A Little History of Philosophy by Nigel Warburton
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
It was pretty dry, but still interesting! I got this book as a gift years ago from one of my math teachers in high school. She knew how interested in philosophy I was, so she bought this for me. It took me way too long to read it (I'm in my final year of college now) but the act of kindness still remains a treasured memory for me. Ms. O'Brien if you're seeing this, thank you!
So on to the book itself. For what it set out to be, this book was great; it provides a very comprehensive overview of some of the biggest names in western philosophy, from Socrates all the way to Peter Singer. But there's a lot of content to cover in a little under 250 pages, so you really only get a surface-level taste of everyone's major contributions to the field. I think this book would be great as assigned reading for a Philosophy 101 class, but as my leisure reading between homework assignments, it was a little rough. (Although that could be because I've been taking a bioethics course while reading this book, so maybe my brain has been a little fried from all the philosophy all at once.)
One thing I noticed while reading this book is that the vast majority of philosophers all the way up until the late 1800s focused most of their philosophy around religion and the existence of God. Which makes sense -- religion was a huge part of life for most western countries for most of modern history -- but that didn't stop it from getting monotonous to read about whether or not God exists every single chapter.
The last ten chapters or so were a lot better for me. By the end of the book, there were a lot more contemporary philosophers being discussed, and you got to see a lot more diversity in the ideas being presented. Also, unsurprisingly, you finally got to see some feminist perspectives and female philosophers in the 1900s onwards. This is a book about the most well-known philosophers in western history, so it goes without saying that most of this book is dominated by white male thinkers. Nothing inherently wrong with that, but again, it got a little monotonous.
TL;DR This book did great at what it set out to do by providing a taste-test of the ideas from some of the biggest names in western philosophy. The lack of diversity in speakers and their ideas got a bit boring, but I don't blame the author for that. I think this book is better read as assigned reading for a philosophy class rather than leisure reading for fun. But if you're in the mood to read something that feels like it is made for a classroom, then this is the book for you!
Follow me on Goodreads!