What do you think?
Rate this book
A History of Philosophy #8
A History of Philosophy, Vol. 8: Modern Philosophy, Empiricism, Idealism, and Pragmatism in Britain and America
Conceived originally as a serious presentation of the development of philosophy for Catholic seminary students, Frederick Copleston's nine-volume A History Of Philosophy has journeyed far beyond the modest purpose of its author to universal acclaim as the best history of philosophy in English.
Copleston, an Oxford Jesuit of immense erudition who once tangled with A. J. Ayer in a fabled debate about the existence of God and the possibility of metaphysics, knew that seminary students were fed a woefully inadequate diet of theses and proofs, and that their familiarity with most of history's great thinkers was reduced to simplistic caricatures. Copleston set out to redress the wrong by writing a complete history of Western philosophy, one crackling with incident and intellectual excitement -- and one that gives full place to each thinker, presenting his thought in a beautifully rounded manner and showing his links to those who went before and to those who came after him.
The result of Copleston's prodigious labors is a history of philosophy that is unlikely ever to be surpassed. Thought magazine summed up the general agreement among scholars and students alike when it reviewed Copleston's A History of Philosophy as "broad-minded and objective, comprehensive and scholarly, unified and well proportioned... We cannot recommend [it] too highly."
Copleston, an Oxford Jesuit of immense erudition who once tangled with A. J. Ayer in a fabled debate about the existence of God and the possibility of metaphysics, knew that seminary students were fed a woefully inadequate diet of theses and proofs, and that their familiarity with most of history's great thinkers was reduced to simplistic caricatures. Copleston set out to redress the wrong by writing a complete history of Western philosophy, one crackling with incident and intellectual excitement -- and one that gives full place to each thinker, presenting his thought in a beautifully rounded manner and showing his links to those who went before and to those who came after him.
The result of Copleston's prodigious labors is a history of philosophy that is unlikely ever to be surpassed. Thought magazine summed up the general agreement among scholars and students alike when it reviewed Copleston's A History of Philosophy as "broad-minded and objective, comprehensive and scholarly, unified and well proportioned... We cannot recommend [it] too highly."
592 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1966
16 people are currently reading
1077 people want to read
About the author
Frederick Charles Copleston
309 books298 followersFrederick (Freddie) Charles Copleston was raised an Anglican and educated at Marlborough College from 1920 to 1925. Shortly after his eighteenth birthday he converted to Catholicism, and his father subsequently almost disowned him. After the initial shock, however, his father saw fit to help Copleston through his education and he attended St. John’s in Oxford in 1925, only managing a disappointing third in classical moderations. He redeemed himself somewhat with a good second at Greats in 1929.
In 1930 Copleston became a Jesuit, and, after two years at the Jesuit novitiate in Roehampton, he moved to Heythrop. He was ordained a Jesuit priest at Heythrop College in 1937 and soon after went to Germany (1938) to complete his training. Fortunately he made it back to Britain before the outbreak of war in 1939. The war made it impossible for him to study for his doctorate, as once intended, at the Gregorian University in Rome, and instead Copleston was invited to return to Heythrop to teach the history of philosophy to the few remaining Jesuits there.
While in Heythrop Copleston had time and interest to begin the work he is most famous for, his "A History of Philosophy" - a textbook that originally set out to deliver a clear account of ancient, medieval and modern philosophy in three volumes, which was instead completed in nine volumes (1975). To this day Copleston’s history remains a monumental achievement and stays true to the authors it discusses, being very much a work in exposition.
Copleston adopted a number of honorary roles throughout the remainder of his career. He was appointed Visiting Professor at Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, spending half of each year lecturing there from 1952 to 1968. He was made Fellow of the British Academy (FBA) in 1970, given a personal professorship from his own university (Heythrop, now re-established in the University of London) in 1972 and made an Honorary Fellow of St. John’s College, Oxford, in 1975. He was Visiting Professor at the University of Santa Clara between 1974 and 1982, and he delivered the Gifford Lectures at the University of Aberdeen between 1979 and 1981. His lectures were published under the title Religion and the One, and were largely a metaphysical tract attempting to express themes perennial in his thinking and more personal than in his history. Gerard J. Hughes notes Copleston as remarking "large doses of metaphysics like that certainly don’t boost one’s sales".
He received honorary doctorates from a number of institutions, notably, Santa Clara University, California, University of Uppsala and the University of St. Andrews (D.Litt) in later years. He was selected for membership in the Royal Institute of Philosophy and in the Aristotelian Society, and in 1993 he was made CBE.
