Name: The Dream of Reason
ISBN: 9780393049510

The Dream of Reason

"The Dream of Reason illustrates how the story of philosophy is more the history of a sharply inquisitive cast of mind than of a sharply defined discipline. We engage immediately with both the personalities and the arguments of every major philosopher from Ancient Greece to the birth of modern philosophy in the seventeenth century; the modern era will be addressed in a second volume. Among a large cast of curious individuals, we encounter Thales, perhaps the first philosopher, certainly the first of a long line of absent-minded professors; Empedocles, who in the fourth century BC invented a theory of matter which convinced nearly everybody until the Renaissance, despite the fact that Empedocles believed himself to be a reincarnated bush; Anaxagoras, who was convicted of impiety for believing that the heavenly bodies were not gods to be worshipped but red-hot rocks to be avoided; Diogenes, the cynic who lived in an earthenware tub; and Epicurus, no bon viveur, but a philosopher devoted to the simple life."--BOOK JACKET.

What Hacker News says

ZoomZoomZoomDec 2020

If you want to learn about philosophy, I highly recommend Russel's History of Western Philosophy. It's usually frowned upon and recommended to avoid for Philosophy students exactly for the same reasons I think it's one of the best books ever written:

It doesn't shy away of critique and dispute, as it was written by a practicing philosopher (who still values objectivity and holds to high standards of reasoning). The language is wonderful and historical bits to set the context are great.

I also recommend Anthony Gottlieb's "The Dream Of Reason" and "The Dream of Enlightenment", as the second and third book (if you liked the first one). They are more recent and sometimes expand on some things Russel deemed of lesser importance. Again, exceptionally well written.

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woodandsteelMay 2018

The Dream of Reason by Anthony Gottlieb is a good introduction to Greek philosophy. You really should start there, since everything since then is a response to what they had to say.

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woodandsteelApr 2018

I would recommend The Dream of Reason by Anthony Gottleib, and his followup, The Dream of Enlightenment. And if that gets you interested, then the 5 volumes on the history of Western philosophy by W.T.Jones. As for Copelston, which some below recommend, it is too detailed for a beginner. And Russell has a strong classical analytic bias.

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