The History of Philosophy Reflection

This is a book I’ve been looking forward to reading for quite a while, and it was worth the wait. However, 600 pages of philosophy is no easy undertaking, and I would not recommend this book unless you are really, genuinely interested in the subject (and have a lot of time of your hands). When you read a book like this, you forget a lot of details, but I like to think I grasped a better sense of what philosophy is, what it isn’t, and how our thinking about morality, reality, knowledge, truth, logic, reason, and the good life has evolved over time. I’ll attempt to share some of these high-level lessons and takeaways below.

The book has five parts: Ancient Philosophy, Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy, Modern Philosophy, Philosophy in the Twentieth Century, and Indian, Chinese, Arabic-Persian and African Philosophy. Ancient Philosophy includes the big three of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle, who set the tone of what it means to philosophize for centuries to come. This period lasted from around 600 BCE to 300 CE. Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy lasted until the 15th century, but this period was largely dominated by Christian theology and a marked decline in free philosophical thought. The Modern period (1500 - 1900) saw a rejuvenation of the subject during the Enlightenment with greats like Kant, Betham, and Mill. The Twentieth century continued to expand the profession and the popularity of the subjects, while becoming more technical at the same time. The first four sections were dedicated purely to Western Philosophy and excluded the rise of “Applied Ethics” is recent decades. The final section (briefly) covers topics from outside the West, including Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism. 

The most significant takeaway for me from this book was the massive impact that the rise of Christianity had on philosophical and scientific progress. It turns out A.C. Grayling is known for being an atheist, which may explain the book’s negative tone towards religion and the effort to distinguish philosophy from theology. Nonetheless, it is hard to deny that Christianity limited free thinking for at least millennium, and perhaps continues to do so for some today. In 529 CE, Emperor Justinian decreed that all intellectual activity would fall under the authority of the Church, effectively banning “Pagan Philosophy” and its associated schools that had lasted for hundreds of years. Notably, they went to great lengths to destroy the books of past philosophers. It turns out to be a matter of good fortune that the works of Aristotle and many other thinkers survived to today. It was shocking to read about philosophers who wrote many volumes, with only a fraction of their works being saved, the rest lost forever. One must wonder where we would be in the year 2022 had we not lost this time. I will acknowledge that I can’t be sure that everything would necessarily be better, but this does seem like it was a grand mistake in humanity’s history.

My next takeaway is the remarkable lack of women cited in this book. This is not a critique of the author -  he does include a section on Feminist Philosophy that comments on this phenomenon. This is also something I probably could have predicted before reading, as it is well known that women have been greatly suppressed for all of human history. However, walking through century by century and continuously feeling this sense of absence of the better half of our species provides a new perspective on this issue. This is arguably an even costlier mistake than the Christian’s takeover of intellectual thought, and it continues to cost us today. 

What got me interested in philosophy in the first place were the topics of moral philosophy and applied ethics (what ought we to do?) as well as philosophy of mind (do we have free will?). These topics received a fair amount of attention in this book; however, it became apparent that questions of logic, reason, language, and reality grabbed much of the attention of philosophers, particularly the Ancients and those of the 20th century. I found some of this discussion to be interesting, but much of it was simply impenetrable. This may be because it’s difficult to summarize sophisticated views on these topics. The “Analytic Philosophers” of the 20th century were particularly technical in their explanations, and I’m afraid this exiled many common folk from exploring philosophy. It was also difficult for me to surmise the ultimate purpose of these lines of thoughts. 

A few other remarks. Most well-known philosophers are known for just a couple of simple ideas, yet most of them wrote profusely. It makes me wonder how much nuance is contained in these works that we miss. For example, Kant had extensive theories to back up his deontological (duty-based) ethics, yet many of us just think of him as the guy who believed in arbitrary rules regarding what actions were permissible. Something I found humorous was the number of philosophers who arrived at the conclusion that philosophizing was the pinnacle of being human. This seems oddly convenient, and partially explains where philosophy gets its highfalutin reputation. 

In sum, this book was dense, but still a mind-expanding experience. I hope to return to it often in the future to freshen up on some of the most important ideas from some of the most influential thinkers in history. It has also inspired me to go to the primary sources of these philosophers and dive deeper into their thoughts.