Copleston’s personality saw him engage in the many responsibilities bestowed upon him with generous commitment and good humour.
In 1930 Copleston became a Jesuit, and, after two years at the Jesuit novitiate in Roehampton, he moved to Heythrop. He was ordained a Jesuit priest at Heythrop College in 1937 and soon after went to Germany (1938) to complete his training. Fortunately he made it back to Britain before the outbreak of war in 1939. The war made it impossible for him to study for his doctorate, as once intended, at the Gregorian University in Rome, and instead Copleston was invited to return to Heythrop to teach the history of philosophy to the few remaining Jesuits there.
While in Heythrop Copleston had time and interest to begin the work he is most famous for, his "A History of Philosophy" - a textbook that originally set out to deliver a clear account of ancient, medieval and modern philosophy in three volumes, which was instead completed in nine volumes (1975). To this day Copleston’s history remains a monumental achievement and stays true to the authors it discusses, being very much a work in exposition.
Copleston adopted a number of honorary roles throughout the remainder of his career. He was appointed Visiting Professor at Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome, spending half of each year lecturing there from 1952 to 1968. He was made Fellow of the British Academy (FBA) in 1970, given a personal professorship from his own university (Heythrop, now re-established in the University of London) in 1972 and made an Honorary Fellow of St. John’s College, Oxford, in 1975. He was Visiting Professor at the University of Santa Clara between 1974 and 1982, and he delivered the Gifford Lectures at the University of Aberdeen between 1979 and 1981. His lectures were published under the title Religion and the One, and were largely a metaphysical tract attempting to express themes perennial in his thinking and more personal than in his history. Gerard J. Hughes notes Copleston as remarking "large doses of metaphysics like that certainly don’t boost one’s sales".
He received honorary doctorates from a number of institutions, notably, Santa Clara University, California, University of Uppsala and the University of St. Andrews (D.Litt) in later years. He was selected for membership in the Royal Institute of Philosophy and in the Aristotelian Society, and in 1993 he was made CBE.
Copleston’s personality saw him engage in the many responsibilities bestowed upon him with generous commitment and good humour.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
December 11, 2024
Volume 8 of the admirable History of Philosophy covers British and American philosophy from Bentham to Russell.
I liked the other books I have read so far, but this is the best of the series. Of course, the main question a historian of philosophy has to deal with is who to include and how much space to give a philosopher. Well, one might think that the space would depend on the complexity of the philosopher and the number of works he had produced (there are no women included here). But of course this is not the case. The number of pages devoted to a man and his work is directly proportional to the importance Copleston is prepared to attach to him. So Mill gets more space than Bentham, and Bradley more than Bosanquet. And the most space, a full three chapters, is given to Bertrand Russell (in his case a long life and work in different areas of philosophy did obviously play a role).
On the whole, I think Copleston has done an excellent job here. The only exception is that he does not give nearly enough space to the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein, and instead thinks that John Henry Newman deserves a chapter.
The other question, of course, is how well a philosophy is presented. And here there is a danger of painting a caricature, because it is impossible for a historian of philosophy to know everyone equally well, and even if he were an expert, the limited space must mean that only the general ideas and some of the arguments can possibly find their way into a book like this.
Again, I think Copleston has done an excellent job. Normally I do not like writers to use phrases, but in this case I liked his use of the phrase 'that is to say', because he is telling us something and then saying the same thing to make it as clear as possible.
And in one case, that of Whitehead, he admits that the philosophy is too complicated to summarise.
There is even sometimes a touch of humour. When assessing Russell, he has this to say: “It is that difficult to classify Russell in an unambiguous manner, for example as an ‘empiricist’ or a ‘scientific humanist’. But why should we wish to do so? After all, he is Bertrand Russell, a distinct individual and not simply member of a class.”
I was particularly interested in the lesser (meaning more or less forgotten) philosophers. Like Samuel Alexander (a man who introduced the notion of space-time into philosophy) or James Ferrier or John Grote.
And I definitely learned that I need to spend some time studying Peirce.
