The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the Greater Philosophers is a 1926 book by Will Durant, in which he profiles several prominent Western philosophers and their ideas, beginning with Socrates and Plato and on through Friedrich Nietzsche. Durant attempts to show the interconnection of their ideas and how one philosopher's ideas informed the next.
There are nine chapters each focused on one philosopher, and two more chapters each containing briefer profiles of three early 20th century philosophers.
Philosophers profiled are, in order:
Plato (with a section on Socrates)
Aristotle
Francis Bacon
Baruch Spinoza (with a section on Descartes)
Voltaire (with a section on Rousseau),
Immanuel Kant (with a section on Hegel)
Arthur Schopenhauer
Herbert Spencer
Friedrich Nietzsche.
The final two chapters are devoted to European and then American philosophers. Henri Bergson, Benedetto Croce, and Bertrand Russell are covered in the tenth, and George Santayana, William James, and John Dewey are covered in the eleventh.
In a foreword to the readers in the second edition of the book, Durant expresses his acknowledgement for the criticism that the book received as to how it does not include philosophers from the Asian continent, most notably Confucius, Buddha and Adi Shankara.
The Story of Philosophy: The Lives and Opinions of the Greater Philosophers is a 1926 book by Will Durant, in which he profiles several prominent Western philosophers and their ideas, beginning with Socrates and Plato and on through Friedrich Nietzsche. Durant attempts to show the interconnection of their ideas and how one philosopher's ideas informed the next.
There are nine chapters each focused on one philosopher, and two more chapters each containing briefer profiles of three early 20th century philosophers.
Philosophers profiled are, in order:
Plato (with a section on Socrates)
Aristotle
Francis Bacon
Baruch Spinoza (with a section on Descartes)
Voltaire (with a section on Rousseau),
Immanuel Kant (with a section on Hegel)
Arthur Schopenhauer
Herbert Spencer
Friedrich Nietzsche.
The final two chapters are devoted to European and then American philosophers. Henri Bergson, Benedetto Croce, and Bertrand Russell are covered in the tenth, and George Santayana, William James, and John Dewey are covered in the eleventh.
In a foreword to the readers in the second edition of the book, Durant expresses his acknowledgement for the criticism that the book received as to how it does not include philosophers from the Asian continent, most notably Confucius, Buddha and Adi Shankara.
