A History of Philosophy (Copleston)

A History of Philosophy
Author Frederick Copleston, S.J.
Subject Western Philosophy, History
Publisher Continuum (Worldwide), Doubleday (US & Canada), Paulist Press (US & Canada)
Publication date
1946–1974 (volumes 1–9), 1956 (volume 11), 1986 (volume 10)
Pages 5,344 (volumes 1–11) (2003 Continuum editions)

A History of Philosophy is an eleven-volume history of Western philosophy written by English Jesuit priest Frederick Charles Copleston.

Copleston's History provides extensive coverage of Western philosophy from the Pre-Socratics through Dewey, Russell, Moore, Sartre and Merleau-Ponty. The first nine volumes, originally published between 1946 and 1974, were written for Catholic seminary students with the goal "of supplying Catholic ecclesiastical seminaries with a work that should be somewhat more detailed and of wider scope than the textbooks, commonly in use, and which at the same time should endeavour to exhibit the logical development and interconnection of philosophical systems." A tenth volume was added in 1986, and the eleventh is actually a collection of essays which appeared in 1956 as Contemporary Philosophy.

Throughout the eleven volumes Copleston's Roman Catholic (Thomist) point of view is never hidden. All the same, it seems generally accepted that Copleston's treatment is fair and complete, even for philosophical positions that he does not support.

Summary of contents

The following is a summary of contents (not a full table of contents) for the eleven volumes:

Volume 1: Greece and Rome

Volume 2: Augustine to Scotus

Volume 3: Ockham to Suarez

Volume 4: Descartes to Leibniz

Volume 5: Hobbes to Hume

Volume 6: Wolff to Kant

Volume 7: Fichte to Nietzsche

Volume 8: Bentham to Russell

Volume 9: Maine de Biran to Sartre

Volume 10: Russian Philosophy

This and the following book are only included in the Continuum edition. The Doubleday edition only contains the original nine volumes.

Volume 11: Logical Positivism and Existentialism

Included as Volume 11 in the Continuum edition, this is actually a collection of essays, which appeared in 1956 as Contemporary Philosophy. It covers Logical positivism and Existentialism.

Editions

See also

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