I liked the other books I have read so far, but this is the best of the series. Of course, the main question a historian of philosophy has to deal with is who to include and how much space to give a philosopher. Well, one might think that the space would depend on the complexity of the philosopher and the number of works he had produced (there are no women included here). But of course this is not the case. The number of pages devoted to a man and his work is directly proportional to the importance Copleston is prepared to attach to him. So Mill gets more space than Bentham, and Bradley more than Bosanquet. And the most space, a full three chapters, is given to Bertrand Russell (in his case a long life and work in different areas of philosophy did obviously play a role).
On the whole, I think Copleston has done an excellent job here. The only exception is that he does not give nearly enough space to the philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein, and instead thinks that John Henry Newman deserves a chapter.
The other question, of course, is how well a philosophy is presented. And here there is a danger of painting a caricature, because it is impossible for a historian of philosophy to know everyone equally well, and even if he were an expert, the limited space must mean that only the general ideas and some of the arguments can possibly find their way into a book like this.
Again, I think Copleston has done an excellent job. Normally I do not like writers to use phrases, but in this case I liked his use of the phrase 'that is to say', because he is telling us something and then saying the same thing to make it as clear as possible.
And in one case, that of Whitehead, he admits that the philosophy is too complicated to summarise.
There is even sometimes a touch of humour. When assessing Russell, he has this to say: “It is that difficult to classify Russell in an unambiguous manner, for example as an ‘empiricist’ or a ‘scientific humanist’. But why should we wish to do so? After all, he is Bertrand Russell, a distinct individual and not simply member of a class.”
I was particularly interested in the lesser (meaning more or less forgotten) philosophers. Like Samuel Alexander (a man who introduced the notion of space-time into philosophy) or James Ferrier or John Grote.
And I definitely learned that I need to spend some time studying Peirce.
April 30, 2018
The eighth of the nine volumes of Father Copleston's history, this covers nineteenth and early twentieth century British philosophy, with an "epilogue" on Wittgenstein and the ordinary language philosophers to bring it up to the present of the book. (It actually ends with an "appendix" on John Henry Newman, which lets you know where the author is coming from.) The volume begins with Bentham and the Utilitarians, followed by a few empiricists such as Herbert Spencer, and ends with Peirce, James, Dewey, Moore and Russell, in each case with related philosophers of the same "movement". In between, however, about half the book covers very minor figures, the British idealists (e.g. T.H. Greene, F.H. Bradley, Bernard Bosanquet, etc.), who have already been totally forgotten and whom even a philosophy major would probably have to google. Copleston himself, despite his affinity as a Catholic for idealist philosophy that takes religion seriously, admits their relative unimportance, and the treatment is somewhat perfunctory and repetitious; he says almost the same thing about many of them in more or less the same words, makes the same arguments for and against, and in general if this hadn't been written before the computer era I would say he used "copy" and "paste" a good deal. The result is probably the least interesting of all the volumes. Of course, this may also be because I knew more about the later philosophers, having taken a course in Peirce, James and Dewey and read a good deal of Russell, for example, and Copleston's treatment is not as insightful as when he is talking about mediaeval or early modern philosophy. This volume especially toward the end is also full of statements that begin, "the present writer does not intent to assert. . ." and distances himself from whatever he is arguing for or against in the philosophers he is writing about; perhaps his duties as a Jesuit priest weigh more heavily when he is talking about still current ideas. In short, not as good as his earlier volumes and certainly there are better treatments of the major figures, but I am glad I read the sections on the minor ones because these are not anyone I will ever actually read, even if my lifetime should be extended by a another century or so.
April 11, 2020
مفصل ترین کتاب تاریخ فلسفه در زبان فارسی به احتمال زیاد تاریخ فلسفه نوشته فردریک کاپلستون است که مرجع درسی دانشجویان فلسفه، و هم مرجع تدریس بسیاری از اساتید آنها، از دوره لیسانس تا دکترا است. دوره نه جلدی تاریخ فلسفه، به قلم چارلز کاپلستون، که به همت عده ای از مترجمان زبده به فارسی ترجمه شده است. مجموعه ای در دسترس خوانندگان فارسی زبان قرار می دهد که تا حد زیادی می توانند آنان را از متن های دیگر بی نیاز سازد، زیرا هدف این بوده است که سیر تحول فلسفه را از آغاز تا اواخر قرن بیستم با زبانی ساده و روان برای خواننده تحصیل کرده معمولی بیان کند
June 20, 2019
Possibly the weakest volume in the entire series. Very uneven in its coverage -- way too much attention to British idealism and not enough to logical positivism.
March 30, 2017
A very compendious, but very efficient historical narrative.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews