Inventing Knowledge

About the Book

Inventing Knowledge: A Global & Historical Introduction to Philosophy is an open educational resource (OER) textbook designed for a cross-cultural historical-survey style Introduction to Philosophy course. While it was written with an undergraduate academic audience in mind, it should also be suitable for self-guided readers interested in philosophy. It covers ‘western' philosophy from the Presocratics of Ancient Greece through to the present day (and including the Islamic world). It also contains additional chapters on philosophy in India, China, Mesoamerica, and Africa. The text touches on issues concerning, but not limited to, metaphysics, epistemology, ethics, political philosophy, philosophy of religion, and aesthetics. Upon working through the material covered here, students should be able to identify and discuss many of the central figures, concepts, problems, theories, and schools of philosophy across history and across the world. 

As anyone who teaches a historical survey course knows, there is an inherent tension between adequately covering 'the canon’ and avoiding reifying its biases. We cover certain regions and figures because they are what students will hear about in subsequent courses, but students hear about them in subsequent courses because that is what was covered when that professor was a student. Students reading this text should, in the end, be conversant with regards to the ideas and figures they are likely to engage with in their further study of philosophy (and which they were historically expected to learn about in an introductory course) but, at the same time, not inherit the traditionally skewed view of who philosophy is done by and who the field is for.

As an OER resource, the book is freely available to read, assign, or modify. It is available for free in text, audio, and video formats. Physical copies are available for purchase at just above cost. More information about where the proceeds from the sale of physical copies of the book go is available on the Proceeds page.

Teaching Supplements (COMING SOON):

• Waves of Thought: A Global & Historical Philosophy Reader 

• Included 'Key Questions' (for discussion and response papers).

• PowerPoint Slides 

• Question & Answer Bank 

• Global Timeline of the History of Philosophy.

Visit the Get a Copy page to obtain a copy.