his quarrel with Rousseau. The Kant chapter covers the three paths leading to Kant, the Critique of Pure Reason, the Critique of Practical Reason, his writings on religion and on perpetual peace, and closes with a note on Hegel. Later chapters treat Schopenhauer's philosophy of will, Herbert Spencer's synthesis built on evolution, and Nietzsche's critique of morality and his idea of the superman. Two final chapters survey philosophers who were still living when the book appeared: Henri Bergson, Benedetto Croce and Bertrand Russell in Europe, and George Santayana, William James and John Dewey in the United States. Written for general readers, the book became a commercial success that helped establish its publisher. Reviewers and scholars have pointed out its omissions, among them most medieval and non-Western thought, and the 1933 preface contains Durant's reply to such criticisms. The book remains in print and is widely used as an introduction to the history of philosophy.

Top Lessons

• Philosophy and science

  Durant describes philosophy as working on questions science has not yet settled. Students can test this account against examples.

• Lives and ideas

  Each chapter joins biography to argument. Students can consider how a thinker's circumstances relate to his ideas.

• Summary and source

  Durant paraphrases as well as quotes. The line about excellence as a habit is his own summary of Aristotle, often misattributed to Aristotle himself.

Verified Quotes