Write your abstract here.
The Story of
Philosophy is a reverent book which does not fail to accentuate the merits
and demerits of the
philosophical metier. It does not call for any disclaimers. It quotes extensively for the sincere and serene pages of the philosophers, and yet cautions that
philosophy is only a means and not an end, and one who would take it as an end, will soon end up as the Hindu mystic whose life-purpose is to concentrate upon his navel. It is thus replete with a sense of warmth and significance on every page.
Whether one is dissipated or emancipated by the the questions philosophy raises, depends on one's own definition of the meaning of life. Durant"s criticism of Plato is masterly: "Plato underrated...the force of custom accumulated in the institution of monogamy... he underestimated the possessive jealousy of males in supposing a man would be content to have merely an aliquot portion of a wife; heminimized the maternal instinct in supposing that mothers would agree to have their children taken fromthem and brought up in a heartless anonymity." Futher that Plato is forced by the democratic bedlam of Athens into awoeful neglect of individual values. Yet his own individualism is caught and transmitted by his disciple, Aristotle -"the first among them who know".
From the gruff and excitable sophists,to the serene Socrates, and on to the sceptical and calm Aristotle, the transition is significant. For a thousand years, philosophy vanishes from the ken of Europe,only to emerge with reformative ardour in Bacon. The intervening Stoicism and Epicureanism are recapitulated respectively as a hedonistic reconciliation of defeat and a defeatist viewpoint placated by hedonism.The book highlights the contemplative and active pursuits of Francis Bacon who characterises inquiry of truth, knowledge of truth, and belief of truth, as sovereign states of the mind that will beget science and which in turn will be coordinated by philosophy.
Bacon follows Aristotle who devised through the persistence of his own ingenuity the science, if not the art, of Logic and also the subject-matter of several other sciences. He pioneered scientific thought without the adjunct of optical and physical apparatus, so necessary for the advancement of learning. Aristotle identifies Providence with the operations of natural forces and causes, and thus anticipates Spinoza.
The excommunicated Spinoza moves from arid scolasticism to speculative symmetry. In him "substance" is so coordinate that he makes it the 'anima mundi' of the universe.
Voltairean admonition, as presented, isthat Marcus Aurelius must enter the soul of the Machiavellian Prince. This witty infidel arraigns moral and psychological, philosophical and political questions with a sincerity all too
genuine.
Kant is treated with extreme respect, as the central and mediating figure in all exercitations of philosophical thought. His idealism is the watershed in the old realms of thinking and the new exuberance and extrapolation of thought.
The author sees in Schopenhauer, metaphysics and ethics of Hinduism and Buddhism as counterbalanacing those of Judaism and Christianity. Schopenhauer celebrates in his madrigal, the excellencies of the will or heart in supercession of the intellect.
Herbert Spencer is summed up aspresuming prodigious knowkedgeof the Unknown, and who thinks that thought being relating embraces nothing more than relations and will involve us in nonsense when we makedo with noumenon.
Friedrich Nietzsche inverts the worhip of meekness, gentleness and altruism, and replaces these with an idealizedmasculinity and attendant power. Nietzsche's radical and reformative ardour consumed him as much as to leave him mentally imbalanced. He counteracted the theological merits of Christianity with his Superman, rendered hero and aristocrat.
Bergson's elan vital is the specific if, dominant concebringing about the creative evolution which is a far cry from Darwin's materialistic evolution. Man must be thwarted and averted from a point of view of gravitating mechanism and finalism as he seems to advocate.
Benedetto Croce is raised to the position of the great representative of aesthetics that he is, and ispainted to be.
Croce extends the Kantian idea of reality and states that form is nothing but the sensations and thoughts in which it is dressed. Art, according to Croce, is something not defined, but felt and presented, in its plethora of images.
Bertrand Russellis the modern Pythogorus in fascinted speculation of mathematics. His philosophy isshown as being the extension of the positivistic traditions of Comte and Spencer.
Pragmatism of William James and Instrumentalism of John Dewey promulgated practical consequences and the analogues of efficacy and effectiveness as the test of truth. Both apply these to the traditional orthodoxy with astonishing results.
American philosophers are not presented in chronological sequence, so much so Santayana precedes James andDewey. Santayana's initial outpourings are put forward as an aestheterather than a metaphysician and who extends the philosophical edifice of Plato and Aristotle.His philosphical goal is to absorb and be absorbed
in the truth.
When all is said and done, the book, The Story of Philosophy, remains of seminal importance.
Joy Oommen